World Book Trivia Challenge Advanced--space Exploration--4/12

In 2003, China joined Russia and the United States as the only countries to place a person in space. Yang Liwei orbited Earth in the space capsule Shenzhou 5 for over 22 hours before returning to Earth.

Aldrin, Armstrong, and Collins were all astronauts aboard Apollo 11. Only Aldrin and Armstrong ventured down from the space capsule to the moon's surface. Armstrong was the first to step out of the lunar lander, Aldrin soon followed.

Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn have all been visited by a probe at least once. Neptune (1989) and Uranus (1986) were visited by Voyager 2.

The New Horizons probe was launched in January 2006. It will not reach Pluto until July 2015, over nine years later. The probe will not stay long, flying past Pluto and its moons before traveling further into the Kuiper Belt.

The Soviet Union successfully landed a space capsule on Mars before Viking 1 landed. However the Soviet probe malfunctioned and was unable to send useful information back to Earth. Viking 1 landed in July 1976 followed about a month later by Viking 2.

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is energy left over from the early universe. This energy takes the form of electromagnetic waves called microwaves. The CMB radiation formed in the heat of the early universe and cooled as the universe expanded. Planck was launched to map the CMB in great detail. Observations of the CMB give scientists a direct view of the universe more than 13 billion years ago, about 380,000 years after the big bang.

The Soviet Union was the first country to launch an object (satellite), animal (dog), man, and woman into space. Valentina Tereshkova was launched into space on June 16 aboard Vostok 6.

The two Voyager probes were launched in 1977. Scientists expect the furthest of the two, Voyager 1, to move out into interstellar space (the space between stars) within the next few years.