Charlie Gay
1/2/18
AP Biology
Mr. Ippolito
Current Events 12
Chang, Kenneth. “A Nearby Earth-Size Planet May Have Conditions for Life.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 15 Nov. 2017.
I really enjoyed reading the article “A Nearby Earth-Size Planet May Have Conditions for Life.” This article is about a planet that might be able to have life. This planet orbits around a star known as Ross 128. This star is 11 light years away from Earth. This Ross 128 planet is at least 1.35 times the mass of Earth. Scientists were able to find out information about this star by “using a telescope in Chile to measure wobbles in the wavelengths of light coming from the star.” There is a possibility of life on this planet because of how close it is to Ross 128. This planet is close enough to have liquid water. Dr. Bonfils said “Ross 128 appears to be at least five billion years old — older than our solar system — and perhaps as old as 10 billion years. The star may have been more turbulent in its youth.” This star is not nearly as hot as our sun but because the planet it so close it is able to remain warm.
This article is relevant because scientists are always looking for planets that support life. Although we are far away from inhabiting another planet, that is always one of the main goals. Further research can be done on this planet and life may be discovered. Information from this planet could help us find life on other planets. Although it is unlikely that there are little green aliens walking on this planet, it is still very exciting that there is a possibility of life. This planet could even teach us more about our own planet. Further experiments should occur to find more information about this planet immediately. This planet could possible even be a possible place for humans to inhabit many years in the future.
Although this article was very well written there are some things that they could have done better. I wish that they had further explained how they got the information about this planet rather than just saying that they used telescopes. I also wished they said how far they were into the research and whether or not any signs of life were found. However, this article does a great job of comparing this planet to Earth to give the readers an idea of what the planet is like. I also think that they did a great job of using simple language that is easy for all readers to understand. Overall, this is a great article.
Ellie Parson
ReplyDeleteMr. Ippolito
AP Biology
1/18/17
Citations:
Chang, Kenneth. “A Nearby Earth-Size Planet May Have Conditions for Life.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 15 Nov. 2017.
Gay, Charlie. “Current Events .” Review of New York Times. The New York Times , www.nytimes.com/2017/11/15/science/planet-ross-128.html?action=click&contentCollection=Science&module=RelatedCoverage®ion=EndOfArticle&pgtype=article.
Comment:
Charle Gay wrote an interesting review on “A Nearby Earth-Size Planet May Have Conditions for Life” In his summary, he quickly summarize the entire article, incorporating numerous quotes to support his explanation of how the scientists were able to acquire data to come to the conclusion that the planet could have life on it. Including quotes allows the reader to see exactly what is said in the article without scanning through the whole passage first. It also helps Gay build on the quote afterwards to add any additional information that relates to the quote. Another aspect well done in this review can be found in the connection to society Gay makes. Here, he successfully relates the importance of finding a planet similar to Earth with the fact that humans may be able to live on the planet. If something extremely destructive or dangerous happens on Earth, making the planet unfit for human life, humans may be able to relocate to the planet around Ross 128. This connection allows readers to understand how important the discovery is to the world of science, and future security of human life. Lastly, Gay points out in his critique that the author should have included more detail on how the scientists acquired their data, instead of lightly mentioning telescopes. Gay is correct- readers may lose interest or be left confused if the methods of the scientists, along with the data they acquired, is not stated in the article. Leaving readers’ questions unanswered is a unfortunate flaw.
Although Gay’s review was exceptional, there were a few places that could use improvement. For example, in his summary, Gay includes a part of a quote that mentions that the star Ross 128 may have been unstable when it was younger, but doesn’t build anything off of this part of the quote. Reader’s may be confused as to why the quote is included. To fix this error, Gay could wrote a few sentences explaining the significance of the star’s youth, or take out this part of the quote. Another part where there was room for improvement is in the connection to society. Here, Gay states “this planet could even teach us more about our own planet” (Gay, 1), but then doesn’t explain how this planet would help scientists learn more about Earth. A solution to this would be for Gay to explain how the planet could give scientists knowledge about Earth, and why that would be significant, as the information was coming from a different planet and not Earth.
From this article, I learned that scientists have been looking for planets that signify Earth for multiple reasons, such as to learn more about Earth, to look for places of possible life, etc. I am interested in learning about planets like the one surrounding Ross 128. Even though scientists may not be able to take humans to planets outside our solar system now, in the future it is a possibility that seems like it will most likely become reality. But in order for a planet to host the kind of life we are familiar with, it would have to meet many requirements, which shortens the options for where we may find it. If more research like this is taking place, I hope we will stumble upon a planet identical extremely similar to.