Amy Kwok
"Watery Asteroid Discovered in Dying Star Points to Habitable exoplanets." Watery Asteroid Discovered in Dying Star Points to Habitable Exoplanets. Escience, 10 Oct. 2013. Web.
http://esciencenews.com/articles/2013/10/10/watery.asteroid.discovered.dying.star.points.habitable.exoplanets
Located about 150 light years away, there was huge amounts of water located on the shattered remains of an asteroid orbiting a white dwarf. Although the white dwarf, called GD 61, and its planetary system is at the end of its life, it contains two key ingredients for habitable planets. Not only do they have water, they also have a rocky surface, just like Earth. The Earth originally had only 0.02% of its mass as surface water, so it was a dry planet until an asteroid filled with water crashed into the planet. Astronomers have discovered that the asteroid had similar water compositions as Ceres, the largest asteroid in our solar system. This led them to hypothesize that this solar system probably also had asteroids crash into planets and stars, very much like our solar system. This is the first evidence of a water-rich, rocky planetary material in any extrasolar planetary system. Since planets are formed from asteroids colliding with each other, asteroids are essentially the building blocks of planets. Finding water in a large asteroid means that the building blocks of habitable planets exists in the GD 61 system. The water most likely came from a minor planet orbiting GD 61 star around 200 million years ago, before it was a white dwarf. Before, astronomers haven't been able to observe the compositions of exoplanets, but they had been able to find the size and density. The only way to see what a distant planet is made of is to take it apart. That can be done with a dying white dwarf system because if it's powerful gravitational pull, which sucks in and shreds the surrounding material. Afterwards, they will be able to examine the composition from the debris. Now, they have found abundant elements of magnesium, silicon, and iron in the white dwarf's atmosphere. This shows the terrestrial part of the GD 61 system because those elements are the main components of rocks when in contact with oxygen.
This is very important because if we find out more about the GD 61 system, we can learn more about our own solar system because the two are pretty similar. Since our sun will eventually be a white dwarf, it can show us how our solar system will be after millions of years, when we are all gone. Not only can it help tell our future, it can help us examine our past and understand more about the bombardments of asteroids and the formations of planets. Since the two are similar, it is easier to compare them and help us come up with a more likely theory. With just the idea that the two systems are similar, researchers are able to form ideas that the GD 61 star originally had terrestrial planets and gas planets orbiting it. This brings to perspective how young our solar system really is. There is also the possibility that there are other systems like ours, and by finding about the asteroid filled with water, the idea of other habitable planets around the universe is more likely. This will help us understand more about the vast universe, especially since with our technology, we haven't gone past the point where we can see far away galaxies with the telescope. Lastly, it shows us how we are only a tiny speck of sand on a beach and that there are so many possibilities that can happen and so many other objects that we have never seen or heard of before.
This article was really interesting and really struck out to me. When I first read the title, I was already thinking how cool it was to have a watery asteroid, but as I read on, it also talked about rocky surfaces, and I found it so amazing to have an asteroid with those "features" on it. Also, the article contained a lot of quotes from researchers and astronomers, which I liked because it seems more factual, and I could see where the facts were coming from. One thing that I did not like about the article though was that the paragraphs were all a bit short and at some parts, it seemed a bit repetitive because they continuously talked about the components of the asteroid. Other else than that, I really enjoyed reading the article and found so many new and interesting facts that I would like to learn more about.
This review made me want to read the article and find out more about this topic. You did a very good job of highlighting and explaining important details without sounding boring or making the article sound boring. The fact that you explained terminology that might not be clear to everyone reading your review was very helpful. I liked your acknowledgement of the quotes of researchers and astronomers, because, like you said, it is nice to see where this information is actually coming from and who id doing the research. When it comes to the actual article and its information, I think it is really interesting how stars in the White Dwarf phase can show what the planets around it were made of. The fact that its gravitational pull pulls in debris and then astronomers get a hold of that debris and examine it is amazing. Also, it is pretty cool how asteroids can have water on them because of a nearby minor planet. If an asteroid can get something so important as water from a minor planet, what else can it get?
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed learning about this asteroid and the process astronomers and researchers went through. Seeing your thought process in the last paragraph was also something I appreciated. Overall, your review was informative and enlightening, so there is not much for me to suggest, however I would edit some sentence structure and grammar. Otherwise, your ideas were great and I really liked reading your review!