Sunday, March 15, 2015


Earth Science Grant Hoeffner
Current Event 3/15/15
Kramer, Miriam. "Jupiter's Largest Moon Has an Ocean, Say Scientists."The Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor, n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2015.


Jupiter's largest moon has an ocean, say scientists

Recently Hubble Space Telescope made a discovery that a salty ocean is underneath Jupiter's moon, Ganymede, surface. The ocean is buried under a thick layer of ice and is predicted to be harboring more water than Earth. This will help scientist discover more planets that contain water in the solar system. Nasa has been keeping an eye out for watery planets because if we have a chance at finding life, it will be on a planet that contains water.
We discovered water on Ganymede when we noticed that the moon floods, Water bubbles up from cryo-volcanos in the planet flooding the surface layer.  Galileo, the space probe, measured Ganymede's magnetic field in 2002. The information collected supported the theory that under Ganymede's surface there is a ocean. Hubbles evidence is what really proved this theory. Hubble measured Ganymedes auroras , ribbons of lights, and poles. Nasa watched Ganymede as its magnetic fields changed, they observed the auroras move back and forth. Monitoring the motion Nasa could conclude that there is a subsurface ocean. This ocean is responsible for changing Ganymedes aurora created by Jupiter.
This expedition was lead by Joachim Saur, his new strategy of watching auroras change could help us discovery what is inside other planets. While interviewed Saur said,  "Because aurorae are controlled by the magnetic field, if you observe the aurorae in an appropriate way, you learn something about the magnetic field. If you know the magnetic field, then you know something about the moon's interior”. I found this interesting because this is a breaking discovery and the strategy he used is very creative.
I found this article very interesting, not only did it talk about Jupiters moon and how we found water, but further plans on finding life. This article wasn’t very advance but it contained tons of information in each paragraph. It took a couple times to read it to gather all the information and understand the ideas. This article applies to what we have been studying, it shows that there is water in the universe and there might even be life to. I would recommend this article to people who have a specific interest in Jupiter's moons and finding water in space.

4 comments:

  1. You grabbed the reader in when you started off with the ocean on Jupiter’s moon, Ganymede. Another thing that you presented well was your conclusion. You said your opinion and how the article was useful. You said it was useful because it contained a lot of information, so if the reader wants to read the article to know more information, they would know it was a useful and interesting article to read. Another thing I thought you presented well in your conclusion was how the article applied to what we were studying to day in class. I thought that telling the reader what the ocean was buried under was interesting and captured attention. I think that you’re wording was presented well. You didn’t repeat yourself that much and you kept the essay interesting instead of it having a dull point. I think that the quote was inputed well because you introduced who said the quote and then you spoke your opinion about the quote. I never knew that the ocean underneath Jupiter’s moon, was buried under a thick layer of ice and was predicted to have more water than Earth. While reading your article, I learned that Joachim Saur’s strategy of watching auroras change would help us in the future discover what the planets were like inside them. I didn’t know that water bubbles up from a volcano on Ganymede. I didn’t know that the magnetic field of Ganymede changed. The one thing I would suggest would be for you to explain what an aurorae is more specifically because from your article I didn’t have the greatest idea of what it is. Also, another suggestion would be to explain the Joachim Saur strategy a little bit more specifically because it is a little vague in your article which can be confusing. I thought your article was very interesting and well put together! Nice job Grant!!

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  2. You set up your current event by clearly explaining the main idea of the article, which is that Hubble Space Telescope discovered that there was a salty ocean on Jupiter's moon, Ganymede. The topic of your article is very relevant and interesting because scientist have been trying to find other planets or moons that can sustain human life. Since Ganymede is said to be harboring more water than earth, Ganymede eventually could be provide a safe environment for humans. You also did a good job explaining the discovery of The salty ocean Underneath Ganymede's surface. For example you described what findings and scientific breakthroughs lead to this discover like how Galileo was the first to collect information that supported the theory that underneath Ganymede's surface was a ocean. I was impressed by how involved NASA and other space companies are to finding other planets or moons to sustaining human life. Another piece of information There are so many things scientist do not know about our universe and it is interesting to see new finding and discoveries in astronomy, science and technology today. Overall, you explained the current event well, but you could have expanded on further plans on finding life that you briefly mentioned in your current event.

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  3. Grant did a really thorough job reviewing and analyzing such an interesting, relevant topic. So far this year we have spent a lot of time learning about planets and I really appreciated how Grant chose an article that discussed something that is not only incredibly important to our existence on Earth, but that is also part of what we are focusing on in class. I thought he did a great job of gathering an understanding and explaining how the magnetic field of a moon can tell us about its interior. In his analysis he said the article was relatively easy to comprehend, but the evidence to support the theory of Ganymede’s ocean is very advanced and he portrayed the general principles of it very well. There was also a lot of detail in his summary on how the different pieces of evidence from Hubble and Galileo compiled to support and formulate the final theory, and that was very helpful in my comprehension of how we study moons and planets in general. Prior to reading the review I knew that scientists believed there was an ocean below Ganymede’s surface, however a lot of the information Grant present was new to me and I learned a lot. I did not know that Ganymede’s ocean is an indicator that there is a possibility of life or that a planet’s ocean could affect its magnetic field. It would be really interesting to find out what else can be determined from the aurora lights created by a planet’s magnetic field. The only suggestion I would give would be that he elaborate more on the future plans for discovering life on other planets or moons. In his analysis he mentioned how he appreciated how the article mentioned future plans for finding life, but he did not include those plans in his summary.

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  4. I am commenting on Grant's review of the article, "Jupiter's largest moon has an ocean, say scientists." Grant did a very good job of presenting this article. One thing that I really liked about Grants's article was that he picked a topic that we were directly studying in class at the time. Another thing that was well done was Grant's hook. After reading the first paragraph, I kept wanting to read more because I was very intrigued. Also, I thought your conclusion was very well done because it clearly gave your opinion on the article.
    One thing that I found interesting about the article was how all in NASA has gone in its efforts to find another place that can sustain human life. Also, I was impressed by the knowledge Grant has gained from reading this article and I think that clearly is shown in his response.
    One thing that I thought could have been better about this article is to incorporate quotes. Quotes help prove that the facts being presented are valid which I think is important to have.

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