GRE Reading Comprehension
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Source: 93年
It is now established that the Milky Way is far more extended and of much greater mass than was hitherto thought. However, all that is visible of the constituents of the Milky Way's corona (outer edge), where much of the galaxy's mass must be located, is a tiny fraction of the corona's mass. Thus, most of the Milky Way's outlying matter must be dark.
Why? Three facts are salient. First, dwarf galaxies and globular clusters, into which most of the stars of the Milky Way's corona arc probably bound, consist mainly of old stars. Second, old stars are not highly luminous. Third, no one has detected in the corona the clouds of gaseous matter such as hydrogen and carbon monoxide that are characteristic of the bright parts of a galaxy. At present, therefore, the best explanation-though still quite tentative--for the darkness of the corona is that the corona is composed mainly of old, burned-out stars.
According to the passage, a bright part of a galaxy typically includes
- A dwarf galaxies and clusters of stars
- B a balanced mixture of old and new stars
- C a large portion of the galaxy's mass
- D part of the corona of the galaxy
- E gases such as hydrogen and carbon monoxide