Top Three Science stories of 2015

Alexandre Beikos
Mr.Youell

Science

Start: Wednesday, January 13, 2016

End: Friday, January 22, 2016

Article #1: Water on Mars https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-confirms-evidence-that-liquid-water-flows-on-today-s-mars

Article #2: Black Hole http://www.astronomy.com/news/2015/09/black-hole-is-30-times-expected-size

Article #3: Human Species http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/09/new-human-species-discovered

Do you think living on Mars would be imaginable? With this first extraordinary research NASA’s performed it might be likely to settle in a new planet. These studies demonstrate that there are minor amounts of actual water spread all over Mars.

Image 1

While Scientists have used an imaging spectrometer on MRO, they have detected that hydrated minerals lie beneath a small hill on Mars. During warm seasons it appears that several streaks of this liquid (water) is flowing down steep slopes (see image 1). When Mars turns into a much cooler season, temperatures drop below 20 degrees Celsius.

An MRO is used to observe different details and features that have enabled findings such as, “the puzzling seasonal streaks is a big step towards explaining what they are”, said Rich Zurek, an MRO project scientist. An MRO has been used for researching and examining scientific tools since 2006. With this technology the new findings are proof of the strange darkened streaks of liquid which nobody knew what they were.

 An astronaut and associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate John Grunsfeld said that their goal was to find out if there is water existing in Mars, and today they confirm that there is actual water on Mars’ surface. These flows of water are known as recurring slope lineae, these substances of hydrated salts are dark features, they can from once in a while lower their freezing point and then another substance would make it to darken (see image 1). For example, when salt is dropped on the roads it causes the ice and snow to melt more rapidly, that's what would happen on Mars. Ms.Lujendra from the Institute of technology in Georgia said that they have found  hydrated salts only in the broadest seasons of Mars, this suggests that the dark flows themselves or a process that formed them might be the the hydration that occurs.

A spectrometer was used to identify the different locations were the hydrated salts were found, these salts were mostly combined with other chemicals such as magnesium perchlorate, magnesium chlorate and sodium perchlorate. Several perchlorates have shown that they keep liquids from freezing in extreme cold conditions.

In conclusion scientists have discovered a way to find, analyze and prove that actual water on Mars exists, this water was created when substances of hydrated salts would lower to their freezing point and it would darken through time. The scientists proved their work by using an orbiter that would take photos for them to analyze and get a better understanding of these mysteries. I think that this is a great article and I hope that scientists would be able to get more information to actually know if there is water and a hope to live there once. This article is significant because it shows and explains how scientists use technology to discover new worlds out there that have water on them to actually live on those places if something goes wrong on Earth.

Have you ever known the actual size of a black hole? Another research was written by the Royal Astronomical Society explaining the discovery of a black hole that may be thirty times the normal size of an actual black hole.

A supermassive black hole and another galaxy were recently found (see image 2), work from Astronomers show that this specific black hole is larger than usual.  It was found to be 350 million times the mass of our Sun however the mass itself contained 25 billion solar masses. This galaxy called SAGE0536AGN which was originally discovered by NASA’s Spitzer space telescope, it was found out that it was at least 9 billion years old. The galaxy contains Active Galactic Nucleus, this is an extremely bright object which is powered from the accretion of gas from a supermassive black hole. This gas is accelerated due to the black hole’s gravitational field and causes the AGC to emit powerful and very bright light. The Astronomers also confirmed that the black hole exists by measuring the speed of gas moving around it.

Scientists observed the emission of hydrogen in the galaxy spectrum where light is dispersed into different colors by using the Southern African Large Telescope. This can be seen the same using a prism and some light, it is expanded through the Doppler effect (this is the change in frequency of a wave for an observer moving relative to its source) where the wavelength of light from objects are blue or red depending on how they move. Depending on how the gas expands and moves at high speeds determines the gravitational field of the black hole.

Image 2

“Galaxies have a vast mass and so do the black holes in their cores. This one though is really big for its boots, it simply shouldn’t be possible to it to be so large”, said Jacco Van Loon from Keele University. This black hole grows much faster than a usual black hole that would grow at the same rate as the galaxy or it has stopped growing for decades.

According to this research Astronomers discovered a supermassive black hole that grows faster than its usual speed (see image 2). I think that this discovery is significant because humans are still trying to find out more about our and other galaxies , the galaxy is still in its first phase and there is plenty more to be researched by scientists.

How many species in our human tree do we have? This last research was conducted by several paleontologists that discovered plenty of fossils that were mentioned as new species.

First of all Pedro Boshoff discovered ancient teeth and a jaw deep underground in a chamber. While analyzing these pieces Boshoff mentioned, “Something bizarre is going on”. He explained this as an ancient individual that had small front teeth like a human today however it had larger molars like a more primitive human ancestor. Other researchers defined this human as a relatively tall and skinny hominid with long legs, human like feet, a core and a shoulder that are very similar to a primitive human. A co-worker of Boshoff named tracy kivell identified that the bones in the wrist were shaped like we have nowadays, suggesting that the palm on the hand at the base had more stiff muscles. This shows the evolution of humans.

Second of all a paleontologist named William harcourt studied on the foot of this specie, he found out that its proportions and the big toe was aligned perfectly like humans today however the toes where diverging to an ape's much bigger toe. Both of these (hand and feet) suggest that, “you have a creature that would have walked upright really well but also would have been comfortable in the trees”, said Harcourt.

Image 3

This last article was very interesting because these paleontologists studied and researched new species. They researched different bones and remains from a selection of bones that were found deep underground (see image 3). I think that this article is very interesting because these people added one of our species to the tree of hominids and will be recognized for many years to come.

Concluding these three articles signifies a lot for scientists, researchers and people that found or discovered water on Mars or a supermassive black hole and even a new species to the tree. The first article was very interesting because scientists discovered water on Mars and in a possible future they might have plenty of information for a new settlement. The second article was inspiring because mankind has always thought that black holes were the same size anywhere but in that article they prove to the world that there are different shapes, sizes and even they have different elements in them. The third article was very exciting because paleontologists discovered a new family member to the tree of humanoids which they analyzed from original remains. Did you enjoy this thriving and exciting adventure through three different articles that took a path to success?

Bibliograhy:
Article #1: NASA. NASA, n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2016. <https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-confirms-evidence-that-liquid-water-flows-on-today-s-mars>.
Article #2: "Black Hole Is 30 times Expected Size." Astronomy.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2016. <http://www.astronomy.com/news/2015/09/black-hole-is-30-times-expected-size>.
Article #3: "New Human Species Discovered." Science. N.p., 10 Sept. 2015. Web. 22 Jan. 2016. <http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/09/new-human-species-discovered>.