General Knowledge
Real or Fake Planet Quiz
Kepler-442b or Zorgon Prime? — can you spot the real exoplanets from the fakes?
Kepler-442b or Zorgon Prime? — can you spot the real exoplanets from the fakes?
Over 5,500 exoplanets had been confirmed by 2024, with the first one found orbiting a sun-like star being 51 Pegasi b in 1995, a discovery that later earned the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics. NASA's Kepler Space Telescope alone identified more than 2,600 of them before its retirement in 2018.
Each round presents 10 randomized questions from a pool of 50, with four multiple-choice options and instant feedback after every answer. Your final score comes with a performance tier and shareable results.
You'll explore real systematic naming conventions from the Kepler and TRAPPIST missions, famous fictional planets like Tatooine, Pandora, and Arrakis, and how real discoveries of circumbinary worlds orbiting two stars have inspired comparisons to the fictional 'real Tatooines' of science fiction.
Most exoplanets are named after the parent star and a lowercase letter — for example, 51 Pegasi b or Kepler-442b. 'b' denotes the first discovered planet around that star, with subsequent planets labeled c, d, e, and so on. The IAU also allows public campaigns for proper names like 'Dimidium' and 'Osiris.'
Proxima Centauri b, discovered in 2016, orbits the red dwarf Proxima Centauri about 4.24 light-years away. It sits in its star's habitable zone, though intense stellar flares make its habitability uncertain.
Astronomers search for biosignatures like oxygen, methane, and water vapor in exoplanet atmospheres using transit spectroscopy with telescopes like JWST. No confirmed signs of life have been detected yet, though candidate atmospheric clues have emerged from targets like K2-18b.
Last updated: April 2026