Rosetta: 100 Days for Comet-Chasing Mission to Wake-Up
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131011111111.htm
This article shares information about the comet chasing orbiter Rosetta. Before it gets into the details of Rosetta’s mission it explains what the importance of comets are, and that is they are the source of Earth’s water. It also explains how studying comets can help us realize how the solar system evolved. Rosetta was launched on March 2, 2004 and has been orbiting Earth and other planets since. In July 2011 Rosetta was detected near Jupiter, 800 million kilometers from the sun, and it was put into “deep-space hibernation”. Deep-space hibernation gives the orbiter a chance to keep stability and to absorb as much sunlight as possible. Ever since 2011 the orbiter and the comet it is following has been approaching the center of the solar system which means Rosetta can finally come out of hibernation and land on the comet. Scientists say that Rosetta is supposed to wake up on January 20th, 2014 at 10:00 GMT. But before it can land it has to send many signals back to Earth and various parts have to be checked. Once everything is working and scientists have received the signals they can start getting pictures and information which is expected the following May. If Rosetta is clear to land it can finally start sending information back to Earth.
Rosetta affects humanity because it will be the first time that anything has attempted to land on a comet. If it lands it can send panoramic pictures of its surroundings and it can perform many experiments finding out what comets are made of. Matt Taylor, one of ESA’s Rosetta project scientists says, “This unique science period will reveal the dynamic evolution of the nucleus as never seen before, allowing us to build up a thorough description of all aspects of the comet, its local environment and revealing how it changes even on a daily basis.” If Rosetta is able to come out of hibernation, next spring, a lot of information will be sent back to Earth. Some of the information includes, as stated in the article, “Rosetta will also make important measurements of the comet’s gravity, mass and shape, and will make an initial assessment of its gaseous, dust-laden atmosphere, or coma...and analyze how it interacts with the Sun’s outer atmosphere.” This shows how much beneficial information Rosetta can provide us with.
I thought this article was very informative but I wish it gave more information one what it has been doing in space for all this time. It explains how it went into hibernation in 2011 and how it photographed meteors in 2008 and 2010, but what was it doing from when it was launched till then? I also wish this article gave information of how much longer Rosetta is expected to be in space, because it hasn’t even landed and it’s been in space for almost 10 years and it isn’t even that close to the comet yet. One last thing that I didn’t like about the article was I actually found a spelling mistake, which made the whole article seem less professional to me.
My peer Nicole did a great job reviewing the science daily article, Rosetta: 100 Days for Comet-Chasing Mission to Wake-Up. One thing I think Nicole did especially well was giving a detailed layout of the entire article. By giving a road map of everything the article talked about, she gave a very detailed picture of everything the article was trying to convey. Another thing I think she did very well was giving a vivid timeline of the Rosetta and where it has been in the past few years. I think this really helped the reader understand the Rosetta and see what it has been up too. A final thing I think Nicole did particularly well was the connection to how the Rosetta affects us as a society. I think this paragraph really drove home the purpose of the Rosetta and made it clear why such scientific data collection is important.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I think Nicole could have improved upon was maybe the addition of more quotes from the article. Although she had some, a few more wouldn’t have hurt. Another thing Nicole could have developed was the explanation of how studying comets can help us realize how the solar system evolved. Despite mentioning it, she barely elaborated and I thought a more detailed description would have been nice.
From this article I learned all about the Rosetta orbiter that has been following a comet for the past few years. I previously had no knowledge of this and I found the whole article and Nicole’s review very interesting.
I really liked how Nicole mentioned how comets affect our environment. Before reading this review, I had no idea what impact they had. I also liked how she gave specific details about the Rosetta mission. For example, she mentioned the exact dates of the initial launch and proposed landing on the comet. She also discussed the specifics of what Rosetta would do when it was on the comet. Another thing I really liked was how she addressed terms that the average person would not understand. The definition and explanation of Deep Space Hibernation helped me grasp the topic quickly and efficiently.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that Nicole could possibly improve upon would be even further explanation of the nature of comets. I personally do not remember what defines a comet as opposed to a moon or a piece of space junk. I also wish that she could have been more specific about what types of signals Rosetta sends to earth and what that could potentially tell us. Overall though, it was a very strong review.
I think this article is very important because things in space affect our way of life on earth. For example, tides would not exist without the moon. As I learned today, comets have a similar effect on our natural world.
I read Nicole’s review for “Rosetta: 100 Days for Comet-Chasing Mission to Wake-Up”. I thought she did a great job in summarizing the article. After reading the original article, I thought it would be hard to cover everything, but I have to say, Nicole covered almost every important aspect I could remember. I also liked how Nicole related this story to humans. Humans have been trying to get information about comets through Rosetta for almost 10 years, and this spring, hopefully we will have it. Maybe understanding the materials that create comets will help scientists study more in depth about the topic. Another thing Nicole did very well was engaging the reader. I found that while reading the article review, I understood Nicole’s interpretation on the basis of the facts she was given in the article. It was interesting for me to interpret the article myself and then see that she felt similarly, but at the same time, differently.
ReplyDeleteI though Nicole’s article could have been improve by taking out minor repetition. There were a few spots where I noticed that Nicole repeated almost the same thing she stated only a few lines above! Though this did not dramatically take away from the point, it did detour me. I also thought that Nicole could have said more about the author’s style of writing. I know she comments about the spelling error, but I think the review could have been clearer with a better understanding of how informed the writer was.
I am very impressed by this whole Rosetta space machine. I am so impressed that it has been orbiting fro 10 years and that it is finally almost reaching the comet. I am excited to see the outcome of understanding the components of a comet. Though it may not have an impact on me, it will have a huge impact on the scientific world.