Which Asian desert covers roughly 500,000 square miles of Mongolia and northern China?

What is the lowest commissioned officer rank in the U.S. Army? An article about which astronomer, born in Germany in 1571, is titled "The Man Who Moved the Universe"? Which American folk artist was born September 7, 1860, in Greenwich, New York, and died December 13, 1961, in Hoosick F… A nameless prototype of which cartoon character appeared in the 1938 cartoon "Porky's Hare Hunt"? Many adoption programs find homes for which dogs once they retire from racing? An assassin shot President William McKinley at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in which city? Which short word names a gathering of athletes for racing, as in "track ___" or "swim ___"? What is the general term for a fictitious name used by an author?