Thursday, October 29, 2015
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Earth Science: Current Event By Justin McCarthy
Justin McCarthy McClellan
10/28/15 Earth Science
Current Event: Water on Mars: Exploration & Evidence By Nola Taylor Redd
Scientist who have studied Outer space have always wondered the possibilities that other planets in the universe have water like Earth’s which would be the next stop closer to figure out if those planets support life. While Scientist have not find any real evidence to claim that Earth is not alone; NASA has come one step closer to figure out the gigantic jigsaw puzzle if other planets in the universe support the theory for life. Earlier this autumn season, a satellite found proof that there is water beneath the surface of Mars. While that is not enough conclusive evidence to find out if the red planet supports life, it does bring us one step closer to finding out the answer. The main idea to this article (“Water on Mars: Exploration & Evidence By Nola Taylor Redd”) which I have researched, states there is enough evidence to prove that water still floats on the Red Planet. Throughout this article which is composed by the author is able to provide evidence to support a scientific theory that water is still on the Red Planet in the 21st century. The biggest conclusive evidence which helps indicate to mankind that water is still on the red planet is that scientist have discovered that there is salt water beneath the Martian surface. Another piece of evidence which helps prove that water has not completely evaporated on the red planet is the polar ice caps and according to the article the poles has enough ice density to fill up Lake Michigan twice. While the mysterious question if there is life on Mars and in the universe still is looming; scientist have found a closure to the theory about water being discovered on Mars.
Redd, Nola Taylor. "Water on Mars: Exploration & Evidence | Space.com. 7 Oct. 2015. Web. 24 Oct. 2015.
Monday, October 26, 2015
How Hurricane Patricia Quickly Became a Monster Storm
Viktoria Schmuck
October 23, 2015
Earth Science/C ODD/McClellan
Vance, E. (2015, October 23). How Hurricane Patricia Quickly Became a Monster Storm. Retrieved October 26, 2015.
Plumer, B. (2015, October 26). Hurricane Patricia was a monster - but did surprisingly little damage. Here's why. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
Hurricane Patricia was one of the most powerful hurricanes ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere. It was a stage five, meaning it is the worst stage of tropical storms. It was also the fastest growing hurricane ever recorded. This monster was equivalent to a fifteen mile version of a EF5 tornado, which is one of the strongest forces of nature. What was notably unusual about Patricia is that it was extremely late in the hurricane season, which ends November 30th. Another surprising aspect was the wind, which changed from 130 mph on the 22nd, to 200 mph on the 23rd. This hurricane was one of the deadliest ever recorded.
The main question is, why did this hurricane become so monstrous? The answer partially is el Niño. El Niño is a time period where the ocean and the atmosphere have a set condition over the ocean. It powers hurricanes in the Pacific and pulls strength from those in the Atlantic. More specifically there are three reasons for why the storm grew so drastically. First, the temperature of the ocean's surface was 30 degrees celsius, which is one or two degrees above the average temperature during el Niño. Second, the winds above the storm were unusually calm, preventing any splits or breaks happening to the hurricane from above, which stronger conditions could have caused. Finally, unlike the usual 60-70% humidity, it was up to a scorching 80%. All of the above were the main fuels to the most deadly hurricane of time.
As the hurricane continued, the Mexican government evacuated thousands. They were able to prepare since they saw the hurricane coming, making it less damaging. The hurricane also hit the strong terrain, so it was significantly weaker. Unfortunately, it wasn’t weak enough to spare the lives of 6 unlucky victims. They were killed after the hurricane hit the Mexican coast at about 7pm, on Friday the 23rd. Although there were victims, Patricia did far less damage than many expected.
The article, “How Hurricane Patricia Quickly Became a Monster Storm,” will have a drastic effect on readers yet to discover it. It is extremely important that people know a hurricane could hit, even when you least expect it. Hurricane Patricia was very late in the season, but it was still extremely powerful and even deadly. This also opened the eyes of many meteorologists. No one thought a late season hurricane would grow so violently, but it did with the help of el Niño. In future, scientists will keep a closer eye on this. Our lives are less affected than those in Mexico. We live on the Atlantic, so el Niño will not pass over us. On the other hand, there could always be a rough storm like hurricane Sandy hitting us.
Overall, I think the article “How Hurricane Patricia Quickly Became a Monster Storm” was very well written. It was shorts and crisp and got the the point, instantly shooting out facts at you. At the same time, the writing style was enticing and kept me interested. One thing I found annoying was that the article did not state anything about when the hurricane hit. This was because it hit on the day the article was published, and so I took the matter into my own hands. I conducted more research, which is how I learned about the victims of the hurricane. One thing I really appreciated was the use of words. Throughout the entire piece, descriptive words made the writing come alive and keep me interesting until the end. In conclusion, this article was well throughout and should be read by many more people interested in the topic.
Sunday, October 25, 2015
New Concern Over Quakes in Oklahoma Near Hub of US Oil
Tomas Gibbons
10/25/15
Earth Science, D Odd, McClellan
Wines, Michael. "New Concern Over Quakes in Oklahoma Near a Hub of U.S. Oil." The New York Times. The New York Times, 14 Oct. 2015. Web. 25 Oct. 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/15/us/new-concern-over-quakes-in-oklahoma-near-a-hub-of-us-oil.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=34&pgtype=sectionfront>.
The article “New Concern over Quakes in Oklahoma Near Hub of US Oil” by Michael Wines talks about how the Oil companies stationed in Oklahoma are dumping waste into the earth and causing earthquakes. Over the past five years thousands of earthquakes have occurred and the reasoning is majorly due to the waste that oil companies are depositing into the interior of the earth. The waste deposited is having the effect of a lubricant of sorts on the tectonic plates and making it far easier for the plates to shift causing earthquakes. So far most earthquakes have been relatively minor however this was a fault plate that was deemed inactive or dormant until waste appeared on the fault. Daniel McNamara is a scientist studying the potential outcomes and damages that could result from these earthquakes. He expresses concern that after looking at the high amount of magnitude 4s that it's very likely that the magnitude of these earthquakes will increase to higher numbers. According to the article last year there was a total of 585 earthquakes and this year will have had even more.Unfortunately local authorities do not have the power to stop drilling, and attempt to bring seismic activity back down. Until greater power is given to authorities all they can do is talk to oil companies and try and get them to reduce the amount of waste dumped beneath the surface of the Earth.
This news is very important to our society and the world. It is providing very real evidence that the human race is hurting the environment and we are beginning to suffer for it. In the event that large amounts of oil were discovered in New York and companies began drilling it and dumping waste into the earth we could begin to feel those effects in Bronxville both literally and figuratively. On top of that the drilling of oil is already hurting the environment and depleting the earth's resources and very soon there won't be very much left to drill and use. As a society and world of people we should heed the warnings that one day very soon there won't be any oil left to drill.
After reading the article I felt very well persuaded on the topic and the risk of continued oil drilling in oklahoma. However a couple points stuck out to me. First the mention of what authorities were doing could have been backed up more and spoken a little more about. I can't imagine that if The New York Times is writing an article about drilling in Oklahoma that there isn't anything being done to end it or reduce safety risks. Additionally more numerical or statistical evidence really would have supported the argument even further. While the author did include some numerical evidence, a little bit more could have really impacted the article in a positive way.
Saturday, October 24, 2015
Searching for Life in Martian Water Will Be Very, Very Tricky
by Lee Billings
Anton Tarazi
10/24/15
Earth Science
C 1,3,5 Block
When it was recently announced that there was water on Mars, the scientific community was abuzz with ideas and goals to search for life there. The article Searching for Life in Martian Water Will Be Very, Very Tricky by Lee Billings was about how difficult it will actually be for probes or humans to search for life on Mars without possibly contaminating it. Spacecraft which traveled and will travel to Mars will all naturally have millions of microbes on them because no sterilization methods are capable of completely killing all microbes that may reside on their surface. These microbes could hypothetically thrive on the Martian surface and create colonies that may deceive scientists into believing that Mars contains life, even though it was really just contamination from Earth. Another potential threat would be that microbes brought by Earthlings may be harmful to the hypothetical microbes on Mars and damage the possible ecosystem. To combat this problem, multiple Special Regions are being designated across the Martian landscape and every two years the list of Special Regions is updated. Special Regions are the areas most likely to contain life and are a complete no-go zone for all unsanitized future space missions. Humans are highly unlikely to be able to go to these Special Regions in the foreseeable future because one can’t treat a human with the same chemicals and radiation used to sterilize a machine. Billions of taxpayer dollars will have to be used up to try to make it possible to completely sterilize a probe so it can be able to go to a Special Region. This may be completely futile, though, because previous spacecraft may have already contaminated the soil, or maybe prehistoric asteroids originated from Earth already transferred microbes to Mars, or maybe there is no life on Mars and we would have wasted billions trying to find useless sterilization techniques. This is a very delicate situation and even the scientists at NASA aren’t sure how to proceed.
The findings this article presents have a tremendous impact on how humanity can explore Mars and other planets that may contain life. The fact that we aren’t allowed to contaminate it in any way severely dampens the extent of our findings. This presents a huge hurdle scientists must find away around because otherwise we might never make it to Mars. NASA’s 2030 goal for reaching Mars may never take flight unless humanity finds a way to sterilize spacecrafts and their occupants. This also has a profound impact on you and me because NASA gets its funding from taxpayer dollars and if they need hundreds of millions of dollars to find ways to combat this problem, the money is not being used elsewhere such as to fund schools or help the needy. There is an important decision to make, one with only three choices: Do we explore Mars and forget about the fact that we may contaminate it? Do we invest billions of dollars into finding proper sterilization techniques? Or do we temporarily give up our dream of exploring the Red Planet?
I chose this article because when water was recently found on Mars it created many ambitious goals of finding life there, but few people realized all the complications. Shedding light on the fact that we may contaminate Mars, something overlooked by most people, the article explains all of the complications and impracticalities involved in actually exploring Mars for life . This article was really well written and gave an in depth look at the problem and what is needed to solve it. The author explained all of the complications that NASA is facing and what they mean really thoroughly. The use of important historical evidence as well as a few quotes made the article more interesting and informative. Though the article explained everything really well, one question that I have is: Assuming sterilization techniques were perfected, how will rovers be able to access the hard to reach Special Regions where there may be life? Many of the Special Regions are in extremely remote areas of Mars such as at the bottom of ravines or the bases of active volcanoes, so rovers like Curiosity won’t be able to access them. I personally feel that though further research should be invested into finding life on Mars, it is a waste of time and money to spend billions of dollars creating adequate sterilization techniques because if microbes from Earth were to be transmitted to Mars, it is very likely that they have done so already.
Friday, October 23, 2015
NASA’s Kepler K2 Finds A Dead Star Vaporizing The Mini ‘Planet’
Timothy Cushman
10/23/15
Earth Science / C Block 1, 3, 5 Mrs. McClellan
“We are for the first time witnessing a miniature “planet” ripped apart by intense gravity, being vaporized by starlight and raining rocky material onto its star,” said Andrew Vanderburg, graduate student from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The article, “NASA’S KEPLER K2 FINDS DEAD STAR VAPORIZING THE MINI ‘PLANET,’” by Robert Nicholls talks about how through the use of the Kepler Telescope on the K2 mission, it has been proven that some small planets have been ripped apart by the intense gravity of white dwarf stars. Scientists found that an example of this happening by finding a star where they noticed a decrease in the amount of light the star was emitting. In this case, it was happening every four to five hours. Since the dimming was coming in a mostly regular pattern scientists could conclude that an object was in orbit around this star. The scientists observed this system and found heavy elements on the surface of the star. Dr. John Johnson of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics says, “It’s like panning for gold – the heavy stuff sinks to the bottom. These metals should sink into the white dwarf’s interior” (paragraph 8), proving that there is something abnormal about this planetary system. Using the data, collected from the Kepler Telescope, they determined that the star was not ripping up comets and asteroids, which was their previous though. The star’s gravity was in fact ripping up small planetary objects.
This article does not provide a large importance to the average person, but to astronomers and the scientific community it is very important. Being the first time man has witnessed a planet being ripped apart, we see how some of our perceptions of the universe can and may be wrong. Before seeing the proof of a star ripping apart a small planet, scientists who had observed stars with heavy elements on their surface thought that the elements were caused by asteroids and comets. This new evidence has shown how science is not always right and that some of the things we think may also be incorrect.
This article was an interesting one to read and provoked many thoughts of mine. The article was just the right length and the author found a balance of quotes and facts which helped keep me interested. There was one arguably major thing missing and one small thing that I would have changed in the article. The first was, the author talked extensively about the actual details of the planet and star, but left out how the Kepler Telescope captured the images of this system. This would have allowed me to get an even better understanding of the mission that took place. The small thing that I would have changed is, there was one point, about the dimming of the star, that was made three times and the information was not used to support separate ideas so it got annoying having to read it multiple times. Overall, the article was well written and kept the reader engaged.
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Earth-like planets around small stars likely have protective magnetic fields, aiding chance for life
Charlie Gay Earth Science
10/22/15 Current Events
University of Washington. "Earth-like planets around small stars likely have protective magnetic fields, aiding chance for life." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 29 September 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150929070703.htm>.
“Earth-like planets around small stars likely have protective magnetic fields, aiding chance for life”
In the article “Earth-like planets around small stars likely have protective magnetic fields, aiding chance for life,” interesting conclusions are made to the possibility of life on certain small planets. Magnetic fields are vital in order for life to survive on a planet in order to be protected from harmful radiation. Research was done to see whether or not Earth-like planets with small stars would have protective magnetic fields. In order for a planet with a small star to sustain life, its orbit needs to be close to the star in order for the planet to receive a sufficient amount of heat. Although this is true, planets very close to stars often become tidally locked with the same side forever pointing to its star, similar to how our moon is with Earth. The question needed to be answered with the research in this article is “are these planets going to be roasted by gravitational tides?” These tides could prevent from magnetic fields forming because they might generate heat inside the planet which is the opposite way that magnetic fields are formed (Cooling of planets interior). However, the research shown in this article explains how the more tidal heating the planet receives the cooler the core will get, allowing for a magnetic field which could protect life. These conclusions were unexpected by the researcher, Rory Barnes, because people would think that the more tidal heating a planet recieved from a star, the hotter the core will get.
This discovery is very significant to our research in astronomy. The research disproves previous found knowledge known about planets tidally locked with stars. Astronomers can now look at these type of situations as possible locations for life. This newly found research also provides more possible studies in astronomy as lead author, Peter Driscoll states, “These preliminary results are promising, but we still don’t know how they would change for a planet like Venus, where slow planetary cooling is already hindering magnetic field generation.” These results found are significant to present and future researchers of astronomy, as well as people interested in the whether or not possible life is existent on other planets.
This article was very well written and had a lot of evidence to support their claims. The article did a good job of using scientific words and then afterwards explaining their meanings. Also, the article supported their claims with evidence from their experiment. But, the article could have done a better job explaining the significance of these claim as well as what these conclusions mean for the present. Lastly, I wish that the article provided examples of some stars and planets meeting the criteria talked about earlier. Overall, I enjoyed reading this article and thought that they made many interesting conclusions.
Earth Science D Odd 10/21/15
Current Events John Marshall
Naik, Gautam. "Far in Space, a Glance at How Earth May End." WSJ. N.p., 22 Oct. 2015. Web. 22 Oct. 2015.
I recently got the chance to read the article, “Far in Space, a Glance at How Earth May End,” by Gautam Naik. The article talks about a solar system in the constellation Virgo, 570 Light Years away, that is coming to the end of its life, where the star is about the same size as our Sun. This star that was in the Red Giant stage and is now transitioning into a white dwarf, and by observing it scientists can see how this will affect the planets around it. The star is losing about 22 million pounds of its mass, meaning that this change is happening rapidly, and how you can imagine this is really off-setting the solar system. Right now scientist around the world at places like Bath University in England are observing a planet that is rapidly orbiting the star and is slowly disintegrating. They are using the Kepler telescope to observe this happening.
The reason that this event is so important to us is because it gives us some insight on how our Earth might end one day. Considering this stars proximity to the Sun in size, this star will have a similar life cycle to our Sun. In about five billion years, the Sun is projected to start its process in becoming a Red Giant, meaning it runs out of Helium to burn and starts burning Hydrogen. The surface area of the Sun will rapidly expand after this, and if the Earth is not engulfed by the Sun in this process, it will likely end as the Sun transitions into a white dwarf star. Scientists have speculated for years that a white dwarf star could start to disintegrate planets in its solar system, but this is the first solid evidence. This discovery really gives scientists a good idea of how the Earth would end, a question asked from generation to generation.
Naik did a wonderful job on this article, because he really made such a complex topic easier to understand. He did a great job explaining things that the reader might not know and made it a lot more manageable to read. A lot of science articles are very hard to read simply because of the vocabulary or the topics that they are talking about, but Gautam Naik described everything so the reader could understand. He put facts in the article to back up what he was saying, and it really allowed the reader to understand the magnitude of what was happening. The article was very well written, but I felt that the author may have left out some important information. For example, I read the whole article and I could not find out the name of the star anywhere. Also, I wanted to know how many planets were in the solar system, but the article only talked about the one.
Monday, October 19, 2015
Mac Crawford Earth Science
‘A Wall of Mud’ in California, and Warnings to Heed El Niño
Lovett, Ian. "‘A Wall of Mud’ in California, and Warnings to Heed El Niño."The New York Times. The New York Times, 16 Oct. 2015. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
In the article, ‘A Wall of Mud’ in California, and Warnings to Heed El Niño by Ian Lovett, the El Niño storm is discussed, as impacting all of California but mostly Los Angeles. This storm will most likely occur this winter but pre-storms are leading to turmoil in California. Several hours of rain caused the mud on the hillsides of Interstate 5 to slide down onto the Interstate. First, a mudslide occurs when mud and other earthly materials fall from a hill. This mud fell straight onto the road, which was treacherous. Famous Interstate 5 connects San Francisco with cities like Sacramento and Seattle, so this hurt trade and traveling purposes. The article mentioned a woman named Ms.Rose, a civilians; she said “I saw the mudslide — it looked like a brown waterfall coming down the mountain. It was like Niagara Falls but brown, like the chocolate waterfall from Willy Wonka. Cars were all crashing into each other because there was 15 feet of water. Semi trucks were stuck in it. It was the most serious thing I’ve ever seen.” This quote speaks to the force and power that a mudslide has and how dangerous it is. The article describes how luckily, no one of the three hundred people who were in cars where the mudslide occurred, were hurt in anyway. Another personal account the article gave was how a family was stuck in their car for over two hours and then finally found by the Sheriff. The article then explained that the fire department and police members are somewhat unhappy with the people who were caught in this mudslide. They were not happy because they warned the people to not travel on that particular road and they still did. Finally, the article stated that the government has set up a website devoted to help prepare people for the El Niño. On the website you can find ways to protect your house and family through the storm. This article briefly described El Niño but thoroughly described the impact of mudslides, in particular the one that occurred on Interstate 5.
This article is very prevalent and important to life and society of the people of California. The article explains how no one listened to the law enforcement and government and therefore put themselves in a dangerous situation in the mudslide. As you can see this article is making a connection to all of the planet because the article basically says that we should listen to the government more with weather problems and storms. This article also connects to anyone who has personally been in a place where a mudslide occurred and how dangerous they can be.
The article overall was very well written and pretty detailed. One thing I believed the article could have touched upon was the actual science behind mudslides. For example, one question the article did not answer is what conditions lead to a mudslide. The article, however, does do a great job of catching the reader's attention when the writer uses in personal accounts of the mudslide. Also, the article was written with professionalism; for example there were many short paragraphs which is common in articles. Finally, there were almost no grammatical errors which enhances this article. Overall this article was well written and was well connected to science.
Warming Oceans May Threaten Krill, a Cornerstone of the Antarctic Ecosystem
Mimi Buendia
October 18, 2015
Earth Science/ Block D even/ McClellan
“Warming Oceans May Threaten Krill, a Cornerstone of the Antarctic Ecosystem,” written by Michelle Innis, discusses the effects of krill due to the acidification in the ocean. The levels of activity, caused by carbon dioxide, in the ocean is increasing each year due to the pollution, which will kill the krill, disrupting the ecosystems. Krill is an essential part of the ecosystems in the ocean. Without krill, there is less food for squid, whales, seals, fish, penguins, and seabirds. Scientist, Dr. Kawaguchi, conducted an experiment to see how the krill would react or adjust by having more carbon dioxide in the water it lives in. To acidify the water, Dr. Kawaguchi added carbon dioxide into water to mimic the conditions that are possible in the next three centuries. Once he did this, he soon realized none of the krill eggs were hatched because all the eggs were dead. The reason the krill is so affected by the carbon dioxide because the krills eggs sink to the bottom of the ocean from the water surface. The deeper the water gets, the more acidic it is. There have already been evidence in the change of the number of krill. “300,000 tons of krill was caught in 2014, significantly lower than the peak of around 500,000 tons caught around 30 years ago,” stated The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources.
The loss of krill in our oceans affects the entire ecosystem of the ocean, which would then affect people. Krill is the pray for many of the larger animals in the ocean, which disrupts the life circle in the echostorm. Dr. Kawaguchi’s research predicted the number of krill will decrease in the next 100 years because of the global carbon emissions. To support his prediction, he states, “If we continue with business as usual, and we don’t act on reducing carbon emissions, in that case there could be a 20 to 70 percent reduction in Antarctic krill by 2100.” Also the acidity of the water would also affect us, by not having a direct source or pure water.
This article published by The New York Times was very well written, however I felt it was sometimes unclear about experiments and facts supporting its claim. To fix that, the author could define more term and also write the paragraphs in a clear order to make the reader follow the article better. Besides that, the evidence used to support the article were perfect examples and helped explain the issue.
How asteroids can help us reach Mars
Harry Colvin
Earth Science
Earth Science
Crane, Rachel. "How Asteroids Can Help Us Reach Mars - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, 19 Oct. 2015. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/06/tech/asteroid-mining-nasa-mars-pioneers/index.html
How asteroids can help us reach Mars
Ever since humans stepped feet on the moon, the next big step has being getting to Mars, with humans. A planet about 140 million miles away, it takes time, patience, and a lot of money to get there. Mars is believed to be the planet most similar to Earth, and believed to be the most habitual planet for humans. Scientists have recently come up with the idea of using asteroids to aid humans voyage to Mars. One of the problems that gets in the way of humans reaching Mars is that it takes so long. It takes approximately 6 months each way and it is very hard to have enough supplies on a space ship for 6 months. This is where asteroids come in handy. Scientists think that humans can go asteroid mining for supplies, including water, oxygen, precious metals, and other elements. These could be used for fuel and other support. However, this would be very hard to accomplish as asteroids are traveling very fast and one would have to drill into it while the asteroid is flying through space. There are a few companies that that think they could accomplish asteroid mining. These companies include Planetary Recourses and Deep Science Industries. There is also another possible bump in the road with asteroid mining. In 1966, the United Nations, which includes United States and 100 other countries, signed a treaty on outer space which says that countries cannot own territory in space. It is debatable whether asteroid mining would break this treaty or not. NASA is very fond of the idea of asteroid mining. NASA also wants to "lasso" an asteroid and put it in orbit around Earth, so scientists can get a better look at it. Jim Green, director of NASA planetary science, says, "asteroids are a hot topic" and that they are "a stepping stone to Mars."
This topic of asteroid mining is very important to humanity. Getting to Mars would be a big step in our knowledge of space, whether its habitual or not. Asteroid mining could make it a lot easier and it might help humans step foot on Mars earlier than believed. Humans could learn a lot more about space if we reached Mars because we would have more accurate information and have first hand experience on the planet.
This article written by Rachel Crane had many positives, and a couple negatives. One of the things that was done well in this article was that it described very well how asteroid mining would be done and what we would accomplish by it. It told us what minerals we would receive from an asteroid, including oxygen, water, metals, and other elements. One thing that Rachel Crane could have included in the article is what an asteroid specifically is. Although I was well educated on what an asteroid specifically is from class this year, I may not remember in 20 years, and I definitely did not know a couple years ago. Overall this article was very educational, and I did not only learn about the main topic, but also about other information and history about space.
"Life on Jupiter's Moons? Juice May Hold the Key"
Earth Science D Odd
Gabbie Amboss
Current Event #1
October 16, 2015
Gilbert, Dave. "Life on Jupiter's Moons? Juice May Hold the Key - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, 21 Aug. 2015. Web. 18 Oct. 2015.
The article titled, Is there life on Jupiter's moons? Juice may hold the key, by Dave Gilbert, is a very informative article about new discoveries on Jupiter's many moons and a new project called Juice that will investigate further into this discoveries. First off it starts talking about the Rosetta mission that landed on Comet 67P in 2014 and has been sending back startling data. For example, it states that “Comet 67P contains multiple organic compounds that make up the building blocks of life adds weight to a theory that Earth may have been seeded with those vital ingredients” (paragraph 2). Then it changes gears by talking about the Jovian system, which is the four outer planets including Jupiter. Evidence sent back from the Hubble telescope shows the presence of water vapor above the south polar region of Europe, one of Jupiter’s moons. The curiosity of knowing whether or not life could be existent on this moon lead NASA to add $30 million to its 2016 budget to comprise a mission to Europa. The program called Juice (from JUpiter ICy Moons Explorer) is estimated to seven years to arrive in the Jovian system to spend 3½ years exploring the Jovian system including Jupiter and Europa as well as its other two moons Ganymede and Callisto.
This article is important to society because it answers questions that could possibly bring us one step closer to finding life on other planets and moons in our solar system. It might not be very relevant to our everyday lives, however its a step in the right direction. Small discoveries like these can lead us to bigger discoveries in the near future.
In my opinion, I believe that the article was very well written and informative. The paragraphs were very short but filled with important information that was clear and easy to understand. It included interesting facts and quotes which makes the article more interesting and enjoyable to read.
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