Quiz time again! This time we’ll be looking at some of our neighbor planets and their funky moves on the dance floor that we call our solar system. All the following are true or false. Put on your thinking cap!

Statement 1: There are places on Mercury that actually see double sunsets.

Mercury, the first planet from the sun is very close to our star, and as a result has felt a stronger gravitational pull than the rest of us. This greater pull actually brakes the planet into a slower spin time, a slower “rotation.”

Consequently one Mercurian “day,” one complete planetary pirouette, is nearly 59 earth days in length. And you thought your days were long.

Its year, how long it takes to go around the sun once, is only 88 earth days. This and the fact that its orbit isn’t a nice perfect circle make for some crazy phenomena.

The sun is actually in Mercury’s sky for 2-4 months at a time. You can imagine that a very close sun beating down for months nonstop can make for some pretty oppressively hot temperatures. Try 800 ˚F worth of hot.

Conversely, the long months of no sun at all result in temperatures that plunge to about -280 ˚C. Over one thousand degrees difference between nighttime and daytime probably disqualifies Mercury as a popular tourist spot.

Moreover, Mercury’s orbital geometry makes for a particularly strange occurrence. Because of the combination of slow rotation, quick revolution, and oblong orbit, there are places on Mercury where the sun will slowly sink below horizon, then surprisingly rise again, only to sink below a second time. Granted this takes several weeks to accomplish, but you can imagine this is one singular event in this solar system of ours. (Answer: True)

Statement 2: A day on Venus is longer than its year.

Venus, closer to the sun than we are, takes a shorter time to buzz around it; two hundred twenty-five days compared to our 365. But it takes even longer to spin around even once on its axis. A single “day” on Venus, one complete spin, lasts 243 Earth days! Combined with its revolution, the sun is “up” in that sky for about 2 months.

And of course it is “down” – below horizon - for another couple months, as well. But does that mean it is really hot during the venusian daytime and really cold during night? Not by any stretch of the imagination.

First, no one ever sees the sun in the sky on Venus, it is so unbelievably cloudy there. But that same cloud cover acts like a monster blanket, keeping it scorching hot all the time, day and night. The average temperature is nearly 900 degrees Fahrenheit, hundreds of degrees hotter than your stove at full blast. (Answer: True)

Statement 3: Mars has two moons, but soon it will have only one!

There are two tiny little satellites orbiting our outer neighbor Mars. Tiny is perhaps too weak a word. They are but miles across. Phobos is just 17 miles through. Deimos, farther out than Phobos, is only a 9-mile chunk of rock, the size of a decent sized city.

The small mass of these two means their gravity is near zero. A high jumper who can clear 6 feet on earth could set the bar to over a mile and a half on Phobos - and clear it easily.

An observer on Mars looking for his moons can see just a bright speck as Deimos passes over. But as Deimos passes over one way, Phobos races by overhead in the opposite direction, twice a day.

Poor Phobos, like the name implies, has reason to fear. It passes over twice a day because it orbits so dangerously close to Mars. In fact, it is on a collision course with its parent.

So close means Mars, via the laws of gravitational physics, will eventually pull Phobos into itself. In the next 50 million years or so, Phobos is doomed to crash into the planet or break up into bits giving Mars a tiny, temporary ring system. This will leave Deimos as the lone Martian satellite. (Answer: True)

Hope you did well. Until next time, clear skies!