Reading Efficiency Enhancement for

for JEE & NEET Aspirants

Instructions: Read below definitions carefully as based on your

reading and understanding efficiency, you need to answer 20
questions in 6 minutes in the Quiz appearing on the Physics Galaxy
Telegram Channel sharp at 9:25pm TODAY (30-Jan-2022)
ENERGY IN THE UNIVERSE : Energy exists in the form of heat, light, X-rays, microwaves, gamma rays, radio
waves etc. What the eyes detect is only a minute range of wavelengths and frequencies (visible light) from a
vastly broader spectrum of electromagnetic radiation. The heat and light from the Sun is a part of the energy we
can easily feel through our senses. Other forms of energy can be detected only through instruments.

ASTEROIDS : Asteroids are tiny heavenly bodies that move around the Sun. Most of them occur in the region
between Mars and Jupiter. They are thought to be fragments left over from the formation of the solar system.

PERSEPHONE : Astronomers suspect the existence of a planet beyond Pluto (tentatively named Persephone but
as yet undetected) roughly 5 times the Earth’s size, 100 a.u. distant from the Sun and orbiting the Sun once in
more than 1000 years.

APOGEE & PERIGEE : Apogee (Aphelion with reference to solar orbits) is the point in the elliptical orbit at
which the orbiting body is at its farthest distance from the body around which it orbits. Perigee (Perihelion with
reference to solar orbits) refers to that point where the orbiting body is closest to the body around which it
orbits. For example, in the case of an artificial satellite moving in an elliptical orbit around the Earth, its distance
from the Earth would fluctuate during each orbit from a maximum at apogee to a minimum at perigee.

METEOROIDS : Meteoroids are tiny particles of matter floating in space.

NEBULA : A nebula (Plural : nebulae or nebulas) is a vast cloud of gas and dust floating in space. Nebulae are
usually detected in the night sky as bright or dark patches against the background of stars.

BODE’S LAW : Bode’s Law, also known as Titus-Bode Law, relates to a unique empirical formula postulated by
German astronomer J. Titus which apparently predicted the approximate distances of the then-known planets
from the Sun in astronomical units. The law correctly predicted the existence of Uranus and its distance from the
Sun even before the planet Uranus was discovered. However, the law was rather off the mark in its predictions
about Neptune and Pluto. Astronomers feel that the accuracy of the Titus-Bode Law may be no more than a
remarkable coincidence.

TRANSITS OF INFERIOR PLANETS : Sometimes, Mercury or Venus comes directly between the earth and the
Sun. They are, however, too small to cause an eclipse of the Sun but can be seen as black dots on the surface of
the Sun when viewed through a dark glass. Such an event is called a transit.

METEORS : Sometimes meteoroids fall on earth but burn due to the heat of friction when falling through the
Earth’s atmosphere. They are then known as meteors or shooting stars. Meteors are visible in the night sky as
short-lived bright streaks.

NAVAGRAHAS : The “Navagrahas” refer to the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu and
Ketu. Rahu and Ketu are imaginary objects responsible respectively for solar and lunar eclipses.

MORNING AND EVENING STARS : Mercury and Venus, due to their inferior orbits, always appear close to the
Sun and are difficult to see except in the twilight hours. Mercury and Venus are sometimes referred to as
“Morning Star” and “Evening Star”. However, they are really not stars but planets.
CONJUNCTION OF INFERIOR PLANETS : When Mercury or Venus is in line with the Sun and the Earth it is
called a conjunction. If the planet comes between the Sun and the Earth it is called an inferior conjunction. It is
obvious that a transit coincides with an inferior conjunction. On the other hand, if the Sun comes between a
planet and the Earth it is called a superior conjunction. In a superior conjunction the planet is temporarily hidden
by the Sun.
D

W S E
A
Y C

Planetary conjunctions
S represents the Sun and E the Earth. When the inner (or inferior) planet is at W, it is said to be at superior
conjunction; position Y represents inferior conjunction; position X, greatest elongation east (i.e. the angle
between the Sun and the planet, as seen from Earth, is a maximum, with the planet apparently on the east side of
the Sun and visible in the evening sky); and position Z, greatest elongation west.
For the outer (or superior) planet, position A denotes that the planet is at superior conjunction; position C
represents opposition; and positions B and D denote quadrature (at these positions the angle Sun-Earth-planet is
a right angle and the apparent phase of the planet is most obvious).

SHADOW TRANSIT : As the Sun’s light hits a satellite is produces a shadow. Sometimes, the shadow passes
across the surface of the satellite’s planet and is referred as a shadow transit.

METEORITES : Meteors usually completely burn up before reaching the Earth’s surface. In some cases, where
the meteor is large, the burning is incomplete and a residual piece called a meteorite falls on the Earth.

SATELLITE TRANSIT : When a satellite of a planet comes between the Earth and the planet, the event is called a
satellite transit. For example, if a satellite of Jupiter is in transit, it can be seen with a telescope as a dark dot on
the brighter disc of the planet.

SUN GRAZERS AND EARTH GRAZERS : These is a small number of asteroids with highly elliptical orbits in
relation to the Earth or the Sun, known as Earth Grazers and Sun Grazers, respectively. The notable example is
the asteroid Icarus discovered in 1949 which is about 1.5 km in diameter and whose highly elliptical orbit takes
it from an aphelion position beyond the orbit of Mars to a perihelion position within 28 million km of the Sun
(less than half the mean distance of Mercury from the Sun). Hermes, an asteroid less than 1 km in diameter,
occasionally approaches the Earth within twice the Moon’s distance from Earth. Another asteroid Eros can
approach the Earth within 23 million km.

VULCAN : Vulcan was an imaginary planet never detected from Earth, but postulated by some astronomers to
account for perturbations in the orbits of Mercury.

CAMALI : In 1877 Italian astronomer G.V. Schiaparelli reported sighting a network of “Canali” (“Channels” in
Latin) on Mars, but it was wrongly translated as “Canals” in English implying that the phenomenon is artificial.
The canals of Mars in fact only a natural phenomenon.

One of Schiaparelli’s drawings of Mars, showing “Canali”