The article “Astronomers Find Biggest Black Holes Yet” describes how scientists have recently discovered at least two black holes that are much more massive than any black hole previously recorded. Black holes are areas of space where gravity is so intense that light can not escape. The first black hole, NGC 4889, weighs as much as 21 billion suns and is 336 million light years away. The second, NGC 1367, weighs 9.7 billion suns and is 331 million light years away.
Besides being record-breaking black holes, these black holes could be the key to some of science’s unsolved questions. Recent data has shown that massive black holes are at the center of galaxies and the bigger the galaxy is the bigger the black hole is. Scientists believe that these black holes could help us to understand the evolution of galaxies and how these black holes got to be so big. Scientists also believe that these black holes are the gravitational cornerstones of the universe and help to center each galaxy.
Currently a group of astronomers located in Hawaii led by Mr. McConnell are weighing the black holes in the centers of galaxies by measuring the velocities of stars around them. The faster the stars travel the more gravity and therefore mass is needed to keep them in orbit. McConnell and his team plan to keep looking for bigger black holes in the hopes of understanding more about the formation of galaxies.
Overall I thought that this article did a very good job of explaining how black holes work and what there implications for the future are. This article also provided solid evidence for how these measurements were made and who made them. One thing I wish the author had done is say what research is going to be done in the future to further investigate these black holes.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/06/science/space/astronomers-find-biggest-black-holes-yet.html?src=me&ref=science
I thought Ben's review of “Astronomers Find Biggest Black Holes Yet" was very interesting and informative. I barely knew anything about black holes before I read this article and now have a good understanding of the concept. Ben did a good job of first explaining what a black hole was before he went into further detail with the experiment. In addition, Ben cleverly explained why these newly discovered black holes are important to understand. Also, Ben went into further detail with explaining further research on black holes.
ReplyDeleteThis review was very well written, however, it lacked some details. Since this article was about two newly discovered black holes,I would have liked to have known what would happen if two black holes intercepted each other. In addition, I would have liked to have known how the scientists discovered these black holes.
Since I didn't know a lot about black holes, I learned a lot from this review. I now know that black holes are areas in which light cannot escape and that each black hole comes with its own galaxy.
Ben gave a very concise and informative article review of, “Astronomers Find Biggest Black Holes Yet.” Ben was able to review Dennis Overbye’s article that covers such a huge issue in a matter of short paragraphs—this is no easy task. Ben also gives the reader an up to date report of what studies astronomers are conducting. Further, he sufficiently gives a good explanation of why, beyond their behemoth size, black holes are so important. I think that is crucial to an effective review.
ReplyDeleteThough Ben’s simple explanation of black holes is easy to understand, I feel he was a bit too terse to only give two sentences on the background of what black holes are. I understand that they are mysterious parts of our universe, but, in my opinion, the two sentences in the introduction do not do them justice. Also, it would be very interesting to find out the past discoveries made by McConnell and his team to give the article more credibility.
Overall, I found Ben to have done a great job and chose a very interesting article. I am always interested to find out about the world beyond our little planet. I was unaware that such enormous black holes have been found and I am very excited to see what the future brings in terms of this ‘final frontier.’
Ben's review about this article regarding black holes was informative. Prior to explaining the details of the recently discovered black holes, Ben defined black holes in simple language. This made the review easy to follow. Ben provided the sizes and distances of each black hole. He also went into further detail about the impacts that these findings will have on science, for example how black holes such as these are believed to be a sort of gravitational anchor which help to center the galaxy which they are surrounded by.
ReplyDeleteThough I enjoyed Ben's review, it was a little short. Being that black holes are such a complex topic and these findings are important, I felt that the review was somewhat brief and could have provided the reader with some more details. In addition, Ben did not include quotes by Mr. McConnell, which I feel would have strengthened his review by giving it some credibility.
Overall Ben did an excellent job reviewing this article. The implications of these findings were explained in a concise manner. I hope to see Mr. McConnell and his team making new discoveries about the evolution of black holes in the future.
The first thing I like about Ben’s article review is that he explains what a black hole is. For a lot of people, including myself, black holes are something that we have heard of, but do not understand. His explanation immediately helps clear things up. I also think Ben does a good job of telling the reader about the black holes. He says how large each black hole, and how far away they are from earth. This information makes it possible for the reader to understand that size of the black holes. I think
ReplyDeleteBen’s paragraph on how this discovery will affect our lives is very well done. At first glance the discovery of black holes would seem to be cool, but relatively insignificant. Ben shows the reader, however, that these black holes will allow us to learn more about the galaxy, and the way if works.
One thing I did not like about Ben’s review is how short it is. I think that he could have talked more about the black holes. He does not say how they were discovered, how much bigger they are then the previous largest black holes, and how big they truly are. I also think that ben could have done a better job of critiquing the article. His critique is extremely brief. It does not say much about how good the article is, and does not give me a better understanding of the contents worth.
The most interesting fact from the article is that black holes may anchor our galaxy. In many cases people view black holes as large destructive forces, which they are. I never would have thought that black holes are one of the major forces that hold the universe, and galaxies together.
What I liked best about Ben’s review was that he immediately explained exactly what a black hole was and why it was so relevant to us. Without this information the review would have been difficult to understand and insufficient in judging the article. Ben then does a good job at linking the general information about black holes to those specific to the article. He is able to easily allow the reader to understand just how large the black holes are as well as how close they are to Earth in relation to other holes. Additionally Ben is able to directly address why this article is interesting and relevant to the average person and should be something to pay attention to.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I didn’t enjoy about the review was that Ben seemed to less review the article and more just summarize and explain what the article was about. Although this was entertaining and helpful to truly understanding the article I felt that it wasn’t the point of the review and perhaps limited the section as a whole. This situation probably took place because the length of the review, which limited both the understanding of the article and the ability to get an adequate review.
The most interesting thing about the article was that the black holes may be, rather than a force that could potentially destroy us, are actually keeping our galaxy together. This easily changed my perspective of the black holes entirely.
Overall, Ben’s review of the article, “Astronomers Find Biggest Black Holes Yet,” was very good. First, Ben explained what a Black Hole was, and how they are so heavy that light cannot escape them. Next, he went on to explain how at the centers of galaxies are the largest black holes which presumably are what held galaxies together in the first place. Third, Ben did a good job of pointing out how the author of the article could have gone into further depth about the future of the research on black holes. However, one thing Ben could have done better would be to explain even more what black holes are and how they are created. Also, Ben could have gone further into how the researchers are capable of measuring the speeds of stars nearby these black holes in order to calculate how large they are. Nonetheless, one thing that I found very interesting is the fact that some black holes at the centers of galaxies could way up to 21 billion suns.
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