Wednesday, October 20, 2021

An Arc of Galaxies 3 Billion Light-Years Long May Challenge Cosmology

Paris Zhang

Mr.Ippolito

10/14/2021

Current Event Review 5 

Grossman, Lisa. “An Arc of Galaxies 3 Billion Light-Years Long May Challenge Cosmology.” Science News, 11 June 2021, https://www.sciencenews.org/article/galaxy-giant-arc-3-billion-light-years-long-cosmology-space.

In the article “An arc of galaxies 3 billion light-years long may challenge cosmology” by Lisa Grossman, it discusses the new discovery of the arc of galaxies that may invalidate many concepts in cosmology.  It mainly challenges this one: “If the arc turns out to be real, it would challenge a bedrock assumption of cosmology: that on large scales, matter in the universe is evenly distributed no matter where you look.” (Grossman).  Experts have named it “The Giant Arc” due to its tremendous size.  Three tests have been given to confirm if the arc really exists, and the results most likely suggest that it does, but further observations would have to be made to find out.  The possibility of the arc turning out to be a statistical fluke is less than 0.00003%.  This discovery strongly defies the model that claims, “when you look at large enough volumes of space — above about 1 billion light-years — matter is distributed evenly.” (Grossman).  

The discovery would make a huge impact on the society because of how it challenges the fundamental concepts of cosmology.  It is mind-blowing to think that the history of cosmology might have to be rewritten.  Humans still don’t know a lot about the universe, so this could possibly become a huge step that we make in the field of astronomy.  In the future, there could be more arcs of galaxies discovered in the universe that also support the theory.  Based on this theory, scientists will conduct more research and observations to verify it.  

The strengths of this article is that it is straightforward and it includes observations and quotes from experts.  It’s specific in time and quantitative data.  A weakness is that there is no explanation as to what would instead be proven true by this finding.  It only says that the original idea of cosmology will be overthrown, but doesn’t explain what would take its place.  To improve, the author should use their background knowledge to predict or just analyze how would this finding advance cosmology.  Overall, I enjoyed reading this article and it was fascinating to think about where humans are with exploring astronomy. 

5 comments:

  1. Madeleine Brandes
    Mr.Ippolito
    10/14/2021
    Current Event Review 5
    Grossman, Lisa. “An Arc of Galaxies 3 Billion Light-Years Long May Challenge Cosmology.” Science News, 11 June 2021, https://www.sciencenews.org/article/galaxy-giant-arc-3-billion-light-years-long-cosmology-space.
    The review by Paris Zhang on the article “An Arc of Galaxies 3 Billion Light-Years Long May Challenge Cosmology” was well written. She discussed in depth how the new discovery of the arc of galaxies would make a huge impact on society. She explains that the history of cosmetology may have to be re-written. Another strength in the review was the direct evidence quoted from the article. Paris included an important quote that included a statistic as well. Lastly, Paris did an excellent job at portraying the importance of the discovery and keeping the reader engaged, by using phrases such as, “mind blowing” and “fascinating”.
    Some weaknesses in the review would be the lack of explanation of the evidence, and the lack of a summary as well. Although there were strong pieces of evidence included in the review, they were not explained so they were hard to understand. For the summary, there was no background information for the article so it was hard to get what the review was really talking about if you don’t know much about the “arc of galaxies”. The actual concept discovered was not explained as to what it is.
    I learned that there actually is such a thing as an arc of galaxies. This is fascinating to me and I will research more about it, because it is such a big deal. This definitely was a good review to pick because it could be history in the making.

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  2. Alexander Dallendorfer
    10/20/21
    Current Event 5
    Author: Paris Zhang

    The review of the article “An Arc of Galaxies 3 Billion Light-Years Long May Challenge Cosmology'' by Lisa Grossman and published by Science News was able to convey the main message of the article along with plenty of other facts. The author managed to put in facts and evidence from the original article which was very important in conveying the article's information. The author also managed to leave an impact on the reader.
    One thing that could be improved is by having some more direct quotes from the original article in the review.
    I feel like the review definitely made me more interested in cosmology and I will definitely continue reading up on this topic

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  3. James Halley
    October 21st, 2021
    Mr. Ippolito
    Current Event 5
    Core Chemistry

    Grossman, Lisa. “An Arc of Galaxies 3 Billion Light-Years Long May Challenge Cosmology.” Science News, 11 June 2021, https://www.sciencenews.org/article/galaxy-giant-arc-3-billion-light-years-long-cosmology-space.

    My Critique:

    I thought this article that Paris critiqued was very interesting as well as her review. The arc of galaxies and the fact that what we know about cosmetology today might be re-written because of this event is super interesting. She really got across to the reader how important this event was with words like “mind blowing”,“huge step” and phrases like “the history of cosmology might be re-written”. She also did a good job of incorporating quotes from the article and putting them in the right places and the right time.
    This event is important because it could indefinitely change a whole, major sector of science as we know it today if it is proven to be true. Which in turn would end up affecting other branches of science and perhaps changing and expanding the horizons for future knowledge and unlocking a whole new universe that will allow for major, important discoveries.
    Paris’s Summary was fantastic. Concise, articulate and informative. I really liked how she shared her own issues with the article. One suggestion I have would be to perhaps expand on your issue a little more and offer your own theory. Other than that, interesting topic, fantastic review.

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  4. Konstantinos Koloutsos
    Mr. Ippolito
    Current Events Comment
    10/22/21

    https://www.sciencenews.org/article/galaxy-giant-arc-3-billion-light-years-long-cosmology-space
    Grossman, Lisa. “An Arc of Galaxies 3 Billion Light-Years Long May Challenge Cosmology.” Science News, 11 June 2021, www.sciencenews.org/article/galaxy-giant-arc-3-billion-light-years-long-cosmology-space. Accessed Oct 21, 2021.
    I enjoyed reading Paris’Prais’ review on “An arc of galaxies 3 billion lightyears long may challenge cosmology” by Lisa Grossman; it was very well written. One thing that Paris was very good at doing was using statistics from the article; this made the review far more interesting. By using data and statistics in her review, Paris was able to bring the reader in and show her understanding of the topic that she chose. Another thing that Paris did that made this review good was using quotes from the article quotes from experts on this topic. The use of quotes from experts made this review much more professional and added to the understanding of the topic. Lastly, Paris was concise while still getting her point across; the review was very straightforward and right to the point, making it easy for the reader to follow along. By making the review concise, the reader could stay interested and understand what was being read.
    Although this review was very well written, some areas of the review could have been written better. For example, for Paris’ second paragraph, there was very little on how this discovery challenges what we know and how we will use this to further our understanding. The article would sound much more sophisticated by inputting more information about how this will affect us, maybe even in the long run of space travel and space in general. Another thing that could have been improved was going more in-depth and explaining the quotes. In her first paragraph, Paris uses quotes to explain how the arc defies the cosmetology known today; however, she does not explain how observing billions of lightyears away plays into this. Although her final quote in the final paragraph touches upon this, Paris does not break down the quote and explain it. Explaining the quote would make this review much better and help the reader understand the topic more.
    I enjoyed reading this review because I have always been interested in space and the study of phenomena in space. I like how discoveries challenge the theories and data we have already collected. Reading this review gave me more knowledge on the study of space and cosmetology. I chose this review to read because it looked like it went in-depth, and for the most part, it did. This review gave facts and statistics so that I could follow along and fully understand the review.

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  5. Simon Mueller
    Mr.Ippolito
    10/14/2021
    Current Event Review 5
    Grossman, Lisa. “An Arc of Galaxies 3 Billion Light-Years Long May Challenge Cosmology.” Science News, 11 June 2021, https://www.sciencenews.org/article/galaxy-giant-arc-3-billion-light-years-long-cosmology-space
    Paris Zhang's review on the article “An Arc of Galaxies 3 Billion Light-Years Long May Challenge Cosmology” was very detailed and well written. She explained in detail her claim and she explained that the history of cosmetology may have to be re-written and may be out of date. Another part in Paris’ review that was strong was the evidence she had to support her claim and explain in detail. Another thing Paris did well was using statistics from the article which made the review more interesting. By using data and statistics in her review, she showed how important this topic may be in the future. Some weaknesses in the review would be the lack of a summary. There was no background information for the article so it was hard to get what the review was really talking about if you don’t know much about the topic already and may be hard to follow. Another thing that could have been improved was going more in-depth and explaining the quotes. She explained her claim, but she didn’t go into detail about her quotes from the article. I learned that there actually is such a thing as an arc of galaxies. This is very interesting to me and I feel that this topic will be very important in the future. I was very interested in Paris’ review and the article.

    ReplyDelete