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