Matt McCloskey
April 2, 2013
Earth Science C
Even
Ms. Davies
Chang, Kenneth. "Mars Could Have
Supported Life Long Ago, NASA Says." The New York Times. The New
York Times, 13 Mar. 2013. Web. 02 Apr. 2013.
The possibility
of life on mars has been commonly speculated in past years and has escalated
due to the findings of recent NASA missions. With the recent discoveries made
of Mars by the Curiosity Rover, evidence supports that there is a high chance
that life once existed on the planet. The Curiosity scientists do not have
signs that actual microbes did live on Mars, however convincing evidence from
the rover, Curiosity, supports that it was once an environment suitable for
life. What Curiosity found while drilling were different elements in the rocks.
These included sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and carbon, all
of which are key aspects of life. Also, it identified minerals such as sulfides
and sulfates, which they proposed as something the organisms could eat for
food. These also included clays, something the scientists were hoping to see,
that would provide a sufficient energy source for life. Most importantly,
Curiosity found evidence of water. Again, Curiosity cannot detect signs of life
in the past or present, however, it is able to identify organic molecules in
rocks on Mars, which contain Carbon and Hydrogen. Although organic molecules
were found, they could not say it officially because of the possibility that
they formed from contamination form the Earth. However, this does not rule it
out. Evidence of organic molecules would be helpful because they are a prerequisite
to life. John P. Grotzinger, principal investigator for
this NASA mission, summed up the findings on the planet with the follow quote. “We
have found a habitable environment that is so benign and supportive of life
that probably if this water was around and you had been on the planet, you
would have been able to drink it,”
This article is
very important to astronomers as well as regular people. To this day, the
question about the existence of life on other planets has been one of the most
heralded mysteries. Thus, the discoveries described in this article would be of
extreme significance to society. People just want to know about life on other
planets. Maybe they are just interested, or want to know if anything poses a
threat to us on Earth. The Earth does not stand alone. We are located in an
area that is surrounded by many different objects, all of which are important
to know about. Since Mars is one of them, it is important to do all we can to
learn about it, including its possibility of evidence of life. Overall, it is
very worthwhile issue that is also interesting to learn about. This topic was
appealing to me because I had always heard things about the possibility of life
on Mars, but I wanted to explore it for myself. Also, I had very little knowledge
about NASA before reading this article, and I thought reading about one of its
missions would be very interesting.
I thought that
this article was very well written and informative. The majority of the article
was supported by great evidence and facts, however the part about the discovery
of water was a little bit vague. It stated that water was discovered on Mars
but it never told us how. I don’t think it took away from the article that much
but it definitely would have been better to have a detailed explanation like it
did for the other discoveries. Also, the article briefly mentioned that life
might still exist on Mars today. Although it might have been going a little off
topic, I would have liked to here a little more about it. The only other thing I
would change would be to better structure the article. The discoveries of
Curiosity were sort of scattered throughout the entire article. I thought it
would have been better if it just stated them next to each other so it would be
easier to stay on track. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this article and
gained a lot of new knowledge.
You had very strong opinions on your article, which I admire. People tend to simply say that they like a topic because it interests them, but you included why you found the subject of life on Mars so intriguing. You summarized it very well also, your description was well-written and clear and I enjoyed reading it. Another thing that caught my attention was the use of the phrase, “…one of the most heralded mysteries.” Very nice word choice, Matt.
ReplyDeleteThis was a fascinating topic to read about; the concept of life on other planets is usually a work of science fiction, and this is the first real evidence I’ve seen that claims that it could truly be possible. I had heard rumors that life was possible on other planets but I like that you explained why exactly it is possible, introducing the chemicals that make it so. I never gave much thought of really cared about the concept of life outside of Earth, but your review honestly got me excited about life on other planets and this may be something I want to keep track of in the next years.
As well written as your review was, I did spot a couple of grammatical errors, but besides that it was great!
Steven Ircha 4/7/2013
ReplyDeleteMs. Davies Core Earth Science C Even
This article was very interesting as it is a topic that has been debated greatly since the moon landing and even before it. Many people talk about this question as an opinion or belief and it is refreshing to see some facts to back up the usual claims many people make about this subject. You did many things well in this article. Firstly you made a statement that it is believed that life once existed on Mars, but you did not stop at that statement. Immediately you provided facts as to why there may have been life. You discuss the elements found in the geology of Mars and explain what the relationship is to those elements and life especially in microbial form. This was a great way to start of the summary as it goes with the title and get the reason excited to reads on and talks about the probes on the planet. The second thing you did well was be honest with the reader. You gave some counterarguments to the initial statement that there were signs of life on Mars. You discuss the importance of certain things that are missing. The fact that you discuss both sides of this debate is helpful in forming a thought about this topic. The third thing you did well was connect all of these findings to real people. You did not simply talk about everything in theory but you discussed how it would affect life for the average citizen. You write about people’s want to learn more about their system and even though it was only a few lines really tied together your argument for me. One thing I found interesting was the finding of organic molecules. This is so cool and groundbreaking because it really shows that there is a strong possibility of life outside of our planet even if it is at a very basic level. This helped to really solidify the earlier point and lend itself to the next point of interest. The second interesting thing in this article was the quote. “We have found a habitable environment that is so benign and supportive of life that probably if this water was around and you had been on the planet, you would have been able to drink it.” This really fascinated me and helped me to realize the possibility of life on another planet even in more advanced forms. The only thing you could improve is talking about space missions or future space missions. I am really curious when men are going to land on the moon and if not what other advancements are being made to move us towards further space exploration. Besides the inclusion of this one small piece of information this article is fantastic.
I thought the article and the paragraphs were very interesting. I liked the point that you made that this is a question that effects everyone, and that it is significant. Also you seemed to stick to your opinions during the article which was good, you didn't vary your thoughts. Also I thought that you summarized the article very well, condensing all of the information. I never knew that there was even a possibility that organisms had lived on other planets, just questions about it. Also I didn't know about water on other planets. overall your review was really good with some grammatical errors, but besides that it was fine.
ReplyDeleteI have always thought of life on other planets as being large multi cellular organisms, but microscopic single cellular organisms still count as life, and just because they are not the aliens that we see on television it dose not mean they are not worth studying. After reading this report I agree with Matt in that studying life on mars and other planets is both interesting and beneficial to the human race. I thought that Matt’s report was very well written, and easily understandable. He did a good job at presenting the articles facts while keeping the reader engaged; he presented each fact in detail so I could better understand how life may have been many years ago on Mars. I also enjoyed his description on how the scientists determines that there was life on another planet, and how just by observing different elements in rock they can infer that there has been life on this planet. Even though this article stated that there is no concrete evidence that there was life on Mars, Because of these facts that Matt presented, for example the discovery of water and other elements, I completely believe that there was life on Mars. Overall I liked the way that Matt presented the factual part of the article, and how he analyzed it, which helped me better understand the importance of this type of research. One thing that could have been improved that was not necessarily Matt’s fault, this was the lack explanation of how water was discovered on Mars. I am very interested on how the scientists would be able to conclude that liquid water existed on Mars. It would have made the article better if it went in depth about this, instead of having to look for outside sources for this information. Apart from this minor flaw his report was both informative and interesting.
ReplyDeleteReally interesting stuff here, Matt. The idea of life once on Mars is quite a grappling statement to get your head around. However, I thought you overall did a good job at putting this whole concept in a simple form and making use of the truly important information that would have some connection to the class. In addition, in your second paragraph you brought forth the point that there are many objects that are surrounding us whether it is in the solar system or the Universe. I found this very interesting. Immediately you made me think that there is a great chance that we are not alone, and Mars could very well contain life. Also, your desire and eagerness to explore this topic when you had no previous knowledge demonstrated your passion for astronomy. The equipment equipped to the rover, Curiosity, stated by yourself, has the ability to drill through rocks and make conclusions after looking at them, greatly amazes me. It is 2013, and we are living in a world of rapid innovation. Sooner or later, there will be technology that will able to make even more significant steps to the discovery of life on Mars. Secondly, I never knew that Mars could have contamination from the Earth. I have never stressed this before, and thinking about it now, has opened doors. Overall, great work. I can see you really put some time and effort as well as some complex thinking. However, one thing to improve upon is to let the reader what Curiosity is up to at the moment and what it will be doing in the future. I believe this could of enhanced your article immensely. It could of connected to the reader on a deeper level, letting the reader be in the present.
ReplyDeleteMatt,
ReplyDeleteI thought that your current event was very interesting to read. We always hear that there is a possibility of life on other planets besides Earth. I thought it was very interesting how you discuss the Curiosity Rover and how the rover drills into the planet and finds different elements in rocks. I think this is very interesting proof that Mars may be suitable for life. I also thought it was very interesting that the Rover found water. I think that you gave very good details and good background on why this discovery is important to Earth because if the Earth’s resources run out humans may have to move to other planet suitable for life and Mars certainly sounds like a contender. You also made your current event detailed, but it did not have too much information which was good. I do agree that they should have mention how the water was actually discovered and a little bit of information about it. But maybe to make it a little more clear to the reader you could have researched this a bit. Overall, your current event was very well written and I enjoyed reading it.