Question 144
MediumOriginal questionFor all its importance to life on Earth, the Sun is hard to watch without a break. From the ground, night hides it for half of every day, clouds hide it often, and our own blocks some of the light that scientists most want to study. Even a satellite circling the Earth passes behind the planet again and again.
Aditya-L1, launched by a PSLV rocket on 2 September 2023, was India's answer to this problem, and the country's first space mission to study the Sun. It was not sent to the Sun itself. Instead it was sent to a point in space called Lagrange point 1, or L1, which lies between the Earth and the Sun, about 1.5 million km from the Earth. There the pulls of the two bodies balance in such a way that a spacecraft can stay the Earth as the Earth travels round the Sun.
In January 2024 the spacecraft settled into a looping path, called a halo orbit, around L1. From there, nothing ever comes between it and the Sun: no night, no cloud and no . It can watch the Sun without .
In the passage, a spacecraft that stays "in step with the Earth"
Show the answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
The phrase describes a spacecraft keeping pace with the Earth "as the Earth travels round the Sun".
To be in step with something is to move at the same pace as it, as people marching together do.
Worth noting
The phrase has nothing to do with walking; it is a picture borrowed from marching.
- Concept
- Understanding a phrase used figuratively
- Typical timeTypical
- 35 s
- Your timeYours
- —
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