Below is the full Quizmo quiz devoted to the theme "Galaxies": each question, its four options, the correct answer highlighted and, where available, its source. A chance to brush up on your general knowledge and then test what you know.
▶ Play today's quizWhich film saga opens with 'A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away'?
Source: That iconic line scrolls before every Star Wars film, set in a fictional galaxy of its own.
What is the name of the galaxy that contains our Solar System?
Source: The faint band of light across a dark sky is our own galaxy seen edge-on from inside it.
What overall shape best describes the Milky Way?
Source: It is a flat spiral disk with curling arms; our Sun sits about halfway out one arm.
Which large galaxy is the Milky Way's nearest major neighbour?
Source: Andromeda is the most distant thing visible to the naked eye, around 2.5 million light-years away.
What force mainly holds a galaxy's billions of stars together?
Source: Gravity alone binds galaxies, with unseen dark matter quietly adding most of the pull.
Roughly how many stars does the Milky Way contain?
Source: Estimates run from 100 to 400 billion stars, far more than anyone could count in a lifetime.
What lies at the very centre of the Milky Way?
Source: A black hole millions of times the Sun's mass anchors the galactic core.
Which space telescope is famous for its 'Deep Field' photos of distant galaxies?
Source: Hubble pointed at an empty-looking patch and found thousands of galaxies hiding in it.
In about 4 billion years, what will the Milky Way and Andromeda do?
Source: They are racing together to merge into one giant galaxy nicknamed 'Milkomeda'.
The JWST telescope observes the cosmos mainly in which kind of light?
Source: Infrared lets Webb peer through dust and see the faint glow of the earliest galaxies.
The two small galaxies orbiting the Milky Way, seen from the south, are the?
Source: Named after explorer Magellan's crew, these dwarf galaxies are slowly being torn apart by our gravity.
Which galaxy type is smooth, rounded, and rich in old red stars?
Source: Elliptical galaxies have used up their gas, so few new stars form and the old ones glow red.
Galaxies spin too fast for their visible mass; what unseen stuff explains it?
Source: Invisible dark matter outweighs all the stars, keeping fast-spinning galaxies from flying apart.
Under what catalogue number is the Andromeda Galaxy listed?
Source: Comet-hunter Charles Messier logged it as M31 so he would not mistake it for a comet.
Which galaxy is famous for its bright bulge crossed by a dark dust lane, seen edge-on?
Source: Its glowing core and thin dust ring give the Sombrero its famous wide-brimmed look.
Roughly how old is the Milky Way?
Source: Our galaxy formed about 13 billion years ago, not long after the Big Bang itself.
Astronomers map galaxies strung along vast threads called the cosmic?
Source: Galaxies cluster along filaments of the cosmic web, separated by enormous empty voids.
In the 1920s 'Great Debate', astronomers argued whether spiral nebulae lay inside or beyond?
Source: Hubble proved those spirals were separate galaxies far outside the Milky Way, expanding the known universe overnight.
How many galaxies do astronomers estimate exist in the observable universe?
Source: A 2016 study raised the estimate to around two trillion galaxies, ten times the old figure.
Galaxies whose feeding central black holes outshine all their stars are called?
Source: Quasars are the brightest objects known, powered by black holes devouring matter in young galaxies.