ASTROBLAZE 2016PRELIMS

By:Kaushik S KalmadyDhruv WarriorHarshith Kumar

Prelims! 20 Questions No negatives. Intelligent guesswork will be key! Questions marked * are tie breakers. Questions contain internal clues. Watch out for italicized words.

Lastly, keep your friends close, but your pop culture obsessed friends closer :D

1.X is a single from the album Recovery. It is about a girl, played by Sasha Grey, who secretly cheats on her boyfriend, Eminem. Identify X.

Ans. Spacebound

2.In the TV Show FRIENDS, when Joey is asked about “vulcanized rubber”, from the 'V' section of an encyclopedia, Joey answers X's birth control. Who’s X?

Ans. Spock, since he is from the planet Vulcan.

3.Among other things, this famous Indian foodie of primary importance has a genus of marine snails, a psychedelic drug, and a dark feature on Saturn’s moon Titan named after him. Who am I talking about?

Ans. Ganesha

4. On what occasion was this doodle released?

Ans. Discovery of Water on the Moon.

5.X is a constellation that is located around the celestial equator. In Greek mythology X is believed to have killed Orion, the great

hunter. X in the Harry Potter series is in the same year as Rose Weasly and

Albus Potter.

Identify X.

Ans. Scorpio

*6.This song was inspired by David Bowies ‘Space Oddity’ and speaks of our endeavor to leave earth and head towards Venus where intelligent beings would welcome us. It was listed by Blender as the “Most Awesomely bad song ever”.

Which song ?

Ans. The Final Countdown by Europe

7.Which famous consumer electronics company/brand was so named because of the founders’ fondness for the hit television series “The X-Files”, which also inspired the science-fiction themed names of product lines such as Area-51, Hangar 18, and Aurora.

Ans. Alienware

8. FITBWhat simple solution inthe hunt for extra-terrestrial life.Think out of the box.

Ans. Mirror

http://www.xkcd.com/1231/

9.This relatively new and now popular “star” is developed, built and maintained by Accenture on their Accenture Video Solution (AVS) platform. Owned by Novi Digital Entertainment Private Limited it can be currently viewed only in India. Identify.

Ans. Hotstar

10.Sheldon to Penny: "Just like X's Y, your potential relationship with Leonard right now can be thought of as both good and bad. It is only by opening the box that you’ll find out which it is."

Ans. Schrodinger’s Cat

*11.The R-7 (Semyorka) was a missile developed during the Cold War, and is considered the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile. Though, it was put to it's most famous use on 4th of October 1957. What?

Ans. To Launch Sputnik.

12.Often affiliated closely with Samuel Clemens. What is this?

Ans. Hailey’s CometSamuel Clemens is Mark Twain’s real name

*13.

From Season 5 Episode 10 of Doctor Who. Description of what by its creator?"Look at the sky. It's not dark and black and without character. The black is, in fact deep blue. And over there: lighter blue and blowing through the blues and blackness the winds swirling through the air and then shining, burning, bursting through: the stars!"

Ans. Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh

14.

Poem from Douglas Adams' ‘The Restaurant At The End of the Universe’

I Xed home one nightWith Ron and Sid and Meg. Ron stole Meggie's heart away And I got Sidney's leg.

What does the poem describe?

Ans. Teleport

15.

Dr. U. R. Rao is a former president of ISRO whose role was monumental in the design and development of Aryabhatta and early Indian Satellites. He is currently the chairman of IIST Thiruvananthapuram. He is a Padma Vibhushan awardee and was inducted into the Satellite Hall of Fame, Washington on March 19, 2013.

What does U in U.R.Rao stand for ?

Ans. Udupi

Udupi Ramachandra Rao

*16.What’s this guy up to?

Ans. Star Wars scrolling text.

17.A Russian-designed system was purchased by NASA for the International Space Station for a cool $19 million. The X is designed to work in zero gravity and comes with unglamorous leg restraints and thigh bars, solving a rather fundamental yet tricky problem for astronauts. It is the world’s most expensive X in the world.

Ans. Toilet

*18.From an article in the New Yorker (18 Jan 2016) :

“The first X star is in the constellation of Perseus”— the Greek mythological hero who beheaded Medusa… “I also found a star named Y, in Cassiopeia, the constellation named for a vain queen in Greek mythology”“It’s interesting that X is in the hero constellation, and Y is in the queen”“The star X is visible almost throughout the year and that would definitely make Mr.X really happy."

Ans. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton

19.

X is defined as the action of passing through or across a place.In internet terminology, X is one of two mechanisms by which Internet traffic is exchanged between Internet service providers.In astronomy, X is the apparent motion of one celestial body across the face of another celestial body or meridian.What is X ?

Ans. Transit

*20.His mission. To take the third planet of the solar system Planet Earth and put it into the ninth planet Pluto! He gathers Earth with his spaceship and wizzes past to dislodge Pluto from its position. "Pluto is destroyed!" he exclaims. 3X9=3 !

Put funda.

Ans. Taare Zameen Par, math paper scene.