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60 free Taurus trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Taurus trivia quiz covers the second sign of the zodiac from three directions at once. The astrology questions ask about the bull's dates, its Venus rulership, its earth element and fixed modality, its opposite sign, its traditional gemstone and its equivalents in the Hindu and Iranian calendars. The astronomy questions turn to the constellation itself: Aldebaran the bull's eye, the V-shaped Hyades, the Seven Sisters of the Pleiades, El Nath on the horn tip, T Tauri, the Crystal Ball Nebula and the Crab Nebula with its spinning pulsar, plus the Taurid 'Halloween fireballs'. The mythology rounds it out: Zeus as a white bull carrying Europa to Crete, the Bull of Heaven that Ishtar sent against Gilgamesh, the Cretan Bull that Heracles captured, and the bull's place in Babylonian, Egyptian, Hebrew, Inuit and Buddhist tradition, right back to a possible star map at Lascaux. Questions run from easy to expert with the difficulty shown on each one, so it suits a birthday party for a Taurus as well as a stargazing club. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. For the wider sky, try our Zodiac, Astrology and Planets quizzes.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which animal does the zodiac sign Taurus represent?
A bull
The Latin word taurus simply means bull, and the sign's glyph is a circle topped with horns.
Q 02Taurus occupies which position in the order of the twelve zodiac signs?
2nd
It covers 30° to 60° of the ecliptic, the stretch immediately after Aries.
Q 03Which planet is said to rule Taurus in Western astrology?
Venus
Venus also rules Libra, so the two signs are often paired as the 'Venusian' signs.
Q 04Taurus belongs to which of the four classical elements?
Earth
The earth signs are traditionally read as practical and grounded, which is where the stubborn-bull stereotype comes from.
Q 05Which modality (quality) does Taurus have in astrology?
Fixed
Fixed signs sit in the middle of each season; Taurus is the fixed sign of spring.
Q 06Which sign sits directly opposite Taurus on the zodiac wheel?
Scorpio
Opposite signs are 180° apart, so when the Sun is in one, a full Moon falls in the other.
Q 07Which two signs share Taurus's element?
Virgo and Capricorn
Together the three form the earth 'triplicity', one of four such groups of three.
Q 08Which celestial body is said to be 'exalted' in Taurus, at exactly 3°?
The Moon
Exaltation is a traditional dignity, a sign where a planet is thought to work especially well.
Q 09In tropical astrology, the Sun is considered to be in Taurus between roughly which dates?
April 20 to May 20
Because of precession, the Sun is actually in front of the constellation Taurus about a month later than that.
Q 10Astronomically, when does the Sun actually pass in front of the constellation Taurus (as of 2008)?
May 13 to June 21
The gap between sign and constellation has opened up over two millennia because of the wobble of Earth's axis.
Q 11Under what name was Taurus listed in the Babylonian star catalogue MUL.APIN?
The Bull of Heaven
The Hired Man was Aries and the Furrow was Virgo in the same catalogue.
Q 12What is the equivalent of Taurus in the Hindu calendar?
Vṛṣabha
Mesha is the ram (Aries), Mithuna the twins (Gemini) and Karka the crab (Cancer).
Q 13The Sun's time in Taurus roughly matches which month of the Solar Hijri (Iranian) calendar?
Ordibehesht
Farvardin, the first month, begins at Nowruz on the spring equinox.
Q 14Which red giant is the brightest star in the constellation Taurus?
Q 21Roughly how far away is the Pleiades cluster?
444 light-years
That makes it the nearest Messier object to Earth.
Q 22How far away is the Hyades, the nearest open star cluster to the Sun?
153 light-years
Its stars are close enough that their distance can be measured directly by parallax.
Q 23Together with the bull's bright eye star, the Hyades' brightest members form what letter-like shape?
A V
The V is the bull's face; the eye star merely lies along the same line of sight and is not a cluster member.
Aldebaran
It marks the bull's bloodshot eye, glaring at the hunter Orion next door.
Q 15What does the Arabic-derived name of Alpha Tauri, the bull's eye star, mean?
The follower
It 'follows' the Pleiades across the sky each night, rising just after them.
Q 16Roughly how far from Earth is Alpha Tauri, the bull's eye star?
67 light-years
That is close enough that it is one of the nearest bright giant stars to the Sun.
Q 17The bull's eye star is a red giant with a radius about how many times the Sun's?
45
Despite being so swollen, its mass is roughly the same as the Sun's; it is simply near the end of its life.
Q 18The Pleiades cluster in Taurus is popularly known by what nickname?
The Seven Sisters
Six or seven stars are visible to most naked eyes, though the cluster holds over a thousand.
Q 19What is the Messier catalogue number of the Pleiades?
M45
M1 is the Crab Nebula, also in Taurus, so the constellation bookends Messier's list.
Q 20The name Pleiades probably derives from the Greek word for what?
To sail
Their dawn rising marked the opening of the Mediterranean sailing season.
Q 24Which Hyades star, named Ain ('the Bull's Eye'), hosts the first planet found in any open cluster?
Epsilon Tauri
The candidate is a gas giant orbiting a star that has already swelled into a giant itself.
Q 25About how old is the Hyades cluster?
625 million years
Its five brightest members have already burned through their core hydrogen and become giants.
Q 26The Crab Nebula (M1) in Taurus is what kind of object?
A supernova remnant
Its centre hides a neutron star only about 30 km across.
Q 27In which year was the supernova that created the Crab Nebula seen from Earth?
1054
Chinese records call it a 'guest star', and it was bright enough to see in daylight.
Q 28Who first discovered the Crab Nebula, in 1731?
John Bevis
Messier rediscovered it in 1758 and made it the first entry in his famous catalogue.
Q 29Whose 1840s drawing, which looked a bit like a crab, gave the Crab Nebula its name?
William Parsons
He sketched it through his 36-inch telescope in Ireland; the later drawing from his 72-inch 'Leviathan' looks nothing like a crab.
Q 30How fast does the Crab Pulsar spin, in rotations per second?
Around 30
It emits pulses across the spectrum from radio waves to gamma rays.