Efrosyni Daskalakis - October 18th 2012
Core Earth Science - Ms. Davies
Fazekas,
Andrew. "Diamond Planet Found-Part of "Whole New Class?"" National
Geographic. National Geographic Society, 11 Oct. 2012. Web. 18 Oct. 2012. file://localhost/<http/::news.nationalgeographic.com:news:2012:10:121011-diamond-planet-space-solar-system-astronomy-science:>.
The
National Geographic article “Diamond Planet Found – Part of “Whole New Class?””
written by Andrew Fazekas is an educational article about the recent discovery
of a new planet orbiting a star, that is thought to be composed to carbon and
could contain diamonds. This new planet was named 55 Cancri e and can orbit its
star in about 18 earth hours. Considering this planet is only about 40 light
years away it is similar to earth. 55 Cancri e is about twice the size of earth
but has a mass that is six times that of earth. The surface
temperatures reach an uninhabitable 3,900 degrees Fahrenheit (2,150 degrees
Celsius)—which, along with carbon, make perfect conditions for creating
diamonds. "It's the first time we know of such an exotic planet that we
think was born mostly of carbon—which really makes this a fundamental
game-changer in our understanding of what's possible in planetary
chemistry." This quote by Nikku Madhusudhan a postdoctoral researcher at
Yale University proposes the question that maybe we as a society do not really
understand fully what actually is in our universe.
Overall,
I think that the idea of this article is excellent, and it really intrigues me
that there could possibly be more valuable materials in distant planets. This
article effect human society because it raises many questions about what could
possibly be in our solar system. With this new discovery many other scientific
explorations could take place to maybe get a better look and understanding of
the materials and other existing planets in our universe. I really enjoy
finding out new facts about the planets in our universe because it adds to my
understanding of what is actually there. Even though scientists do not fully
have a good understanding of the formation on our universe and what is in it,
every little discovery is one step closer to fully understanding the galaxy.
Even
though I enjoyed reading this article, I think it was a little brief in the
complete facts that were discovered of Cancri e. There might not be that much
information on this new “diamond planet” yet, but it would have been more
interesting if the article had suggested more areas of research within this
topic. Fasekas could have included facts about other diamond like planets in
our universe and how they compare to Cancri e. However these basic facts about
the new “diamond planet:” are excellent bases for future study on this subject.
Liza Frost
ReplyDeleteCurrent Events comments
I read Efrosyni Daskalakis's review of the article "Diamond Planet Found-Part of "Whole New Class?” I thought she did a thorough job at capturing my attention. What first caught my eye was the title a diamond planet and her first sentence immediately made me want to read more. She also did a good job at keep me interested throughout the whole paper, and after finishing her review I went back and read the article because I wanted to know more. The information presented in the article was a little confusing and I though Efrosyni did a good job in keeping the information simple, organized, and well thought out.
Efrosyni taught me about what conditions are needed for making diamonds, how they discovered this planet, and how similar to earth this planet is. She goes into great depth about how this planet it one of a kind and how this could benefit man kind and further our knowledge of the solar system. In the review she did a good job and picking the most important topics so the reader would not get confused with too many numbers or statistics.
A suggestion I have for Efrosyni after reading her review would be to give a little more of an explanation on some of the broader topics she mentioned because before reading this I had no prior knowledge of this topic therefore some of it was a little confusing and there were a few minor spelling errors. But overall this was an exceptional review that has furthered my knowledge and curiosity of this planet.