October 2024 Quiz Released.

[OzEclipse]

app.php/quiz/play/19

Each quiz takes me many hours to compose each month, coming up with new questions, researching answers, composing tempting alternative answers. Next, I use the quiz creation tool to do the the mark up. If you disagree with a question or answer, you are welcome to raise anything with me at any time discretely via PM.

However, I ask that, during the month the quiz is actively being played, that members please: -
______a) don't post spoilers indicating the nature or content of questions or answers
______b) don't post claims that answers are wrong.

The answers are checked and such claims are usually wrong usually because the entrant misinterprets the question or is recalling out of date information. Any such messages will be deleted as soon as I see them. To post spoilers for others because you've finished playing is just selfish. I am more than happy for you to post those very same comments on the forum and discuss them openly after everyone has played and the quiz has closed at the end of the month at which time I'll also post my comments explaining all the answers.

The indication that the quiz has closed is when I post the results histogram usually early the next month.

app.php/quiz/play/19

Every time a member initiates a play of the quiz, even if they don't answer any questions, I receive a full page showing all the questions, answers and scores. Your first attempt will be the score that counts, not the highest score achieved.



@SparWeb @kt4hx @sdbodin @AntennaGuy @JayTee @Bigzmey @messier 111 @pixelsaurus @Gfamily @carastro @Juno16 @Graeme1858 @Juno16 @bobharmony @helicon @Gordon @SkyHiker @Michael131313 @JSBach1801 @astrorlk @Burrman@andrewsscope@jerrysykes @MrShorty @AstroShed @DaveZ

[OzEclipse]

Apologies, I set the quiz notification to timed release but forgot to take the "still editing" out of the description when I finished.

All good to go now.
Joe

[DaveZ]

Some challenging questions in there for me. A couple I should have known but second guessed myself. Good quiz

[Mike Q]

8 i knew and guessed well on two. Another good quiz.

[Graeme1858]

Another excellent quiz!

I guessed one and did some mental arithmetic on another!

Cheers Joe.

[Gfamily]

1 guess came good, but 1 I thought I knew was incorrect
Good Quiz.

[helicon]

Only missed one or 90%. Really fun quiz Joe, thanks!

[Mike Q]

Another excellent quiz!

I guessed one and did some mental arithmetic on another!

Cheers Joe.

I tried the math and decided to just go with a guess.

[SparWeb]

Whew! I think I am 30% smarter this month that I was last month!
Thank you

[pixelsaurus]

9 out of 10. One had me completely stumped. Good quiz. Cheers.

[AntennaGuy]

Oops. After some thought, right at the last question, I went back a few to change an answer, then skipped rapidly back to the end (by hitting "next" a few times), only to discover after submission that my later answers had been apparently reset to something else. But, even if that hadn't happened, I still would have missed some legitimately and still wouldn't be in the top-finishing group. Thanks for the quiz. I'll be more careful going back and forth on the pages next time; no need to change the code, I should have paid more attention to what was on the screens when I went forward again.

[sdbodin]

Rats 9/10, as usual, skim read the question and checked the first good one without finishing the rest of the choices, my bad!!


Great quiz, fun as always,
Steve

[OzEclipse]

Oops. After some thought, right at the last question, I went back a few to change an answer, then skipped rapidly back to the end (by hitting "next" a few times), only to discover after submission that my later answers had been apparently reset to something else. But, even if that hadn't happened, I still would have missed some legitimately and still wouldn't be in the top-finishing group. Thanks for the quiz. I'll be more careful going back and forth on the pages next time; no need to change the code, I should have paid more attention to what was on the screens when I went forward again.

I think, once you go back, you have to re-answer everything as you go forward again otherwise it's as if you haven't answered them at all.
Cheers
Joe

[Mike Q]

Rats 9/10, as usual, skim read the question and checked the first good one without finishing the rest of the choices, my bad!!


Great quiz, fun as always,
Steve

I always read the question twice then read all the answers, then back to the question. This is why it takes me twice as long to do the quiz and keeps me from skimming across the questions and answers. Sometimes it actually works.

[OzEclipse]

Rats 9/10, as usual, skim read the question and checked the first good one without finishing the rest of the choices, my bad!!


Great quiz, fun as always,
Steve

I always read the question twice then read all the answers, then back to the question. This is why it takes me twice as long to do the quiz and keeps me from skimming across the questions and answers. Sometimes it actually works.

And why I stopped ranking winners by how quickly they complete the quiz.
Joe

[messier 111]

fun quizz again , thx .

[OzEclipse]

Reminder to regular players:
October quiz closes in 7 days.

@Sputnik-Vostok
@Rfrcool
@TerryMcK
@yobbo89
@Gordon
@RitcheyPark
@jerrysykes  
@John Baars
@JSBach1801
@Star Dad
@BamaDon
@KathyNS  
@kt4hx
@JayTee
@rob&ert  
@Michael131313  
@AstroShed
@Thefatkitty
@carastro
@AstroBee

[John Baars]

10 out of 10 in four minutes. I was surprised by myself. Usually between 6 and 8.
Last one was a quess though. Never heard of the thing. So I actually give myself 90%.
Thanks for the quizz.

[KathyNS]

Thanks for the reminder. I don't know how I missed seeing it earlier.

9/10. D'oh! I should'a got that one!

[OzEclipse]

The October quiz is closed. You can still play the quiz and get a score but scoring won't be considered in the monthly results.

Congratulations to the 100% club for October

MikeQ
SparWeb
Graeme1858
John Baars
The Fat Kitty.

Annual Points Ladder
The annual points ladder is running very hot. Our top two contestants are separated by just two points. Then there's a 5 point gap to another 5 contestants all clustered in a small points range for third place. Of course if either or both of our top two contestants trip up, then all bets are off and it's anybody's race.

Scoring method:
There are some members who have not entered regularly or only began entering partway through the year but scored very highly each time they did enter. This scoring method awards consistent high scoring entries in that I am aggregating the total number of correct answers for the year. So those that enter every month have the best chance of winning. So someone who scores 5/10 in all ten quizzes of the year will score 50, while someone who gets 10/10 but only entered 4 times will only score 40. I am guessing on current trends that the winner will have a score somewhere between 82-87 out of 100 questions for the year. I don't want to go back through all the score sheets (hundreds) however, next year, I will keep individual monthly scores rather than just aggregates and we will award a prize for the highest aggregate and the highest average score for entrants who enter at least 5 quizzes.

The top 25 in alphabetical order are:
ANDREWSSCOPE 
ANTENNAGUY 
ASTROBEE 
ASTROSHED 
BIGZMEY 
BOBHARMONY 
CARASTRO 
DaveZ
GFAMILY 
GRAEME1858 
HELICON 
JAYTEE 
JERRYSYKES
JOHN BAARS 
KATHYNS 
KT4HX 
MESSIER 111 
MICHAEL131313 
MIKE Q 
MRSHORTY 
PIET LE ROUX 
PIXELSAURUS 
ROB&ERT 
SDBODIN 
SPARWEB 
THEFATKITTY 

Questions and Answers
1. What are comets primarily made of?
A: Ice and dust

This is a pretty well known fact and does not need further discussion. A video of a snow storm on the surface of comet 67/P from the Rosetta Spacecraft can be seen here:


2. What is the name of the largest asteroid in the asteroid belt?
A: Ceres

The dwarf planet Ceres is by far the largest asteroid, with a diameter of 940 km (580 mi). The next largest are 4 Vesta and 2 Pallas, both with diameters of just over 500 km (300 mi).


3. What is the name of the galaxy cluster that includes the Milky Way?
A: Local Group

The term "The Local Group" was introduced by Edwin Hubble in Chapter VI of his 1936 book The Realm of the Nebulae.[11] There, he described it as "a typical small group of nebulae which is isolated in the general field" and delineated, by decreasing luminosity, its members to be M31, Milky Way, M33, Large Magellanic Cloud, Small Magellanic Cloud, M32, NGC 205, NGC 6822, NGC 185, IC 1613 and NGC 147. He also identified IC 10 as a possible part of the Local Group.



4. What is the primary factor that determines the life cycle of a star?
A: Mass

Mass determines the nature of the collapse of a star and the length of its lifecyle. Small mass red dwarfs are low mass and extremely long lived, while red and blue giants exhaust their fuel more quickly and depending upon their mass can become novae or supernovae.


5. Which solar system object is known as the "Blue Marble"?
A: Earth

The Blue Marble is term that comes from a photograph of Earth taken on December 7, 1972, by either Ron Evans or Harrison Schmitt aboard the Apollo 17 spacecraft on its way to the Moon. Viewed from around 29,400 km (18,300 mi) from Earth's surface, a cropped and rotated version has become one of the most reproduced images in history.


6. What is the main cause of meteor showers?
A: Earth's orbit passing through comet debris trails

Each meteor shower is associated with the debris trail in the orbit of a different comet. The currently active Orionid shower is caused by Earth passing through the orbit of Comet 1P(Halley).


7. Which space telescope has provided detailed images of distant galaxies and nebulae since 1990?
A: Hubble Space Telescope


8. Which planet is known for its Great Dark Spot, a storm similar to Jupiter's Great Red Spot?
A: Neptune

The Great Dark Spot was one of a series of dark spots on Neptune similar in appearance to Jupiter's Great Red Spot. In 1989, GDS-89 was the first Great Dark Spot on Neptune to be observed by NASA's Voyager 2 space probe. Like Jupiter's spot, the Great Dark Spots are anticyclonic storms.

.



9. What is the Kuiper Belt?
A: A region of the solar system beyond Neptune filled with small icy bodies

There are two primary orbital bands containing the progenitor bodies for comets. Located on the outskirts of the solar system, the Kuiper Belt is a "junkyard" of countless icy bodies left over from the solar system's formation. The Kuiper belt is a region between about 30 and 50 AU from the Sun in the plane of the ecliptic. It is believed to be where most of the trans-Neptunian objects are, including Pluto and several other recently discovered dwarf planets. It is also thought to be the origin of many of the solar system's short-period comets. The Oort Cloud is a vast shell of billions of comets located much further outside the solar system. The Oort cloud has never been observed but is thought to be a spherical distribution of icy objects like comets orbiting our Sun at distances between 3000 and 100,000 AU. It is also believed to be the origin of many of the long-period comets in the solar system. The objects in the Oort cloud probably formed closer to the Sun, around the present day orbits of Uranus and Neptune, and were then pushed out to their current positions by gravitational interactions with the planets. Astronomers theorize that there are approximately 1012 to 1013 members of the Oort cloud with a total mass of about 100 Earth masses. Objects within the Kuiper belt are affected by the gravitation of the planets. Further out, is a region of the Oort cloud from 50-2000 AU where objects are not affected by the planets. From 2,000-15,000 AU, objects in the cloud are affected by galactic tidal forces, and in the outer Oort cloud, from 15,000-100,000 AU, objects are affected by the gravity of other stars. Outside the Oort cloud, the Sun's gravitation is not strong enough to keep objects in orbit.




10. The near Earth orbit asteroid 2024 ON passed by Earth on September 17 at 1.5x lunar distance. It was 480m long. That's 1050 cubits or 2.39 furlongs for our American members that don't use metric measurement units. By contrast, modern media measures asteroids in multiples of giraffes. Go figure? How many standard giraffes long was 2024 ON?
Q inspired by @Astrobee
A: 96

This Q. was just a bit of fun. Over the past 2 years, media have begun comparing comet nuclei to other terrestrial objects, Empire State Bldg, Eiffel Tower, various animals including giraffes. When I posed a video of the flyby of 2024 ON, @AstroBee made a joke that he was scared of what might be in the next quiz...well Greg, be careful what you wish for. The average giraffe is 5m tall, 480m/5m = 96



@SparWeb @kt4hx @sdbodin @AntennaGuy @JayTee @Bigzmey @messier 111 @pixelsaurus @Gfamily @carastro @Juno16 @Graeme1858 @Juno16 @bobharmony @helicon @Gordon @SkyHiker @Michael131313 @JSBach1801 @astrorlk @Burrman@andrewsscope@jerrysykes @MrShorty @AstroShed @DaveZ