"Mysterious Radio Signal Traced to Dwarf Galaxy Light-years Away."

Sarah Goodell

Mr. Ippolito

Core Bio: Current Event Review

22 April, 2017

Current Event #9

Griffiths, James. "Mysterious Radio Signal Traced to Dwarf Galaxy Light-years Away." CNN. Cable News Network, 06 Jan. 2017. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/04/world/dwarf-galaxy-radio-burst/index.html

James Griffiths, from CNN, wrote an outstanding article, titled “Mysterious Radio Signal Traced to Dwarf Galaxy Light-years Away,” on how an international team of researchers has finally located a mysterious signal three billion light-years away. In 2007, fast radio bursts, or FRBs, were first discovered, yet scientists were unable to narrow down their precise location. One signal in particular, one that scientists had long believed originated from within the Milky Way itself, is unique compared to the other 17 FRBs that have been found. This signal has finally been traced to a spot more than three billion light-years away, located in the dwarf galaxy in the pentagon-shaped constellation called Auriga. In 2012, scientists at Cornell discovered that this specific signal had been “repeating sporadically.” Although they do not believe that these radio bursts result from extraterrestrial life, scientists do believe that they may be coming from neutron stars, which are formed after a supernova explosion, or from a black hole at the center of this galaxy. As Shami Chatterjee, a researcher at Cornell University, said, “We think it may be a magnetar -- a newborn neutron star with a huge magnetic field, inside a supernova remnant or a pulsar wind nebula -- somehow producing these prodigious pulses.” These are the two most common explanations for FRBs, yet Brian Butler, of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, has brought up a good point. Butler has told CNN, “We do have to keep in mind that this FRB is the only one known to repeat, so it may be physically different from the others.” Because this FRB has had a history of repeating occurrences, we may not have any idea as to what this FRB is resulting from.

Since scientists are still unsure and unaware about what is causing these radio signals, it is hard to know anything for fact. These developments, however, have given way for more exploration, more experimentation, and new hypotheses to be formed on the basis of this data. For scientists, this topic is still very premature and could quickly develop with improved technology. These discoveries could prove to be something we have never seen before within our galaxy, and could lead to further space travel and exploration. For us on Earth, we should be open and willing to new and different possibilities on where these radio signals may be coming from.

The author, James Griffiths, has done an incredible job writing this article and has successfully supported his statements by including photographs, drawings, and quotes from researchers and scientists themselves. Through his use of quotes, Griffiths has established himself as a credible source for information. Griffiths has also effectively presented his findings in an article format, while at the same time being able to successfully influence and persuade his audience. However, by the end of his article, Griffiths still had left some unanswered questions for the readers. For example, he discussed how “extraterrestrial intelligence is not near the top of the list of explanations,” regarding the radio signal, but failed to tell us why there is a very slim chance that this is a possibility. Also, Griffiths could have organized his article more fluently. Instead of jumping right into the data and beginning to analyze it, Griffiths first should have introduced what is known about this mysterious signal, and then gone ahead into his findings. To improve upon both of these things, Griffiths can try to structure his report in a smoother way, in order to provide his audience with more information ahead of time. This way, his readers will be well-informed before he even begins to discuss the possibilities of this mysterious signal. He can also try to answer some of the simple, unknown questions that his audience was left with at the end of his article.