Sunday, December 7, 2014

"Stunning Snapshot Shows Birth of Alien Solar System"

                                                                                                                                                     
Fazekas, Andrew. "Stunning Snapshot Shows Birth of Alien Solar System." National Geographic. National Geographic Society, 06 Nov. 2014. Web. 07 Dec. 2014. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/11/141106-starstruck-protoplanetary-disk-exoplanet-science/
The article I read was about the image of the birth of a new solar system. The picture of this alien solar system was captured by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or ALMA. The high-resolution capabilities of ALMA allow scientists to observe the birth of this solar system in a way that was never before possible, leading to the gain of lots of new information about solar systems and planets throughout space. One thing that scientists were able to observe- and had never seen before- was the rings separated by gaps in the dust disk. Astronomers believe that planets are beginning to form in these gaps between the rings around the sun-like star in the middle, HL Tau. However, it is strange that planets are forming around this particular star as HL Tau is no more than 1 million years old, and young stars don’t usually have planets to produce the structures seen in the image taken. The article next described the dust disk and the planet-forming process. Over time a disk of dust and rocks forms around a newly-born star. Within the disk planets begin to form and collect debris clearing its orbit around the star. At the same time the planets gravitationally capture the remaining debris into tight rings around its orbit. This explains the rings and gaps seen in the image taken by ALMA. Finally the article talked about seeing this yourself. HL Tau, along with its protoplanetary disk, is hidden behind clouds and dust making it unable to see through the naked eye. However planets are forming in the Great Orion Nebula as well, and with binoculars or a telescope you are able to see the fluorescent cloud of dust and gas.
This discovery is definitely relevant and significant. This image helps us better understand the process in which solar systems are created. With this very detailed image we can comprehend not only how planets throughout the universe form, but how our solar system formed. It is important for us to understand where we live, and part of understanding where we live is recognizing how where we live was created. With this information we will also be able to learn more about other solar systems and planets throughout the universe and compare them to our solar system. This image has opened many doors for scientists and our knowledge of solar systems.
            Overall I enjoyed reading this article and thought that it supplied a sufficient amount of information without making the article too long. The author of the article did a nice job making a confusing topic easy to understand through giving lots of detail and using vocabulary that the general population would understand instead of a bunch of scientific terms. The author included lots of quotes from experts and used factual information instead of opinions, so there was definitely enough evidence to back up all the author’s statements. However, I do wish that more background information about ALMA was included in the article like how it works and when it was built and whether this was the first time it was used or not. All in all, the article was informative and engaging.  

1 comment:

  1. Fazekas, Andrew. "Stunning Snapshot Shows Birth of Alien Solar System." National Geographic. National Geographic Society, 06 Nov. 2014. Web. 07 Dec. 2014.

    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/11/141106-starstruck-protoplanetary-disk-exoplanet-science/

    I review Maddie’s article on a new solar system being born. In the review Maddie did a good job of writing a good summary. The review informed me very well and I got a good grasp on the context. In the Review Maddie also did a good job of writing a critique that was purposeful. Not only did she say how to improve but she specifically stated the pros of the article. For example, she said that the author could have included more on the ALMA. One final good aspect of her article was that she wrote a good amount of information. She provided information on why this is important and that helped me to stay intrigued. The facts that this can help scientist discover the formation of earth really made me think.
    In the article Maddie could have written in a way that was easier to understand. I had to reread a few sentences and this did not help the flow. To improve this she could have broken some longer sentences in to multiple sentences. One last improvement Maddie could have made was making the article less like a list. I thought that the review was fact after fact. Although provided information was good it was confusing to me. To improve this she could have added more sentence starter like also, next, and for example.
    After reading this article I was amazed that we were able to discover such great information. I this will help us a lot in the future.

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