The Great 2025 Space Quiz!

With the end of the year fast approaching, we thought this would be a great time for a Christmas quiz! Read on to test your knowledge of 2025 in space...

Don't scroll ahead until you've made your guess - the answer to each question is directly below the image that accompanies the question. Good luck!

Question 1

As the year began, two of the occupants of the International Space Station – Suni Williams and Butch Willmore – had already been there longer than the 8-day mission that was originally planned, leading to the media describing them as being “stranded in space”. How long did they end up spending onboard the ISS?

A) 84 days

B) 184 days

C) 284 days

D) 384 days

Answer: C)  284 days

Their original mission was a test of the Boeing Starliner’s capability to deliver astronauts to the ISS. Although that was successfully achieved, there were problems with a thruster failure and a helium leak. After an extended stay it was eventually decided that, as a precaution, their spacecraft would return to Earth without its crew. Williams and Willmore (both experienced astronauts) remained on the ISS, conducting research projects, and eventually returned on a rescheduled SpaceX Dragon capsule. Their stay on the ISS stretched from 6 June 2024 to early on 18 March 2025, a total of just over 284 days.

Question 2

The comet 3I/ATLAS has been in the news frequently since its discovery in July. “ATLAS” refers to the ATLAS survey telescope that discovered it. The “3” in the name is because it is the third object discovered with a particular property.  What does the “I” stand for?

A) Icebound

B) Iridium-rich

C) Irregular

D) Interstellar

Answer: D)  Interstellar

3I/ATLAS is the third confirmed object that has passed through the Solar System but originated elsewhere, hence “interstellar”, ie it has travelled between stars. Although much of the media coverage has suggested this object could be an alien spacecraft, in reality this comet gives us an excellent opportunity to learn about the similarities and differences compared with the many comets that orbit the Sun within our Solar System. Observations have been made by a range of telescopes and instruments, including four spacecraft orbiting Mars when it passed within 30 million kilometres of the planet in early October.

Question 3

In April, the pop star Katy Perry went to space, on a flight with five other notable women. Which organisation operated the flight?

A) NASA

B) Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX

C) Richard Branson’s company, Virgin Galactic

D) Jeff Bezos’s company, Blue Origin

Answer: D)  Blue Origin

Blue Origin now operates frequent sub-orbital passenger spaceflights under the New Shepard programme, with six crewed missions having flown this year, and further flights delivering scientific research in collaboration with NASA. Katy Perry’s inclusion on the all-female passenger list of flight NS-31 attracted huge media attention. Although there was significant criticism of the flight as an expensive publicity stunt, and Bezos’s attempt to co-opt a feminist narrative that may be at odds with his political views, Perry’s inclusion undoubtedly brought spaceflight to the attention of a significantly wider audience than usual.

Question 4

In August, the Juice spacecraft performed a flyby of Venus.  But where is its ultimate destination?

A) The moons of Jupiter

B) The planet Mercury

C) Titania, the largest moon of Uranus

D) The dwarf planet Ceres

Answer: A)  The moons of Jupiter

Juice is a European Space Agency mission, launched in April 2023. The name is an acronym, standing for JUpiter ICy Moons Explorer. It’s due to enter an orbital path around Jupiter in 2034, and will be taking a close look at three of Jupiter’s largest moons – Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. So why the flyby of Venus? Slightly counter-intuitively, the most fuel-efficient path to the outer planets often takes a lengthy route, receiving gravity assists from planets in the inner Solar System. These act like a slingshot, using the gravity of those planets to change course and accelerate the spacecraft.

Question 5

In July, NASA’s Perseverance Rover found particular patterns in the minerals of a Mars rock, which scientists believe may indicate the former presence of simple life-forms on Mars. How have these specific patterns been described?

A) Tiger stripes and horseshoes

B) Snail shells and croissants

C) Snakeskin and teardrops

D) Leopard spots and poppy seeds

Answer: D)  Leopard spots and poppy seeds

The idea of life on Mars has captured our imaginations for almost 200 years. While there have been various findings about Mars and its past that suggest there could have been suitable conditions for life, the discovery of this rock is probably the most exciting evidence yet. We have experience from terrestrial geology of the chemical reactions that form such “leopard spots”, with a dark ring surrounding a lighter centre. In this type of rock, these reactions are often accompanied by the release of certain chemicals that can provide an energy source for microbial life. While there are other ways these markings can form, this association with life-forms gives us a tantalising piece of evidence taking us one small step closer to possibly finding life on the Red Planet.

Question 6

We’ve had five questions on 2025 in space, but let’s finish with a test of your wider space knowledge.

The Sun is the largest object in the Solar System by size. The planet Jupiter is the second largest. Continuing this list, what is the eighth largest object in the Solar System?

A) The planet Venus

B) Jupiter’s moon, Ganymede

C) The planet Mars

D) Gary Barlow’s massive son

Answer: C)  The planet Mars

Although there are two Solar System moons larger than the planet Mercury – Ganymede, and Saturn’s moon Titan – that doesn’t quite lift them as high as eighth on the list. After the Sun, the rest of the top eight consists entirely of planets. Venus is seventh on the list, Mars eighth, and Ganymede ninth. Where Gary Barlow’s massive son appears on the list isn’t known precisely, but he doesn’t quite squeeze into the top ten.

So how did you get on?

0-1 out of 6: Could do better. I prescribe a diet of frequent space news – check in regularly with our blogs through 2026 and try again next year!

2-3 out of 6: Not bad. If it was Katy Perry that drew you in, why not stick around for updates from Mars, the ISS and interstellar space during the coming year.

4-5 out of 6: Very good – you’ve clearly been paying attention this year. Gary Barlow’s son would be proud of you.

6 out of 6: Well done, you’re a true space expert! If you found this quiz a bit too easy, why not challenge yourself further by listening to our Space NOW podcast end of year quiz, where our resident space experts were put through their paces. You can listen on Spotify or watch on YouTube.

Full references/credits

(1) The Carina Nebula, imaged by the James Webb Space Telescope – NASA (public domain)

(2) The International Space Station above the Earth – NASA (public domain)

(3) An image of Comet 3I/ATLAS captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, with stars appearing as streaks in the background – NASA, ESA, D. Jewitt (UCLA) (CC BY 4.0 – https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )

(4) The pop star Katy Perry – Joella Marano (CC BY-SA 2.0 – https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ )

(5) The Juice spacecraft – ESA

(6) The Perseverance rover, on Mars – NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS (CC BY-NC 2.0 – https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/ )

(7) Some of the largest objects in the Solar System – RedKire25 (CC BY 4.0 – https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )