'Death Star' Moon May Hide a Buried Ocean
Lemonick, Michael D. "'Death Star' Moon May Hide a Buried Ocean." National Geographic. National Geographic, 16 Oct. 2014. Web. 22 Nov 1. 2014. <http%3A%2F%2Fnews.nationalgeographic.com%2Fnews%2F2014%2F10%2F141016-space-death-star-moon-mimas-ocean%2F>.
The article, “’Death Star’ Moon May Hide a Buried Ocean,” talks about the new plausible interpretation on Mimas’ wobble. Mimas is one of Saturn’s many moons that has a large wobble in its orbit. Many scientists were curious as to why this occurs. They first looked at the giant Herschel impact crater on the surface of the moon for an explanation. They theorized when an asteroid hit, the remains under the impact crater made Mimas more massive on one side, which would explain the wobble. Unfortunately, they realized this would have permanently reoriented Mimas, so the idea of an asteroid and crater having to do with the wobble was rejected. Their next theory was that there could be a subsurface sea between the core and the surface. If this is true, it would explain why Mimas wobbles. Since it is moving while orbiting, the water would move as well resulting in the moon wobbling. Although this is not proved, this is the most realistic explanation for the wobble so far.
If Mimas has a subsurface sea, it could provide an environment for life to exist. Although it is not ensured, it at least raises the possibility. Now that we have knowledge of another moon with a potential subsurface sea, scientists can use this to find ways to move life there if the conditions are safe enough, as well as find whether life exists there already. This would be an important scientific discovery and could save humans if Earth were to become dangerous to live on. I am personally very curious as to what scientists discover or learn after establishing this theory of the subsurface sea. This can lead to finding other moons with a wobble like Mimas, along with Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Enceladus, and Titan.
This article was well written, but it was hard to understand at times. It made sense after I read it a couple times. I was confused at first on how the wobble could lead to the explanations, but soon after rereading I understood. Although some parts were hard to understand, the author, Michael D. Lemonick, did a thorough job on explaining some concepts. For instance, he used a scientist’s model of a hard-boiled egg and a raw egg spinning to help readers picture how the subsurface sea could make the moon wobble. In addition, the author did a great job of telling readers what this new theory can mean for the future. This helped the article be relevant to my life along with many other readers and made me excited about this topic!
Hannah's review of the article, "Death Star Moon may Hide a Buried Ocean", was a strong piece overall. It was written with good sentence structure and vocabulary, her ideas were fluid and thoughtful, and she included great facts. Her work was enjoyable to read, and I saw almost no grammatical errors. All of Hannah's ideas were connected, and they read in a logical order. Hannah also did a great job at connecting the article back to the reader and putting it's significance into context with our own lives. From this very well done review, I also learned a lot. Before reading this article, I didn't know planets could wobble when orbiting, and it's really interesting to learn that they actually can, and some do. I also was very intrigued to learn that if this theory of a subsurface sea is true, then life on Mimas could be a possibility. The idea of life on a another planet is crazy, and Hannah did a good job addressing that. However, one thing she could improve on, is that she didn't give very much background information. Since most readers dont know a lot about the topic prior to reading this article, Hannah could have talked more about what evidence scientists have and what additional theories are being looked at.
ReplyDeleteHadley Barr
ReplyDeleteNovember 22nd, 2014
Current Event 8
Overall, Hannah did a fantastic job on this review! I was very impressed with the language in which Hannah used to summarize this article. I feel that she used nice vocabulary that helped to give the reader a better idea of what she was talking about. I also think that overall, Hannah's summary paragraph was well written. I was able to learn quite a bit about what the article was about by just a short description. It was very interesting to read as well. I think that she made a great point in her second paragraph by noting that if Mimas has a subsurface sea, it could support life. This means a great deal in the astronomy world!
I think that Hannah could’ve added a quote into her summary paragraph. I feel that a quote would add a little more legitimacy to her review, making the reader feel like this article was more reliable. I think this review could've been better if she had elaborated more on the critic of the author. I found this paragraph (paragraph three) to be a little vague. Otherwise, I think Hannah did a great job!
Hannah's review taught me that it is not the most usual thing for a moon to have a wobble in its orbit. I didn't even know there was such thing as an orbit to have a wobble before reading this review.