Mastery

Beyond Earth — Mastery

30 questions 30 min Full-chapter mastery

Q1. The opening of Chapter 12 introduces eleven-year-old twins who observe the night sky from their village. Where do they live?
- A. Nubra in Ladakh
- B. Shillong in Meghalaya
- C. Hanle in Ladakh
- D. Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu
Q2. When we look at the night sky, we see that
- A. All stars are equally bright
- B. Some stars are bright and others are dim, and they shine with their own light
- C. All stars reflect the Sun's light
- D. Stars are visible only during the day
Q3. Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, lies in the constellation
- A. Orion
- B. Taurus
- C. Canis Major
- D. Ursa Minor
Q4. In Indian astronomy, the nakshatra Krittika denotes
- A. Betelgeuse in Orion
- B. Aldebaran in Taurus
- C. The Pleiades cluster in Taurus
- D. Sirius in Canis Major
Q5. The star Aldebaran in the constellation Taurus is known in India as
- A. Rohini
- B. Krittika
- C. Ardra
- D. Saptarishi
Q6. In Indian astronomy, the term nakshatra is used to denote
- A. Only the Pole Star
- B. All eight planets
- C. Only the Sun
- D. Either a certain star or a group of stars
Q7. The Big Dipper lies in the constellation
- A. Ursa Major
- B. Ursa Minor
- C. Orion
- D. Taurus
Q8. The Pole Star (Polaris), also known as Dhruva tara in India, is part of which star pattern?
- A. Big Dipper
- B. Belt of Orion
- C. Pleiades
- D. Little Dipper
Q9. The Pole Star helps a viewer to locate which direction, and in which hemisphere is this useful?
- A. North direction, in the Northern hemisphere
- B. South direction, in the Southern hemisphere
- C. East direction, in the Northern hemisphere
- D. West direction, in any hemisphere
Q10. Before the invention of the magnetic compass, recognising stars and their patterns was a useful skill mainly for
- A. Cooking food at home
- B. Building stone temples
- C. Finding direction at sea or on land
- D. Predicting earthquakes
Q11. The Indian Astronomical Observatory at Hanle is situated atop the highest peak of the Digpa-ratsa-Ri mountain range, which has been renamed
- A. Mount Saraswati
- B. Mount Aryabhata
- C. Mount Chandrasekhar
- D. Mount Nubra
Q12. The area surrounding the Indian Astronomical Observatory at Hanle was notified as the Hanle Dark Sky Reserve (HDSR) in
- A. August 2008
- B. August 2023
- C. January 2024
- D. December 2022
Q13. The Himalayan Chandra Telescope at the Indian Astronomical Observatory in Hanle has been named after
- A. Aryabhata, the ancient Indian astronomer
- B. Vikram Sarabhai, the father of the Indian space programme
- C. Homi Bhabha, an Indian nuclear physicist
- D. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, a Nobel Prize winning scientist
Q14. How does the Sun's size compare with that of the Earth?
- A. The Sun is about 10 times bigger than the Earth in diameter
- B. The Sun is about the same size as the Earth
- C. The Earth is bigger than the Sun
- D. The Sun is about 100 times bigger than the Earth in diameter
Q15. A Class 6 student insists, 'Pluto must still be a planet — my older sister learnt it that way.' Which is the best response by the teacher?
- A. Tell the student their sister was lying
- B. Explain that the IAU redefined a planet in 2006 and Pluto is now classified as a dwarf planet, using Fig. 12.7 of the NCERT chapter
- C. Tell the student to ignore the question because it is not in the syllabus
- D. Mark the student wrong without further discussion
Q16. Earth is commonly called the Blue Planet because
- A. A large portion of its surface is covered with water and so it appears blue from space
- B. Its soil is blue in colour
- C. It emits blue light of its own
- D. Its atmosphere is made of blue gas
Q17. The four outermost planets — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — are mostly made of
- A. Iron and rock
- B. Sand and water
- C. Gas and ice
- D. Coal and oil
Q18. Planets get most of their energy from the Sun. From this fact alone, which general trend follows for the planets?
- A. The farther a planet is from the Sun, the hotter it is
- B. All planets are equally cold
- C. The farther a planet is from the Sun, the colder it is in general
- D. The size of a planet decides its temperature
Q19. The Moon is at a distance of approximately how far from the Earth, according to the chapter?
- A. 38400 km
- B. 3,84,000 km
- C. 1,50,00,000 km
- D. 150 million km
Q20. Why do craters formed by asteroid impact on the Moon stay on its surface for a very long time?
- A. Because the Moon's rocks repair themselves over time
- B. Because there is hardly any atmosphere, water or life on the Moon
- C. Because the Moon rotates very slowly
- D. Because the Moon reflects only sunlight
Q21. India's first mission to the Moon, Chandrayaan-1, was launched in
- A. 2005
- B. 2008
- C. 2014
- D. 2019
Q22. India's fourth Moon mission, Chandrayaan-4, is being planned with the main aim of
- A. Sending a human astronaut to the Moon for the first time
- B. Bringing back soil and rock samples from the Moon
- C. Building a permanent station on the south pole of the Moon
- D. Landing a rover on Mars instead of the Moon
Q23. How many moons does the planet Mars have, according to the chapter?
- A. None
- B. One
- C. Two
- D. Many
Q24. Compared to the planet they orbit, natural satellites are usually
- A. Larger in size
- B. About the same size
- C. Smaller in size
- D. Sometimes larger and sometimes smaller, randomly
Q25. Comets are made up of which of the following materials?
- A. Only ice
- B. Only iron and stone
- C. Dust, gases, rocks and ice
- D. Pure gas like the Sun
Q26. In Sanskrit and a few other Indian languages, a comet is called
- A. Dhruva
- B. Saptarishi
- C. Nakshatra
- D. Dhumaketu
Q27. In the search for life elsewhere in the Universe, scientists have mostly directed their search towards exoplanets. Exoplanets are
- A. Planets discovered revolving around other stars in our galaxy
- B. Moons of Jupiter and Saturn
- C. Bright stars in the Milky Way
- D. Comets that have left the Solar System
Q28. While both stars and planets can look like shining dots in the sky, the simplest way to distinguish stars from planets with the naked eye is that
- A. Planets twinkle a lot while stars do not
- B. Stars appear to twinkle a lot while planets do not
- C. Both twinkle, but planets change colour
- D. Stars are always coloured red and planets blue
Q29. A Class 6 student claims, 'The Sun gives heat and light, so it cannot be a star — stars only twinkle at night.' Which is the best teacher response?
- A. Just say the student is wrong and move on
- B. Explain that the Sun is the star closest to us, and it appears different in our sky only because it is much closer than other stars
- C. Tell the student to stop asking such questions
- D. Replace the explanation with a story unrelated to the chapter
Q30. After completing Chapter 12, a school is planning a field visit. Which option is the most appropriate, aligned with the chapter's suggestions?
- A. A visit to a nearby zoo to observe wild animals
- B. A daytime trip to a busy market to count buildings
- C. A visit to a nearby planetarium or science museum, especially if a night-sky observation session is scheduled
- D. A trip to a battery factory to study electricity

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