Sarah Goodell
Mr. Ippolito
Core Bio: Current Event Review
2 June, 2017
Current Event #14
Overbye, Dennis. "Third Gravitational Wave Detection, From Black-Hole Merger 3 Billion Light Years Away." The New York Times. The New York Times, 01 June 2017. Web. 02 June 2017. <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/01/science/black-holes-collision-ligo-gravitational-waves.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fspace>.
This week, I read an article called “Third Gravitational Wave Detection, From Black-Hole Merger 3 Billion Light Years Away” by The New York Times author Dennis Overbye. Overbye’s article discussed how in the past few years, astronomers have developed a new system of detecting gravitational waves, called LIGO, or the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. LIGO is designed to look for changes in gravitational waves, which alternately stretch space as they travel at the speed of light, by using lasers to monitor the distance between mirrors through a pair of antennae. About a week ago, scientists were able to detect gravitational waves from a pair of gigantic black holes that had merged together, which had resulted in a large mass weighing as much as 49 suns. This “black-hole merger” is predicted to have been located three billion light years from Earth, and is said to have shed more energy, in the form of gravitational waves, than all the stars in the observable universe. Since the formation of LIGO, this has been the third pair of merging black holes that has been discovered. Although LIGO’s founders and other astronomers originally did not know if there were any black hole collisions around to detect at all, they decided to test their hypotheses. Their results proved to be accurate based on Einstein’s predictions and equations, which verify that different frequencies of gravity waves all travel at the same speed, or the speed of light. So now, as David Reitze, who is the director of the LIGO Laboratory, said, “We’re starting to fill in the mass spectrum of black holes in the universe,” which had once gone undetectable. France Cordova, the founder of the National Science Foundation, which has provided one billion dollars to LIGO over the past 40 years, responded to the findings, saying, “This is exactly what we hoped for from N.S.F.’s investment in LIGO: taking us deeper into time and space in ways we couldn’t do before the detection of gravitational waves.”
Overbye’s article is relevant to society in that this is a topic that we have been trying to dive deeper into for years now. Black holes have continuously remained one of the greatest mysteries regarding space, given that they are not easily identifiable by telescope. The gravitational wave detections used to track the merging black holes can pave the way for future astronomical developments regarding what is still unknown and regarding space travel. Dr. Stanek, a co-leader of these discoveries working at Ohio State, wrote, “I am obviously biased, but I think this is a very important discovery, and one that the community is not yet fully ‘groking’ in how it will impact a number of things, including LIGO results.” Dr. Holz, who works at the University of Chicago, also said that “...this might be a channel for ‘heavy’ black hole formation...now in some sense we get to watch both the birth and the death of the black holes,” which is an amazing discovery for our society on Earth as a whole.
As I read Overbye’s article, I originally thought that it was very confusing and a bit too long. I had to read through his article multiple times just to understand the basics of the experiments being performed at LIGO. I also thought that he could have organized it better and put it into simpler terms to help the reader understand this concept at a deeper level. Although it was a more difficult read, the author was able to include quotes from a multitude of credited sources. Overbye also attempts to answer the ambiguous question he addresses: “Where did such massive black holes come from?” He takes two or three paragraphs after posing this question to suggest several possibilities, and even discusses how future research may be done to identify black holes’ origins. Overall, Overbye taught me a lot about black holes and about the research that is being done. I also learned about how that research will eventually change our society and our understanding of Earth.
Catie Burnell
ReplyDeleteMr. Ippolito
Core Biology Honors
June 7, 2017
My classmate Sarah Goodell recently wrote a review on the article "Third Gravitational Wave Detection, From Black-Hole Merger 3 Billion Light Years Away," written by Dennis Overbye of The New York Times. Sarah did a great job in simplifying information from a very information-heavy, complicated article so that it was easy for readers such as myself to understand. Sarah also incorporated some quotes in her review that backed up her claims well and made her review more credible. I also enjoyed how Sarah critiqued the author of the article as it showed she was closely reading the article and showed what she learned from the article.
Although Sarah overall had a well-written review, there are a couple of things she could improve upon. For example, it would have been great if she had included some more details on other recent advances in black hole research as this would have provided more context for her claims. Additionally, the reason she gives for the article’s significance is a bit vague and possibly could have included more specific reasons as to why the findings are important to science. However, Sarah still wrote a very well-composed, comprehensive review.
What shocked me most about this article is that how complex black holes are and how so little is known about them. Although the idea of a black hole has been considered since the eighteenth century, the modern interpretation of the phenomenon was introduced in 1958 by David Finkelstein. The research detailed in Overbye’s article, done by MIT astronomers, is a massive advance in black hole research and “validated Einstein’s longstanding prediction that space-time can shake like a bowlful of jelly when massive objects swing their weight around…” (Overbye 2017)
Overbye, Dennis. "Third Gravitational Wave Detection, From Black-Hole Merger 3 Billion Light Years Away." The New York Times. The New York Times, 01 June 2017. Web. 02 June 2017.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/01/science/black-holes-collision-ligo-gravitational-waves.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fspace
Last year Sarah Goodell wrote a review on an article by Dennis Overbye called “Third Gravitational Wave Detection, From Black-Hole Merger 3 Billion Light Years Away.” She showed some very interesting facts about this article and was able to explain them in very simple ways that allowed me to understand what Overbye was talking about. For example when she goes in to talking about gravitational waves, she takes some time to explain what they are. Sarah also used a lot of quotes and examples to back up points she was trying to make. An example of this would be when she is making a point on how this article is relevant to society and then leads a trail to show to the reader how it is relevant to society and then finally shows other examples with quotes. One other thing that Sarah Goodell did well in her article was how she critiqued the article, because it showed how she read the article and was then able to learn something. For example she talks about how the Overbye didn’t define LIGO very well and how in general the organization of the article was not very good.
ReplyDeleteI feel as though Sarah could have improved upon the flow of the article because it makes it harder to read and may draw away readers. This could be improved upon by splitting up the paragraphs more evenly and distributing quotes so that there either throughout the review or near the end of each paragraph. She is also fairly repetitive which as well could draw away readers because it makes it seem like you are just reading the same paragraph over and over with slightly different evidence. She could fix this by being more specific in what she talking about and breaking each paragraph into more defined groups.
I found it very interesting that we can detect black holes merging which are 300 billion light years away, that is very impressive and I believe shows great advancement in knowledge and technology. I also find it very interesting that Einstein was able to theorize about this. This changes the way I view our planet because it shows how there are big things out in the universe that we may have no knowledge and that makes me feel small, but also eager to understand what those things may be.
Overbye, Dennis. "Third Gravitational Wave Detection, From Black-Hole Merger 3 Billion Light Years Away." The New York Times. The New York Times, 01 June 2017. Web. 02 June 2017.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/01/science/black-holes-collision-ligo-gravitational-waves.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fspace
https://bhscorebio.blogspot.com/2017/06/third-gravitational-wave-detection-from.html
In this review, I really liked how the viewer presented her views and opinions on this certain topic. She diligently explained what the article was about and why they began to study and write about it. She got into depth about how its relevant to society and how it was an important topic that needed to be addressed. Along with the quotes she incorporated, each one gave the reader a better understanding of the article as a whole and also why she had certain opinions on some claims.
ReplyDeleteAlthough there were many positives, I also have to acknowledge the negatives. She only focused into what needs to be done or advanced, and only vaguely touched on what they recently have prepared or done well. She also could have written about how each discovery that has been made and other findings can be great and interesting subjects for scientists in present day.
The article in general gave me a better and deeper understanding of the recent discoveries connected to black holes. The advancements scientists have made recently have made black holes a more hot topic to all researchers, although they were discovered and have been researched since the eighteenth century. Sarah chose to add an engaging and astonishing fact that made the article that much more affective, "The gravitational wave detections used to track the merging black holes can pave the way for future astronomical developments regarding what is still unknown and regarding space travel."