Maddie Pettit
11/9/14
Earth Science/C Block Even Mrs. McClellan                                                                                       Fazekas, Andrew. "Stunning Snapshot Shows Birth of Alien Solar System." National Geographic. National Geographic Society, 06 Nov. 2014. Web. 09 Nov. 2014. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/11/141106-starstruck-protoplanetary-disk-exoplanet-science/                                               

The article I read was about the image of the birth of a new solar system. The picture of this alien solar system was captured by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or ALMA. The high-resolution capabilities of ALMA allow scientists to observe the birth of this solar system in a way that was never before possible, leading to the gain of lots of new information about solar systems and planets throughout space. One thing that scientists were able to observe- and had never seen before- was the rings separated by gaps in the dust disk. Astronomers believe that planets are beginning to form in these gaps between the rings around the sun-like star in the middle, HL Tau. However, it is strange that planets are forming around this particular star as HL Tau is no more than 1 million years old, and young stars don’t usually have planets to produce the structures seen in the image taken. The article next described the dust disk and the planet-forming process. Over time a disk of dust and rocks forms around a newly-born star. Within the disk planets begin to form and collect debris clearing its orbit around the star. At the same time the planets gravitationally capture the remaining debris into tight rings around its orbit. This explains the rings and gaps seen in the image taken by ALMA. Finally the article talked about seeing this yourself. HL Tau, along with its protoplanetary disk, is hidden behind clouds and dust making it unable to see through the naked eye. However planets are forming in the Great Orion Nebula as well, and with binoculars or a telescope you are able to see the fluorescent cloud of dust and gas.

This discovery is definitely relevant and significant. This image helps us better understand the process in which solar systems are created. With this very detailed image we can comprehend not only how planets throughout the universe form, but how our solar system formed. It is important for us to understand where we live, and part of understanding where we live is recognizing how where we live was created. With this information we will also be able to learn more about other solar systems and planets throughout the universe and compare them to our solar system. This image has opened many doors for scientists and our knowledge of solar systems.

            Overall I enjoyed reading this article and thought that it supplied a sufficient amount of information without making the article too long. The author of the article did a nice job making a confusing topic easy to understand through giving lots of detail and using vocabulary that the general population would understand instead of a bunch of scientific terms. The author included lots of quotes from experts and used factual information instead of opinions, so there was definitely enough evidence to back up all the author’s statements. However, I do wish that more background information about ALMA was included in the article like how it works and when it was built and whether this was the first time it was used or not. All in all, the article was informative and engaging.