Biology 1610
Dr. G
6 February 2016
Discovery of Creation
In recent studies by the (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) ALMA, the world's largest radio telescope, there has been a discovery in our very own Milky Way Galaxy, the beginnings of a new planet. In the article Rings around young star suggest planet formation in progress, Mike Williams discusses this exciting new discovery while also informing us about the scientific process of discovering new planets.
While reading this my first thought was what separates a planet from a star? That is something that I would still need to do research on, but it is a wonderful thought. My next question is why are there planets? Why is it so amazing that we discover new ones? The article goes on to discuss how we know how planets form, but not so much about why that knowledge is important.
Our understanding of the universe is coming over time. "Only 20 years after the first exoplanet was spotted, astronomers are beginning to learn how planets form. Thousands of planets are now in the database, and scientists continue to improve their ability to analyze them for life-supporting characteristics". According to Williams, in order for a planet to form there must be a specific ratio between dust particles and gas molecules.
Discoveries come by tools that are created! For instance, the only reason we know how planets form and that there are other planets forming is because of the ALMA. As a fore mentioned the ALMA is a radio telescope. The article offers the definition of this kind of a telescope they state that "Radio telescopes detect the unique electromagnetic waves emitted by elements and compounds in space, allowing them to be identified and measured." This tool helps us see more things, which in turn means we will need MORE tools. The basic fundamentals of tools are the sciences. Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Astronomy, etc. They all come together for us to understand this world and others.
The pattern that we discover and learn things is very clear in this article. A sentence that really grabbed me was “If we know the chemistry of the material forming a planet, we can understand the chemistry of the planet,” In Chemistry and Biology and other sciences, we study small things in order to learn greater things. Even in the universe this principle is still applied. There are things so small that we don't know everything, and there are things so big that we don't know everything, but as we apply the 'scientific method' of simply put, asking questions, we can discover more and more.
SOURCE: http://news.rice.edu/2016/12/12/rings-around-young-star-suggest-planet-formation-in-progress/
SOURCE: http://news.rice.edu/2016/12/12/rings-around-young-star-suggest-planet-formation-in-progress/
I was pretty confused by this summary and it left me with some questions many were some of the ones you included yourself but left unanswered. I believe being left with questions and wanting more could be a good thing, however. My main question would be, "What was this planet made of then and where is it relatively?" I know the article mentioned needing the technology to determine more information but also, the article is titled what will we call it and that doesn't get answered either not even ideas.
ReplyDelete-KK
The article wasn't very specific, but it is in the Milky Way.
DeleteHE
DeleteI also have a few questions regarding this ariticle. If we know the specific gas/dust molecules needed, do we know about how long the process will take for the entire planet to be formed? I would also be interested in knowing if modern science has any idea if specific dust/gas ratios play a part in whether or not a specific planet will be able to eventually support life. Do we know now more or less what it took to initially form our own planet?
ReplyDelete-Michael Poyfair
After a little research about planet X, I came to the conclusion that even the discovering scientists don't know much about the planet. The few concrete facts are that it is very large. Scientists are comparing it similar to that of neptune or maybe smaller. As for its makeup, they believe it to be somewhat of a neptune/earth hybrid. Scientists also believe that the planet has an extremely long and wide orbit, which explains why we are only seeing it now. They estimate that it takes 20,000 years for the planet to orbit the sun. The scientists discussed the main reason for the lack of the information was the fact that it is simply very far away, and they have not pinpointed it yet with any large telescopes. This is their current undertaking.
ReplyDelete-Michael Poyfair
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/planetx