Text title: Interstellar object 'Oumuamua is a pancake-shaped chunk of a Pluto-like planet
Text type: Article
Text creator: Charles Q. Choi
Text purpose: To inform us about the interstellar object 'Oumuamua.
Critical Literacy Question: Why is the text written in the way it is?
Date: 26th March, 2021
Why is the text written in the way it is?
The text in the article is written in a way that hooks the reader in before giving the information about the object. For instance, the author describes the interstellar object without describing how its discovered.
Charles Q. Choi introduces;
"The first known visitor from interstellar space, 'Oumuamua, was likely a pancake-shaped chip off a Pluto-like world, researchers say.
These findings may shed light on the stuff a new class of planet, an exo-Pluto, is made of, scientists added."
Then, the author informs in-depth about 'Oumuamua and what happened to it.
'Oumuamua is a cigar-shaped interstellar object which came from another solar system. Astronomer Robert Weryk first discovered first detected the mysterious visitor and named 1I/'Oumuamua, using the Pan-STARRS telescope at Haleakalā Observatory, Hawaii, on 19 October 2017, 40 days after it passed its closest point to the Sun on 9th September. ʻOumuamua was named after 'scout' or 'messenger' in Hawaiian.
It was first observed when it was about 33 million kilometres (0.22 AU - Astronomical Unit) from Earth (around 85 times as far away as the Moon).
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| An artist's concept of the 'Oumuamua interstellar object as a pancake-shaped disk. A new study suggests it was once part of a Pluto-like exoplanet. Image credit: William Hartmann Credit: https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/PLTqNJsjSMfYFzKvtRY6rc-970-80.jpeg |
