Science General · Geography

Astronomy and Celestial Phenomena

1,884 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

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.

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

Fill in the blanks:

The period between two consecutive new moon days is _______ and is called a _______.

  1. $31$ days, month
  2. $7$ days, week
  3. $15$ days, fortnight
  4. slightly longer than $29$ days, month
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

The time taken for one revolution of moon is a few hours longer than 29 days. But for ease of calculation, these hours have been divided amongst the months to give us months having 30 and 31 days. It takes one complete revolution of the moon around the Earth to have the next new moon day after the previous one. This period is called a month.

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

What occurs 15 days after the full moon day?

  1. Half moon day

  2. Crescent moon day

  3. New moon day

  4. None of the above
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Every night after the full moon day, the size for the visible part of the Moon becomes thinner. It takes a period of 15 days for the Moon to become completely invisible. This day is called new moon day.

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

The moon takes _____ days to complete one spin.

  1. $25$
  2. $26$
  3. $27$
  4. $28$
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

The moon orbits the Earth once every $27.322$ days. It also takes approximately $27$ days for the moon to rotate once on its axis. As a result, the moon does not seem to be spinning but appears to observers from Earth to be keeping almost perfectly still.

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

At what phase are the earth, moon and sun are in approximate alignment?

  1. Full Moon

  2. New Moon

  3. Waning Crescent

  4. Waxing Crescent
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A,B 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.
On the full moon day, the moon is on the opposite side of the earth as that of the sun with respect to earth. The light reflected from the entire moon reaches the earth and it appears like a glowing circular disc.

Thus, on new moon day and a full moon day, earth, sun and moon are almost in one line.

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 slightly higher than your head, the entire ball gets illuminated.
You can also notice that in the positions where the ball appears completely bright and in that when completely dark, the torch, your eyes and the ball are in one line.
The phases of the moon are due to situations similar to this experiment. 

Multiple choice geography our changing earth earthquake earthquakes earth's movement and creation of landforms

Earth takes 24 hours to ____________.

  1. Rotate around the sun

  2. Rotates on its axis

  3. Revolve around the sun

  4. Revolve around itself
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Rotation is the movement of the earth on its axis. The earth takes about 24 hours to complete one rotation on its axis. The period of rotation is known as the earth day. This is the daily motion of the earth.

Multiple choice geography our changing earth earthquake earthquakes earth's movement and creation of landforms

What causes days and nights?

  1. Earth's rotation

  2. Earth's revolution

  3. Sun's rotation

  4. Sun's revolution
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

The Earth is a non-luminous body but the sun is luminous. As the earth is rotating around its axis, half of its portion is facing the sun and the other half is entirely dark due to the absence of sun. In other words, half of the globe have day and on the other half, it is a night. As the earth is rotating around the sun its every part is exposed to Sun within every 24 hours this rotation causes days and nights.