Thursday, March 17, 2016

What We’ve Learned About Pluto

Ellie Briskin AP Bio C Even
March 17, 2016 Current Event 15


This article tells of Nasa’s most recent discoveries on the planet of Pluto. It mostly summarizes the findings of NASA’s New Horizon’s spacecraft from eight months ago, whose findings were published last Thursday in the journal Science. It talks about the planet’s composition (frozen nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide), and how the New Horizon’s mission altered our perspective on what the planet looks like. Before, scientists expected to see a boring cratered ball, something geographically fairly bland. But now, they see that Pluto actually has a huge variety of landscapes, from soaring mountains to flat plains. They also found evidence of what could be an ice volcano in a mountain named Wright Mons, which rises two miles, spans 90 miles across, and has a hole at the center. It also discussed Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, which is made just of water ice and has a 600-mile long gash longer than the Grand Canyon. It also talks about how the four small moons of Pluto turned out to be brighter, smaller, and quicker than expected, and how the upper atmosphere of Pluto is much colder than expected. Up next, the scientists focusing on other areas, thinking that the next opportunity for scientists to get another close look could be decades away.
I was initially drawn in with this article because I find the topic of space exploration extremely intriguing. I think it is beyond impressive that we are able to study Pluto and other constructs millions of miles away, and even imagine what it’s like beyond our planet. But more than that, this discovery is definitely still relevant to people today. For starters, the fact that we are just now discovering so much about the dwarf planet proves that no progress in any field is ever truly completed, and that development in all areas is always possible. But more than that, it could lead to the possibility of discovering new forms of life in outer space! This is incredible, and would most definitely affect everyone on earth’s lives. It would open up an entire new enormous field of study, for we would of course need to try to communicate with them, or possibly defend against them if they are a threat, or many other things.

Overall, I was impressed by the presentation of this article. Its paragraphs flowed and were ordered in a way that made sense, making it extremely easy for me to follow along. I also felt that it was strengthened by the substantial number of expert quotes, which legitimized the arguments. I also enjoyed the fun, conversational tone that the author used; this was not only easy to understand but also kept me, the reader, captive. However, the one criticism I have of the article is that it was fairly minimalist, to the point of not having enough information. Although some find this better and most manageable, it left me with many questions and just confuses many readers. I would suggest that the author synthesises his information better, not just condensing what he has but really sifting through what is important and what is not, while still maintaining a logical flow. But overall, I thought this article was very well put together, and maintained my interest throughout.

7 comments:

  1. Ellie,
    I was initially drawn to your piece because of its discussion of Pluto, the dwarf planet. Your review was put together well, coherent, and an easy read. I felt no trouble following with the ideas you presented so it was easy to read. Also nice incorporation of examples of “soaring mountains to flat plains” rather than just saying Pluto has various landscapes. The small details you scattered around in your piece was nice as it allows the reader to get a more than just a glimpse of your article.
    Overall good piece. A minor error was referencing to Pluto as a planet, because as of 2003 Pluto was deemed a dwarf planet rather than a planet. Although it’s almost redundant to add dwarf before planet when discussing Pluto, it is important scientifically. Another source of improvement may be integrating some of the expert opinions that were heavily involved in this wealth of information about Pluto. Quote integration, although this is a summary, would make your piece stronger.
    I’m not exactly sure what type of impression this piece left me. I felt the article you read was simply stating all the facts that scientists know concerning Pluto rather than any real significant discovery. However, you rightfully noted that these findings just prove how impressive science is to allow us to make these observations and discoveries of something so far away. Science isn’t something to take lightly, it is a field built heavily upon innovation and discovery.

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  3. Ellie’s article review was a pleasure to read. Firstly, her article summary in the first paragraph was very concise and effective, presenting a detailed overview of the article. This helped me learn a lot about NASA’s new findings about Pluto. Also, I think that her criticism of the article was very well said. I agree that while it is important to keep the audience engaged through a conversational tone, the author should have included more scientific details. Lastly, her connection with the research and the possibility of finding extraterrestrial life forms in outer space was very intriguing. I would not have made the connection without the creative insight that Ellie provided.
    Although Ellie’s review was very informative, there could have been a few improvements. For example, she could have directly quoted the article and experts mentioned in the article in her summary. Adding such details would have provided factual details and established credibility. Another aspect she could have improved is that she could have given a few examples of the experts that the article mentioned. If she described their occupations and why the specific individuals added credibility to the article in the last paragraph, it would have provided a more detailed and interesting perspective.
    My learning experience from this article review was very positive and informative. I chose this article review, because like Ellie, the topic of space exploration very interesting. Pluto’s terrain and moons also seems like the type of research that scientists will build upon in the future to achieve even greater things. Although I may not have thought much about Pluto or its geography in the past, this new information changed my perception of space and opened my eyes to the the dynamic features that each planet in the world may have. This is a very exciting prospect and I will continue to look out for further research on such topics while keeping up with the news.

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  4. Ellie,
    I enjoyed reading your review of the article: “What we’ve learned about Pluto" by Kenneth Chang. This article is a very good choice because the study of space and planets is constantly changing and astronomers are discovering new things that can lead to more information about our world and how it was formed. I liked how you included the specific new information scientists came across when Horizon passed pluto and its moons. I also liked how you specifically cited how this new information changed our previous knowledge or hypothesis about Pluto including temperature and geographic complexity. I also thought you did a very good job at summarizing all of the details in the article and including numerous facts and statistics making your review more detailed, and credible. This review was overall very well written and thought out and I thought you did a good job at displaying your thoughts in a descriptive yet concise manner.
    I felt that the primary problem with your review was in your relevance paragraph. You had many good points but I feel like you only skimmed the surface on the relevance to humanity. You also mentioned that it was relevant because of our search for Alien life which I found far fetched. I would have at least liked some description about how this connection exists. I think you could have connected it to the development of our solar system or the earth and how Pluto’s new found geography will tell us more about the events after the big bang. All of the information that was provided told us that it was modified but not as much specifically how and why. Another aspect that was detrimental to your review was that you had a lack of specific quotes from scientists. You mentioned in your analysis that many scientists were quoted in the article which you liked but you failed to add this to your review which would have added more detail and credibility to it.
    Overall I really enjoyed reading your review and was especially interested by this topic because I think it is cool that we can examine something so far away and it is really intriguing to learn how much more we have to learn about space. To me, one of the most interesting pieces of information in this review was how wrong scientists were about the planet until now with beliefs that Pluto has no geographic features only to find giant mountains and volcanoes. whole concept in general.

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  5. Elle great job! I thought that you picked a very interesting article! I think that you did a great job in your summary in the first paragraph. There was just enough information to help me give me a clear understanding. I also really enjoyed how you put in the new information in your article. After you did that you explained how it affected the previous knowledge that we had on the planets. I thought this was very helpful for me. I also like the details that you included into your article. I think that this helped me get a better understanding of everything and helped me enjoy the article more.
    I loved your article but I think that you could have added some direct quotes from the article. This really helps your review stand out when you do that. It also would have been helpful if she included some of the experts that the article mentioned. I think that that would have been helpful if she included some details about it.
    I think this just shows how a lot of the time we are wrong in the science world until new information comes along. I think it is so interesting that we can learn so much about something that is so far away from us. I love space and that is initially what drew me to this article and I am glad I read it and learned so much.

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  6. This was a very fascinating article. I thought that you effectively summarized the findings that were recently published by NASA. You did a good job explaining how Pluto is very different from the view that people typically have of it. I also appreciate how you discussed the findings that concerned Pluto's moons. That was a nice bonus.

    Your analysis of the article could have been more informing if you compared the findings to other space probes that had similar roles. You also could have discussed other similarly sized bodies such as Eris and what NASA's plan for them would be.

    I was very surprised that Charon was made of ice. Finding another source of water in such an immense scale leads me to believe that at some point in the distant future we may actually have uses for that water as we run out on Earth

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  7. I enjoyed reading your review of the article: “What we’ve learned about Pluto" by Kenneth Chang. There was just enough information to help me give me a clear understanding. I also liked how you specifically cited how this new information changed our previous knowledge or hypothesis about Pluto including temperature and geographic complexity. Lastly, her connection with the research and the possibility of finding extraterrestrial life forms in outer space was very intriguing. A minor error was referencing to Pluto as a planet, because as of 2003 Pluto was deemed a dwarf planet rather than a planet. You also could have discussed other similarly sized bodies such as Eris and what NASA's plan for them would be. I chose this article because I have always been quite interested in the study of space and all it encompasses, and I’m also currently watching the Netflix series “Cosmos,” with Neil DeGrasse-Tyson, which explores ideas relevant to those presented in this article.

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