, 1 February 2019
Written by Elvina Lee
As they say in Star Trek, “Space: the final frontier”. How well do you know this big beyond? This week’s quiz will test your familiarity with all things space.
Congratulations! You are a real science whiz!
Oh dear! Better brush up before the next quiz!
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe.
Helio– refers to the Sun, while –centrism implies the centre. Hence, heliocentrism is the model in which the Sun is at the centre of the solar system. Earth and the other planets of the solar system revolve around the Sun.
South Africa will be the primary host of the high and mid frequency antennas of the SKA, while Australia will host the low frequency antennas.
Fruit flies were the first animals to visit space. They ventured into space on 20 February 1947, travelling 109 kilometres above sea level and they were successfully recovered alive.
The Sun is the main source of energy for all living things on Earth. Energy is harvested from the Sun by plants (and a few other organisms) in a process called photosynthesis. Photosynthetic organisms are then eaten by other organisms and the energy travels up the food chain.
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9 February, 2019 at 8:09 am
Re question 4
Laika a Dog was the first animal in space.
Fruit Flies are insectx.
10 February, 2019 at 4:09 pm
Hi Mark,
The term ‘animal’ is a very big one. It includes mammals like dogs and humans, as well as birds, reptiles, frogs, crabs, spiders, insects, jellyfish, coral and pretty much everything that can move.
Pretty much everything that is bigger than a bacteria, smarter than a fungus and faster than a plant is an animal.
Laika was the first animal to orbit around the Earth, but not the first to simply go up to space and straight back down again. As well as fruit flies, the Americans sent monkeys to space, and the Soviets sent other dogs well before Laika.
4 May, 2020 at 11:49 am
well a dog was not the first animal, the first animal was a monkey called albert
4 May, 2020 at 12:01 pm
Yup, Albert 2 was the first mammal that went to space, years before Laika went to orbit. But the fruit flies went there even earlier!