Science General · Geography

Astronomy and Celestial Phenomena

1,839 Questions

This section provides practice questions on astronomy and celestial phenomena, focusing on eclipses, planetary movements, and tides. These concepts are commonly tested in general science sections of various competitive exams. Use this hub to practice questions related to the Earth, Moon, and solar system dynamics.

Solar and lunar eclipsesEquinoxes and solsticesPlanetary movementsOcean tidesCoriolis effectMeteor showers

Astronomy and Celestial Phenomena Questions

Multiple choice evs sun and planets phases of moon moon and it's phases moon

Phases of the moon occur because:

  1. We can see only that part of the moon which reflects light towards us

  2. Our distance from the moon keeps changing

  3. The shadow of the Earth covers only a part of moon's surface

  4. The thickness of the moon's atmosphere is not constant
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Phases of the moon occur because we can see only that part of the moon which reflects light towards us.
The changing shape of the bright part of the Moon that we see is called its phase. The moon is illuminated because it reflects the light from the sun. The part of the moon facing the sun is lit up. The part facing away from the sun is in darkness.

Multiple choice evs sun and planets phases of moon moon and it's phases moon

Which two moons are also called half moons?

  1. First Quarter & Third Quarter

  2. Waning Crescent & Waxing Crescent

  3. Waxing Crescent & First Quarter

  4. Full & New Moon
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Half moon are the phase of moon when the moon is half lit so only half visible.

First Quarter and third Quarter.

Multiple choice evs sun and planets phases of moon moon and it's phases moon

Which moon is also referred to as "Dark Moon"?

  1. Full Moon

  2. Waning Crescent

  3. New Moon

  4. Waning Gibbous
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

The moon is visible on earth because the light from the sun falls on it, gets reflected from it and enters the eyes of the people who are watching it on earth.  The moon appears crescent, half, full, not at all, etc, depending on its position with respect to the sun and the earth.

The light falling on any part of the moon gets reflected. However the light reflected only from some part of the moon reaches the earth. Only that part is visible to the people on the earth.
On the new moon day, the moon is on the same side of the earth as that of the sun with respect to earth. No light from the moon reaches the earth and it becomes invisible. Its apparent colour is black, i.e. same of that as that of the night sky.
Hence it is also called as dark moon.

For practical understanding, you can perform the experiment given below
Take a torch, switch it on and place it on a table.
Stand in front of the source of light of the torch.
Take a small ball and hold it at a height same as that of the torch and facing the torch.
You will notice that the ball appears dark.
Now if you change the position of the ball, keeping the height same, you will notice that only some part of the ball appears illuminated.
If you place it diametrically opposite to the torch, but at height slghtly higher than your head, the entire ball gets illuminated.

The phases of the moon are due to situations similar to this experiment.  

Multiple choice evs sun and planets phases of moon moon and it's phases moon

Which moon is after the waxing crescent?

  1. Third Quater

  2. First Quarter

  3. Waxing Gibbous

  4. New moon
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Waxing crescent moon comes after New moon and lasts until half of moon surface is illuminated at first quarter moon.

Multiple choice evs sun and planets phases of moon moon and it's phases moon

After the period of how many days half moon can be seen?

  1. $7$ or $22$ days
  2. $1$ or $30$ days
  3. $15$ days
  4. $10$ or $17$ days
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Half moon are the phase when only half surface of moon is visible. It exist at about $7$ days and $22$ days.

At $15$ day the full moon is seen.

Multiple choice evs sun and planets phases of moon moon and it's phases moon

Which of the following is a consequence of the fact that the rotation and revolution periods of the moon are the same?

  1. The moon keeps the same face turned toward the earth

  2. The moon can never be seen from one hemisphere of the earth

  3. All lunar phases can be seen from the earth

  4. There are about 12 months per year
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

The rotation or revolution period is the time taken by an object to complete one rotation or revolution respectively.

The answer to this question can be explained only with the help of the following experiment.
Stand straight and hold a ball in front of your face.

Tell your friend to stand just like you, facing your front.
Keeping the ball in front of your face, turn your entire body by 90 degrees.
But your friend should not make any movements.
You will notice that, here, the ball has traveled a path of a quarter circle.
You will also notice that the part of the ball which was in the front of your friend is now on his/her right side.
This shows that the ball has turned around itself by a quarter of one full rotation.
You will notice similar phenomena if you turn by 180 degrees, 270 and 360.
This show that in fixed intervals of time, the angular displacement of rotation and that of revolution of the are equal.
The motion of the moon around the earth is same as that of the ball in the above experiment.
Hence the rotation and revolution periods of the moon are the same and as a result the moon keeps the same face turned towards the earth.

Multiple choice evs sun and planets phases of moon moon and it's phases moon

What kind of eclipse do we see when the moon is entirely within the Earth's umbral shadow?

  1. Partial lunar

  2. Total solar

  3. Total lunar

  4. Partial solar
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Solar Eclipse are of $4$ types.

$\longrightarrow $ Total Eclipse [occurs only at umbral shadow
$\longrightarrow $ Partial Eclipse
$\longrightarrow $ Annular Eclipse
$\longrightarrow $ Hybrid Eclipse
Since moon is in shadow its going to be lunar eclipse.
Total lunar is the answer.

Multiple choice evs sun and planets phases of moon moon and it's phases moon

In which of the following phases of Moon we can see the entire half of the moon surface that is lit?

  1. Full Moon

  2. New Moon

  3. Waning Gibbous

  4. Last Quarter
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

This happens when Earth is between the moon and Sun and this phase is known as full moon.

Multiple choice evs sun and planets phases of moon moon and it's phases moon

During a New moon phase, what is the configuration of Moon, Earth, and Sun?

  1. Moon is between Earth and Sun.

  2. Sun is between Moon and Earth.

  3. Earth is between Moon and Earth.

  4. They are not in a straight line.
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

New moon refers to the phase when we are not able to see the moon, as moon does not have its own source of light this could happen when sun illuminates the surface of the moon which we do not see that happen. When Sun,  Earth and Moon are in line and Moon is between Earth and Sun.

Multiple choice evs sun and planets phases of moon moon and it's phases moon

A waxing crescent moon

  1. is a phase where in the crescent increases from one day to another

  2. is a phase where in the crescent decreases from one day to another

  3. is a phase where in the next day to the crescent is a new moon day

  4. is a phase where in the next day to the crescent is a full moon day
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

A waxing crescent moon is when the Moon looks like crescent and the crescent increases ("waxes") in size from one day to the next. This phase is usually only seen in the west.

Multiple choice evs sun and planets phases of moon moon and it's phases moon

When is the moon nearest to Earth during its orbit?

  1. At apogee

  2. At perihelion

  3. During an eclipse

  4. During perigee
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

The point in the moon's orbit closest to Earth is called perigee. Apogee is the farthest point.

Multiple choice evs sun and planets phases of moon moon and it's phases moon
Coumn-I Column-II
(1) New moon (a) Rises around midnight and sets around noon
(2) First quarter moon (b) Rises at sunset and sets at sunrise
(3) Full moon (c) Rises around sunrise and sets around sunset.
(4) Third quarter moon (d) Rises around noon and sets around midnight
  1. (1) $\rightarrow$ c; (2) $\rightarrow$ d; (3) $\rightarrow$ b; (4) $\rightarrow$ a.
  2. (1) $\rightarrow$ c; (2) $\rightarrow$ d; (3) $\rightarrow$ b; (4) $\rightarrow$ d.
  3. (1) $\rightarrow$ c; (2) $\rightarrow$ d; (3) $\rightarrow$ b; (4) $\rightarrow$ c.
  4. (1) $\rightarrow$ c; (2) $\rightarrow$ d; (3) $\rightarrow$ b; (4) $\rightarrow$ b.
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

New moon rises at sunrise, first quarter at noon, full moon at sunset, and third quarter at midnight. Option A correctly matches these.