Susie Goodell
Mr. Ippolito
Core Biology
2/17/17
Perkins, Sid. "Exploding Star Yields Its Secrets." Science. N.p., 13 Feb. 2017. Web. 14 Feb. 2017. <http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/02/exploding-star-yields-its-secrets>.
This article, published by Science Magazine, discusses how astronomers were able to see the effects of a supernova that occurred millions of years ago. Located in a galaxy about 160 million years from Earth, this supernova, called SN 2013fs, was detected for the first time on October 6th, 2013. The data collected and the analyses were released on Monday. The scientists concluded the star was a red supergiant that was 8 to 10 times the size of the Sun, according to Ofer Yaron, an astrophysicist who led the team studying the supernova. This team noticed something they had never seen before while studying the supernova. The researchers discovered that a relatively dense shell of gas was shed at the end of the star’s life. Astronomer Derek Fox of Pennsylvania State University in University Park says, “‘The star had substantial weight loss in the last year of its life. That’s new,’” The scientists inferred that the shell was shed during the last five hundred days of its life. The shell of material was swept away within five days of the explosion. Scientists have been given a chance to see what the environment of a supernova looks like before it destroys all of the material around it.
Scientists have struggled to understand what happens in the phase of stellar evolution between when the supernova occurs and stars begin to form again. The findings from this explosion provide astrophysicists with this needed information. The data that was obtained and the results that were inferred from it allowed scientists a glimpse at the phase of stellar evolution.
If another supernova is seen in the explosion, scientists can compare the results with the ones found with SN 2013fs and determine whether or not this was a normal result or just a fluke. With this kind of data, scientists might even be able to spot supernovas before they occur.
This article was very informative and I learned so much about what was discovered concerning the death of a star. The quotes the author chose to include show how credible his sources are, as they came from science researchers and professors from across the world. The author ends the article by describing what research will be done in the future to develop what was found here and what readers can look going forward. The problem with this article, however, is that the author only lists facts and discoveries for the majority of the article. I felt overwhelmed when I read it because all he was doing was stating facts. The author wasn’t taking the time to explain what the results meant for science and the world. This is important for him to fix because the article will have relayed no understanding of the events that occurred to the readers and it will have been a waste of time for them.
Julian Thomet
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Bio IH D135
17 February, 2017
Perkins, Sid. "Exploding Star Yields Its Secrets." Science. N.p., 13 Feb. 2017. Web. 14 Feb. 2017. .
Current Events
My classmate, Susie, wrote a review about the article “Exploding Star Yields Its Secrets”. On the whole, this review was extremely well written. One thing that Susie did well was that she provided the reader with the observations that the scientists made before telling us what they had inferred from those observations. This made it possible to follow the scientists’ train of thought and to understand what led to their conclusions, instead of just assuming that they had a good reason. Susie also did a good job of explaining the importance of the scientists’ findings. She wrote an entire paragraph about how the information helped astrophysicists understanding of stellar evolution. This helped me to appreciate the significance of the information that was being written about. Finally, Susie also wrote about what this new discovery could mean for future scientists.
There were not major problems with Susie’s review, but there were a couple of minor issues. For one, she ended the article by discussing the problems with the article. Although that is an important section to have, it is not the strongest way to end a review. All that would be required to fix this would be one or two sentences at the end, which summarize the writing. The only other thing was that some of the paragraphs were a bit brief. It seemed as though there was more to some of the ideas being discussed, but then Susie moved on to another idea. The way to fix this would be to join the smaller paragraphs to make them larger ones and connect the ideas therein.
The main thing that struck me about Susie’s review was that scientists are able to observe and make precise observations about events that happened many years ago and many light years away. In spite of this, scientists were able to tell, almost on a day-to-day basis, what was happening at the supernova. It shows how far science has come, and it makes one wonder about how much more advanced science can get over the next century.
Bailey Barton
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Biology - Current Event #4
3/3/17
Perkins, Sid. "Exploding Star Yields Its Secrets." Science. N.p., 13 Feb. 2017. Web. 14 Feb. 2017
http://bhscorebio.blogspot.com/2017/02/exploding-star-yields-its-secrets.html#comment-form
My classmate, Susie Goodell, wrote a great review on “Exploding Stars Yield Its Secrets”. I found that she gave great information which was necessary for the reader to understand the article to its full extent. The article itself discussed the discovery of a supernova’s effects which occurred millions of years ago. This supernova had been concluded to be 8 to 10 times the size of the sun. From a perspective of an amature astrologist, I found this information helpful when visualizing. Susie gave great contextual information such as background on the scientists, as well as going into detail as to how they went about analyzing the supernova. Susie stated “The researchers discovered that a relatively dense shell of gas was shed at the end of the star’s life.”. I quoted this because I admired the way Susie transitioned from contextual aspect to giving the reader a great understanding of the article’s main point while using language which made it easy to understand rather than technical terms.
Susie’s article only contained minor flaws. Although Susie gave context and necessary information on the new learning experience the scientists had, I would have liked longer paragraphs maybe connecting other scientists analysis of supernovas, showing why this new found shed layer of gas made such an impact. Another minor issue was the criticism towards the end. I agree with Susie’s suggested solution, however the review felt unfinished. I would have preferred a sentence maybe highlighting the overall beneficiality of the article rather ending on a discussion of flaws.
I enjoyed reading this article because I rarely read about astrological news, which is why I chose this review. I enjoyed reading because I feel as though I first hand read about the new development in supernova analysis.
Marina Alfano
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Core Biology
3/5/17
Perkins, Sid. "Exploding Star Yields Its Secrets." Science. N.p., 13 Feb. 2017. Web. 14 Feb. 2017. .
When I went to look for a review to read, the one titled “Exploding Star Yields Its Secrets” reviewed by my classmate Susanna Goodell sparked my interest. Overall, her review was well written and provided me with the information I needed to know. I liked how she contextualized the supernova, explaining its size, age, and distance from the earth. This was helpful because it served as a reference point for any any information she gave us. Susie also put in quotes from astrologists which is helpful because they are experts in the field and can help us understand what these findings mean in terms of changing how we think about stellar evolution. I also appreciated that she dedicated her last paragraph to what these results mean for the future of astronomy.
Susies review contained nothing major that needed to be fixed, although a few things could have been edited to aid the reader's understanding. I think that Susie could have moved around some things in her paragraphs and made them slightly longer because some of them were a bit brief, yet they were talking about important information. I also think that within making her paragraphs longer, she could add in one or two more quotes. When analyzing something that we don’t know much about, I think it would be best to include more information from experts instead of paraphrasing what they said. Also, in her review of the article, I would have liked one closing statement instead of ending with a criticism. An overall summary of her thoughts on the article would have been appreciated.
I chose this article because when we took earth science, I was really interested in the astronomy unit and wanted to learn more about it. I think it's crazy that scientists are able to record precise data from events that are happening 160 million light years away from Earth. As Susie mentioned at the end of her summary, I would like to know what this means for future astronomers and I will keep up with any more news on this topic.
Olivia Doyle
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Current Events Comment
11 March 2017
Perkins, Sid. "Exploding Star Yields Its Secrets." Science. N.p., 13 Feb. 2017. Web. 14 Feb. 2017. .
This week, I read my classmate Susie’s review on the article “Exploding Star Yields its Secrets” published in a science magazine. The article discusses a supernova that scientists have studied that could lead to essential information on the phases of stellar evolution. In Susie’s review, she gave a wonderful description on the effects of the discovery of this supernova. The article mainly listed facts, but Susie was able to interpret these facts in a way that she could understand the results of studying this supernova. She says, “The data that was obtained and the results that were inferred from it allowed scientists a glimpse at the phase of stellar evolution.” She even goes on to talk about the results of studying another supernova in comparison to this one, saying, “If another supernova is seen in the explosion, scientists can compare the results with the ones found with SN 2013fs and determine whether or not this was a normal result or just a fluke. With this kind of data, scientists might even be able to spot supernovas before they occur.” Secondly, Susie’s article was very well written in the way that she varied her sentence structure and organized her paragraphs. Her transition from the first to second paragraph was very smooth, which talks about what scientists were given the opportunity to see in the supernova and how that affects science overall. Lastly, Susie incorporated quotes from scientists’ into her article, which is very important as it further enhances her summary and her argument that this discovery changed the way stellar evolution is viewed.
Susie’s article was extremely well-organized and written, and thus there were very minor changes that could be made. Although her summary was very solid, I think there should have been more detail in the part of the article discussing the reactions that occur in the supernova- such as a description of the paragraph that begins with, “ As radiation spewed forth from the supernova, it lit up the gas surrounding the star and stripped electrons from atoms there.” This would have given the reader a better understanding of what actually happens in a supernova in the process of stellar evolution. Additionally, Susie should have added an overall sentence at the end, rather than finishing with the article’s flaws. This overall statement ties any loose ends and wraps up the points she made, thus leaving the reader satisfied with the review as a whole.
This article appealed to me as I was interested in the process of stellar evolution that we learned about in Earth science. I find it fascinating that a supernova can result in the creation of new stars. Something I found interesting about this article was the fact that the mass of the shell of gas around the star is one-thousandth the mass of the sun, which is greater than the mass of Jupiter! This observation differentiates this supernova from other models of stellar evolution, making it even more interesting. Overall, I am fascinated by new astronomical discoveries and am looking forward to reading more articles on discoveries that challenge ideas that we consider to be true today.