In the 1970s, Charles Kowal at Mount Palomar Observatory discovered

Question

In the 1970s, Charles Kowal at Mount Palomar Observatory discovered Chiron, an asteroid whose orbit was in the vicinity of Saturn and Uranus, far from other known asteroids.

In the 1990s, robotic telescopes began to comb the Kuiper Belt, the region of the solar system beyond the orbit of Neptune. More than 400 objects were discovered there, with the biggest object about half the size of Pluto.

Last year, the farthest asteroid to date was found: Sedna, named after an Inuit goddess who dwells in a cave at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. Sedna has a very eccentric orbit that takes it nearly 1,000 times farther from the Sun than Pluto and outside the Kuiper Belt.

In early January 2005, the same team that discovered Sedna found a larger body. From its light and absence of infrared radiation, the team of Brown, Trujillo, and Rabinovitz are certain that the object’s size is between that of Pluto (1,485 miles across) and our moon (2,160 miles across).

Its temporary name is 2003 UB313. Presently, the object is 9 billion miles from the sun, about three times as far as Pluto. At this distance from the Sun, 2003 UB313 has a surface temperature of 415° below zero.

This Kuiper Belt object takes 560 Earth years to orbit the Sun. 2003 UB313’s orbit has a tilt of 44 degrees to the plane of the solar system, more than twice the tilt of Pluto (the previous planet record holder). Its minimum solar distance is 3.3 billion years, close to the edge of Neptune’s orbit.

2003 UB313’s orbit is well known due to its being captured on wide angle photographs taken in 2003 by the 4-foot-wide Schmidt telescope on Mount Palomar. Will UB313 be called the tenth planet? The decision is up to the International Astronomical Union.

Asteroids are mini-planets, most of which are located in the asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The largest of the belt asteroids is Ceres, about 700 miles across (i.e., roughly the size of Texas). Most asteroids are much smaller,typically less than a mile across.

While most asteroids keep their distance from Earth, there are probably 1,000 asteroids that are located in the inner solar system and may cross Earth’s orbit.

Last summer, a robotic telescope discovered a 1,000-foot-wide asteroid that crosses Earth’s orbit. The object is 99942 Apophis. Once Apophis’ orbit was determined, its future positions decades ahead were generated by computer.

There was a shock when an early study showed Apophis to be on a collision course with Earth in 2029. More early observations were utilized to refine Apophis’ orbit; new calculations showed that on April 13, 2029, Apophis would instead pass 22,000 miles from Earth, which is a little less than three Earth diameters. Apophis will then be visible to the naked eye from Europe and western Africa.   1 
 1. The author provides information that would answer which of the following questions?

(A) What are some of the causes of asteroids?
(B) Who is Charles Kowal?
(C) What are asteroids?
(D) When will Neptune collide with Earth?
(E) How far are asteroids from the sun?

2 
 2. It may be concluded from the passage that

(A) the Kuiper Belt includes 1,000 asteroids
(B) there is a chance that Apophis may collide with Earth
(C) most asteroids are dangerously close to Earth
(D) there is no inherent danger from falling asteroids
(E) asteroid research is not very advanced scientifically

3 
 3-The passage mentions that

(A) the decision to name new asteroids is made by their discovers
(B) Sedna is the farthest asteroid from Earth
(C) the largest asteroid is Pluto
(D) Apophis is about the size of Pluto
(E) UB313 will be named after Brown, Trujillo, and Rabinovitz

4 
 4- Which of the following titles best describes the contents of the passage?

(A) “The Impact of Asteroids on the Solar System”
(B) “What Is the Tenth Planet?”
(C) “How Asteroids Are Discovered”
(D) “The Search for Asteroids”
(E) “The Discoveries of Charles Kowal”

5 
 5- According to the author, all of the following are asteroids except

(A) Inuit
(B) Sedna
(C) Ceres
(D) Apophis
(E) UB313

Source: Barron's GMAT

bM22 · Answer

Hi  MarwanAlMounajjed ,

I have modified this post for you, For Future posts, kindly follow the RC Forum Posting Rules:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/rc-forum-rules-must-read-155874.html

Thanks.

AndrewN · Answer

What is the source of this passage, MarwanAlMounajjed? Both the passage itself and some of the questions, such as the one about titling the piece, seem decidedly non-GMAT™. Whether this is a self-made set of questions or one scrubbed off the Internet somewhere, it might help the community to know. Please provide this information if you would.

Thank you, and good luck with your studies.

- Andrew

Thank you, and good luck with your studies.

- Andrew

Sajjad1994 · Answer

If I am not wrong this passage originates from Barron's GMAT

Thank you!

MarwanAlMounajjed · Answer

it is from barron's gmat
(Barrons Educational Series) Jaffe, Eugene D_Hilbert, Stephen - Barron's GMAT_ Barrons How to Prepare for the Graduate Management Admission Test (Gmat), 11 ed-Barrons (2009)

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Unfortunately this question is not worthful to practice for the GMAT purpose. I would recommend to practice Official RC questions.

Good luck

karanbishti · Answer

can anyone please explain why choice B for Q4 ??

In the 1970s, Charles Kowal at Mount Palomar Observatory discovered

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In the 1970s, Charles Kowal at Mount Palomar Observatory discovered

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

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