On nearing the Earth, charged particles coming from the Sun

I'd go with A, just because of "nearing", just sounds more parallel to me really.

The problem with this question is that no other forum is carrying it. We are not able to know whether this is an OG or GPREP sample. While the OA is available, there is no OE to understand the thesis behind the right choice. Nor is there a definite precedence or concept of choosing a present participle over a relative pronoun, where the relative pronoun seems to clearly refer to the noun touching it.

IMO, where there is a directly related pronoun that solidly modifies a preceding noun, then choosing a present participle instead may not be that right. A present participle is resorted to in situations when the modifier is unable to modify the preceding noun and therefore is required to modify the entire phrase lying before. In the given case, choice A using the participle ‘coming’ can only play second fiddle to choice B . But this is just my feeling.

(A) charged particles coming from the Sun tend to be deflected toward the North and South poles by the Earth's magnetic field
(B) charged particles that come from the Sun tend to be deflected toward the North and South poles by the Earth's magnetic field

I chose A over B because A makes it clear that the sun is actively emitting charged particles. Choice B can be interpreted as the charged particle deflecting itself towards the north and south poles [not possible].

Hello,why was D wrong?i understand A is right but why is D not a contender . pLEASE

D and E both go wrong because of the structures of the sentences. Notice that the sentence begins with "On nearing the Earth....".

Given this, it is more appropriate to mention the object nearing the Earth than bring up the Earth's magnetic field. Statements D and E give the impression that the Earth's own magnetic field is nearing the Earth.

Hope this helps.

I will try my best to explain my case on the difference between A and B.
On nearing the Earth, charged particles coming from the Sun tend to be deflected toward the North and South poles by the Earth’s magnetic field.

The reason why I feel A is better :-
1) Continuous tense - The original sentence meant to say that charged particles coming from the sun upon nearing the earth. Whereas in B, by using that the author changes the meaning of the sentence, by removing the continuous tense. But is the removal necessary? The rule of thumb on GMAT is don't change tense or meaning unless there is a need to and here there is no need to do so.
2) The purpose of the Relative clause - What is the purpose of restricting the charged particles to those coming from the sun? There is no difference in meaning if you use the relative clause starting with "that....". What if the particles didn't originate from the sun but appear to be coming from the sun?
3) Wordiness - "that come from the sun" vs. "coming from the sun". The latter is one word shorter.
4) Original meaning is fine as it is - There is nothing wrong in the meaning of the original sentence.

Last note: I feel this question is not a quality GMAT question. So, don't read too much into the question and answers.

Parallelism is clear in A....coming from sun.......nearing the Earth

I believe both (A) & (B) make sense from different perspective and both are grammatically correct, with slight nuance in the meaning. I doubt GMAC would test solely on the basis of the difference here. However, in case it does , I would go for (A) because it's conscise and is also the original intended meaning.

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