Explanation: A light year is a unit used to measure stellar or astronomical distances. It is defined as the distance that light travels in one year in a vacuum. Since light moves at a speed of about 3 × 10⁸ m/s, one light year equals approximately 9.46 × 10¹² km. It is commonly used to express distances between stars and galaxies because these distances are too large to be measured in kilometers or miles.

Explanation: The term "Ozone hole" does not mean an actual hole but refers to a significant decrease in the thickness of the ozone layer in the Earth's stratosphere. This thinning occurs mainly over the Antarctic region during spring (September–November) due to chemical reactions involving chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other ozone-depleting substances. These chemicals release chlorine and bromine atoms, which destroy ozone (O₃) molecules. The thinning allows more harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation to reach the Earth's surface, causing health and environmental hazards.

Explanation: Minamata disease was caused by severe mercury poisoning in the coastal city of Minamata, Japan. It resulted from the discharge of methyl mercury compounds into Minamata Bay by a chemical factory (Chisso Corporation) during the 1950s and 1960s. The toxic mercury accumulated in fish and shellfish, which were later consumed by local residents. Symptoms included numbness, muscle weakness, loss of vision, hearing and speech, paralysis, and in severe cases, death. This incident is one of the world’s worst cases of industrial pollution.

Explanation: The intensity of sound is measured in decibels (dB). The decibel is a logarithmic unit that expresses the ratio of a sound’s intensity compared to a reference level (usually the faintest sound the human ear can detect, known as the threshold of hearing). The higher the decibel value, the louder the sound. For example, normal conversation is around 60 dB, traffic noise is about 80–90 dB, and sounds above 120 dB can cause pain or hearing damage.

Explanation: Stars appear to twinkle at night due to the refraction of light by the Earth's atmosphere. As starlight passes through different layers of air with varying densities, its path bends continuously, causing the light’s intensity and position to appear to change, creating the twinkling effect.

Explanation: The weight of a person depends on the gravitational force exerted by a celestial body. The Moon’s gravity is only about 1/6th that of the Earth’s because it has much less mass and a smaller radius. Therefore, an object or person weighing 60 kg on Earth would weigh only about 10 kg on the Moon. Although mass remains constant everywhere, weight changes according to the local gravitational acceleration (g). Hence, lower gravity results in lower weight on the Moon.

Explanation: Among the given particles, the proton is the heaviest. A proton is a positively charged subatomic particle found in the nucleus of an atom, with a mass of approximately 1.672 × 10⁻²⁷ kg. Although the neutron is slightly heavier than a proton, in most general questions like this one, protons are considered heavier in context when compared with electrons and neutrinos. Electrons are much lighter, with a mass about 1/1836 that of a proton, while neutrinos are nearly massless and electrically neutral.