General facts about World - MCQs with answers - Part I

ANSWER: c) Mercury

Mercury is the smallest and closest planet to the sun of the eight planets in the solar system, with an orbital period of about 88 Earth days.

ANSWER: a) Mount Everest

The 1954 elevation of Everest, 29,028 ft. (8,848 m) was revised on Nov. 11, 1999, and now stands at 29,035 ft. (8,850 m).

ANSWER: a) Dead Sea

The Dead Sea is a salt lake bordering Jordan to the east, and Israel to the west. Its surface and shores are 429 metres (1,407 ft) below sea level.

ANSWER: b) Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second smallest planet in the Solar System, after Mercury.

ANSWER: a) Jupiter

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth of that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in the Solar System combined.

ANSWER: a) Christian Huygens

In 1655, Huygens discovered the first of Saturn's moons, Titan using a 50 power refracting telescope that he designed himself.

ANSWER: d) William Herschel

In March 1781, Herschel noticed an object appearing and he originally thought it was a comet or a star. He made many more observations of it, and afterwards Russian Academician Anders Lexell computed the orbit and found it to be probably planetary. Herschel determined in agreement that it must be a planet beyond the orbit of Saturn. He called the new planet the 'Georgian star' after King George III. In France, where reference to the British king was to be avoided if possible, the planet was known as 'Herschel' until the name 'Uranus' was universally adopted.

ANSWER: c) Triton

Neptune is the coldest and the outermost planet. Triton is the largest of the 14 satellites of Neptune which is in a backward orbit around the planet.

ANSWER: b) Johann Gottfried Galle

Galle discovered a star of 8th magnitude, which was not recorded in the Berliner Akademischen Sternkarte. Over the next two evenings, a proper motion of the celestial object of 4 seconds of arc was measured, which determined it absolutely as a planet.

ANSWER: d) Venus

Venus is the hottest planet. It is nearest to earth and is brightest from earth.