How close have human beings come to the sun? The kids’ quiz

1. Aariya, 7, asks: how close have human beings been to the sun?

   1. In the 1970s, astronaut Charlie Star-Glider touched the sun

   2. In 2010, a crew of four astronauts managed to get as close as a football pitch to the sun

   3. Human beings can’t get close to the sun

   4. The rocket that went to the moon in 1969 stopped at the sun first

2. Jacob, 8, asks: how many Earths can fit in Jupiter?

   1. 1,000

   2. 600

   3. 50

   4. None – Earth is much bigger than Jupiter

3. Finn, 8, asks: how many times does your heart beat in an hour?

   1. About 480 times

   2. About 4,800 times

   3. About 48,000 times

   4. w3There’s no way to tell

4. B-Bear, 7, asks: how many stars are there in our galaxy?

   1. Not as many as you might think – there are only a few thousand stars in our galaxy in total

   2. About 1 million

   3. More than 100 billion

   4. Scientists haven’t found any way to estimate the number of stars

5. River, 3, asks: who invented the first computer program?

   1. Steve Jobs devised the first one in the 1990s

   2. Ada Lovelace devised one in the 1840s

   3. Albert Camus in the 1950s

   4. David Beckham in the 2010s

Solutions

1:C - Humans can’t withstand the radiation and heat from the sun at close range. The sun can burn human skin on Earth! However, the Parker Solar Probe reached a distance of 3.8 million miles from the sun’s surface in 2024. It is the only human-made object to get that close., 2:A - One thousand Earths could fit inside Jupiter if it was a hollow shell, according to Nasa., 3:B - The average resting heart rate for an adult is between 60 and 100 beats per minute. (Children usually have a slightly higher rate as their hearts are smaller.) If we take an average of 80bpm, that would mean 4,800 heartbeats an hour., 4:C - According to Nasa, astronomers believe there are more than 100 billion stars in the Milky Way., 5:B - Ada Lovelace is widely credited with creating the first computer program, in the 1840s. Another mathematician had designed a computer, which was never built. Lovelace saw its potential and described a method for calculating a particular sequence of numbers – the first ever computer program.

Scores

1. 5 and above.

2. 4 and above.

3. 3 and above.

4. 2 and above.

5. 0 and above.

6. 1 and above.

Molly Oldfield hosts Everything Under the Sun, a podcast answering children’s questions. Do check out her books, Everything Under the Sun and Everything Under the Sun: Quiz Book, as well as her new title, Everything Under the Sun: All Around the World.