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47 free Scorpio trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Scorpio trivia quiz covers the eighth sign of the zodiac from every angle. The astrology questions ask about the scorpion's dates, its classical ruler Mars and modern ruler Pluto, its water element and fixed modality, its opposite sign Taurus, its colours and its polarity, plus the awkward fact that the Sun spends only six days a year in the actual constellation because Ophiuchus takes the rest. The astronomy questions turn to Scorpius: Antares the rival of Mars, its hidden companion, Shaula and Lesath the stinging Cat's Eyes, Dschubba's sudden flare, the record-setting nova U Scorpii, the giant AH Scorpii, Messier 4, the Butterfly and Ptolemy clusters and the Bug Nebula. The mythology and folklore range from the scorpion Artemis sent to kill Orion and the one that spooked Phaethon's horses, to the Babylonian burning sting, Maui's fishhook in Hawaii, the leaning coconut tree of Java, the skate and shark stars of Bugis sailors and the scorpion on the flag of Brazil. A few questions cover the real animal, from its Silurian ancestry to its glow under ultraviolet light, plus the goddess Serket and the November birthstone. Difficulty runs from easy to expert and is shown on every question, so it suits a Scorpio birthday, a pub quiz or an astronomy night. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. Try our Zodiac, Astrology and Planets quizzes next.
30 of 47 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Scorpio is which sign in the order of the zodiac?
8th
Scorpio is the 8th of the twelve tropical zodiac signs, counted from Aries, which opens the cycle at the March equinox.
Q 02What is the classical ruling planet of Scorpio?
Mars
Mars is Scorpio's classical ruler; the traditional scheme gives the red planet two signs, Scorpio and Aries, and a modern co-ruler was added only in the 20th century.
Q 03Which body do modern astrologers assign as Scorpio's ruler?
Pluto
Astrologers kept Pluto in charge even after astronomers demoted it to a dwarf planet in 2006.
Q 04Scorpio belongs to which element?
Water
Scorpio is a Water sign, sharing that element with Cancer and Pisces; the three Water signs are the ones astrology links to emotion and intuition.
Q 05What is Scorpio's modality?
Fixed
Scorpio's modality is Fixed, the quality given to the four signs that fall in the middle of a season; Scorpio holds mid-autumn in the northern hemisphere.
Q 06Which sign is opposite Scorpio on the zodiac wheel?
Taurus
Taurus sits directly opposite Scorpio on the zodiac wheel, 180° away, so the Sun occupies Taurus from late April to late May, six months from Scorpio season.
Q 07Under the tropical zodiac, the Sun is in Scorpio on average between which dates?
October 23 to November 21
The Sun is in the sign of Scorpio from October 23 to November 21 on average; the boundary shifts by about a day with the leap-year cycle.
Q 08For how many days a year is the Sun actually within the IAU boundaries of the constellation Scorpius?
6
The Sun spends only about 6 days, roughly November 23 to 28, inside the IAU boundaries of Scorpius, because the ecliptic clips just the constellation's northern tip.
Q 09Which constellation, the so-called '13th sign', lies on the ecliptic between Scorpius and Sagittarius?
Ophiuchus
Ophiuchus, the serpent-bearer, straddles the ecliptic between Scorpius and Sagittarius and holds the Sun from about November 30 to December 18, yet tropical astrology ignores it.
Q 10Which body is traditionally said to be in its 'fall' in Scorpio?
The Moon
The Moon is in its fall in Scorpio under traditional essential dignities, because its exaltation lies in the opposite sign; Jupiter, by contrast, is exalted in Cancer.
Q 11Scorpio belongs to which polarity group?
Negative (feminine)
Negative (feminine) is Scorpio's polarity; the signs alternate positive and negative around the wheel starting with positive Aries, so every even-numbered sign, Scorpio included, is negative or receptive.
Q 12Which tarot trump does the Golden Dawn system pair with Scorpio?
Death
Death, trump XIII, is the tarot card the Golden Dawn correspondences assign to Scorpio; The Devil goes to Capricorn and Strength to Leo.
Q 13Which two constellations flank Scorpius in the zodiac?
Libra and Sagittarius
Libra and Sagittarius flank Scorpius on the ecliptic, Libra to the west and Sagittarius to the east, so the Sun moves from the scales into the scorpion and on to the archer.
Q 21What nickname do the close pair of tail-tip stars Lambda and Upsilon Scorpii share?
The Cat's Eyes
The Cat's Eyes is the nickname for Lambda and Upsilon Scorpii, which sit less than a degree apart at the tip of the stinger and shine at magnitudes 1.6 and 2.7.
Q 22The bright stars of Scorpius are said to trace what everyday object?
A longshoreman's hook
A longshoreman's hook is the everyday object the bright stars of Scorpius are compared with, the curve of the tail forming the hook below Antares and the claws.
Q 23What does the name of Delta Scorpii, Dschubba, mean?
The forehead
Q 14What colour does Antares, the brightest star in Scorpius, appear to the naked eye?
Reddish
Antares looks distinctly Reddish to the naked eye because it is a cool red supergiant with a surface temperature near 3,600 K, far below the Sun's 5,800 K.
Q 15What does the name Antares mean?
Rival of Ares (Mars)
Rival of Ares (Mars) is the meaning of Antares, from the Greek anti-Ares, because the star's hue so closely matches the planet that the two are easily confused when near each other.
Q 16Roughly how far away is Antares?
550 light-years
Antares lies about 550 light-years away, roughly 170 parsecs, as the brightest member of the Scorpius–Centaurus association, the nearest OB association to the Sun.
Q 17If Antares replaced the Sun, roughly how far out would its surface extend?
Into the asteroid belt
Into the asteroid belt is how far Antares would reach: with a radius near 680 times the Sun's, about 3 AU, its surface would lie beyond the fourth planet's orbit but short of Jupiter's.
Q 18Antares is actually a binary; its faint companion is what kind of object?
A hot main-sequence star
A hot main-sequence star: Antares B is a blue-white B-type dwarf of magnitude 5.5, first spotted during a lunar occultation in 1819 and roughly 2.5 arcseconds from the supergiant.
Q 19Which planet last passed in front of Antares, in 525 BC, and will next do so in 2400?
Venus
Venus last occulted Antares in 525 BC and will next do so in 2400; the star sits about 4.6° south of the ecliptic, so planetary occultations of it are rare.
Q 20Which two stars at the tip of the scorpion's tail both have names meaning 'sting'?
Shaula and Lesath
Shaula and Lesath, at the tip of the stinger, both take their names from Arabic words for the scorpion's sting; Shaula, at magnitude 1.6, is the brighter of the pair.
The forehead is the meaning of Dschubba, from the Arabic al-jabhah, marking the front of the scorpion's head; the star surprised astronomers by brightening sharply in mid-2000.
Q 24U Scorpii holds what record among stellar explosions?
Fastest known recurrent nova
U Scorpii holds the record 'Fastest known recurrent nova': it erupted in 1979, 1987, 1999, 2010 and 2022, and each outburst faded by several magnitudes within days.
Q 25AH Scorpii, one of the largest stars known, is roughly how many times the Sun's size?
1,400
AH Scorpii's radius is about 1,400 times the Sun's, among the largest measured; placed at the Sun it would reach well past Jupiter's orbit.
Q 26Which globular cluster near Antares was the first to have its individual stars resolved?
Messier 4
Messier 4, about 1.3° west of Antares, was resolved into stars by Charles Messier in 1764; at roughly 6,000 light-years it is among the nearest globular clusters.
Q 27M6 in Scorpius is nicknamed after which creature?
A butterfly
A butterfly is the creature M6 evokes: the open cluster's stars fan out like wings, hence the Butterfly Cluster, with the orange giant BM Scorpii its brightest member.
Q 28Which object in Scorpius, M7, is named after the ancient astronomer who recorded it?
The Ptolemy Cluster
The Ptolemy Cluster is M7, a bright open cluster near the scorpion's stinger that Ptolemy described around AD 130 as a nebulous patch following the sting.
Q 29NGC 6302 in Scorpius, a bipolar cloud of gas shed by a dying star, is known by which insect nickname?
The Bug Nebula
The Bug Nebula, NGC 6302, hides one of the hottest known central stars, a white dwarf at over 200,000 K, behind a dense dusty torus that pinches the gas into two lobes.
Q 30In Greek myth, the scorpion was sent to kill which boastful hunter?
Orion
That is why Orion sets in the west as Scorpius rises in the east, forever fleeing.