CAT 2018 Slot 2 VARC Question & Solution
Passage
Read the passage carefully and answer the following questions
NOT everything looks lovelier the longer and closer its inspection. But Saturn does. It is gorgeous through Earthly telescopes. However, the 13 years of close observation provided by Cassini, an American spacecraft, showed the planet, its moons and its remarkable rings off better and better, revealing finer structures, striking novelties and greater drama. . . .
By and large the big things in the solar system—planets and moons—are thought of as having been around since the beginning. The suggestion that rings and moons are new is, though, made even more interesting by the fact that one of those moons, Enceladus, is widely considered the most promising site in the solar system on which to look for alien life. If Enceladus is both young and bears life, that life must have come into being quickly. This is also believed to have been the case on Earth. Were it true on Enceladus, that would encourage the idea that life evolves easily when conditions are right.
One reason for thinking Saturn’s rings are young is that they are bright. The solar system is suffused with comet dust, and comet dust is dark. Leaving Saturn’s ring system (which Cassini has shown to be more than 90% water ice) out in such a mist is like leaving laundry hanging on a line downwind from a smokestack: it will get dirty. The lighter the rings are, the faster this will happen, for the less mass they contain, the less celestial pollution they can absorb before they start to discolour. . . . Jeff Cuzzi, a scientist at America’s space agency, NASA, who helped run Cassini, told the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston that combining the mass estimates with Cassini’s measurements of the density of comet-dust near Saturn suggests the rings are no older than the first dinosaurs, nor younger than the last of them—that is, they are somewhere between 200m and 70m years old.
That timing fits well with a theory put forward in 2016, by Matija Cuk of the SETI Institute, in California and his colleagues. They suggest that at around the same time as the rings came into being an old set of moons orbiting Saturn destroyed themselves, and from their remains emerged not only the rings but also the planet’s current suite of inner moons—Rhea, Dione, Tethys, Enceladus and Mimas. . . .
Dr Cuk and his colleagues used computer simulations of Saturn’s moons’ orbits as a sort of time machine. Looking at the rate at which tidal friction is causing these orbits to lengthen they extrapolated backwards to find out what those orbits would have looked like in the past. They discovered that about 100m years ago the orbits of two of them, Tethys and Dione, would have interacted in a way that left the planes in which they orbit markedly tilted. But their orbits are untitled. The obvious, if unsettling, conclusion was that this interaction never happened—and thus that at the time when it should have happened, Dione and Tethys were simply not there. They must have come into being later. . . .
Question 1
Based on information provided in the passage, we can infer that, in addition to water ice, Saturn’s rings might also have small amounts of:
Solution:
In the fourth paragraph, it is mentioned that "they suggest that at around the same time as the rings came into being an old set of moons orbiting Saturn destroyed themselves, and from their remains emerged not only the rings......". From this, we can infer that the rings were formed from the moons. Also, from the third paragraph, it can be inferred that Saturn's rings consist of comet dust.
Hence, option D is the correct answer.
Question 2
Based on information provided in the passage, we can conclude all of the following EXCEPT:
Solution:
In the last paragraph, it is given that about 100m years ago, Thethys and Dione were not there. From the last line of the passage we can conclude that Thethys and Dione are less than 100 million years old. Option B can be concluded.
In the third paragraph, it is mentioned "The lighter the rings are, the faster this will happen". Option C can be concluded.
From the fourth paragraph, option D can be concluded.
Sufficient information has not been provided from which we can conclude that none of Saturn’s moons ever had suitable conditions for life to evolve.
Hence, option A is the correct answer.
Question 3
The phrase “leaving laundry hanging on a line downwind from a smokestack” is used to explain how the ringed planet's:
Solution:
The phrase explains how clothes would darken over time if left hanging and facing smokestack. The phrase refers to the darkening of the Saturn's rings under the influence of comet dust.
Hence, option B is the correct answer.
Question 4
Data provided by Cassini challenged the assumption that:
Solution:
Referring to the first paragraph and first few lines of the second paragraph, it was believed that the celestial bodies had been existing from the beginning. However, the data provided by Cassini gave an insight that the rings and moons of Saturn are newly created. Thus, it challenged the earlier held notion.
Hence, option B is the correct answer.
Question 5
The main objective of the passage is to:
Solution:
Refer to the lines from the passage - "The suggestion that rings and moons are new is," "One reason for thinking Saturn’s rings are young is that they are bright.", "Cassini’s measurements of the density of comet-dust near Saturn suggests the rings are no older than the first dinosaurs, nor younger than the last of them."
Throughout the passage, the author has emphasized on the fact that the rings and the moons of Saturn are recent phenomena. Option C is the most relevant in this context.
Option A is not the primary objective of the passage otherwise the author would not have detailed the timeline of the formation of the moons and the rings of Saturn.
Option B is factually wrong as per the information given in the passage.
Option D is out of context.
Hence, option C is the correct answer.