Sunspots Observation Report

The instructor was wrong in correcting the following answers:

1. William Herschel theory of life on the sun was motivated by which one of the following? The student answered, “By his observations of sunspots.” The instructor has crossed it as wrong.

According to a peer-reviewed article, written by Kawaler, S. and Veverka, J. (1981) and published in Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Vol. 75, Hershel’s observations of sunspots have led him to believe that they [i.e., the sunspots] “were holes in the outer luminous layers of the sun, through which we glimpse a dark, cold solid interior” (p. 50). This observational premise has led him to determine that “the sun viewed in this light appears to be nothing else

. . Russell, C. (2016). Detection of local H2O exposed at the surface of Ceres. Science (New York, N.Y.), 353(6303), N/a.

Neveu, M., & Desch, S. (2015). Geochemistry, thermal evolution, and cryovolcanism on Ceres with a muddy ice mantle. Geophysical Research Letters, 42(23), 10,197-10, 206.

Porco, C., Baker, E., Barbara, J., Beurle, K., Brahic, A., Burns, J . . . West, R. (2005). Imaging of Titan from the Cassini spacecraft. Nature, 434(7030), 159-68.

2. Define what teleology is, and give an example of its use in the context of the extraterrestrial life debate (2 marks)
The student’s answer: Teleology is defined as providing evidence to prove the existence of something such as living beings. Teleology can be used against the idea of life beyond our planet because there is no proof/evidence of any other life forms existing in our universe.

45). Hence, the student has correctly answered the question about the principle of plenitude. The marking schema states that the “Great Chain of being is the idea that everything existing in the universe has its place in the divine order.” The student wrote that the principle describes “everything existing in our universe” based on their spiritual size and categorization (i.e., its place). This is true as the grading schema indicates that “the placement in this chain depends on the relative proportion of spirit..” The grading schema further states that “based on the principle of plenitude, some earth Christian scholars argued that God created many creatures not just human beings and have placed these extraterrestrials on stars and planets all of the universe.” Hence, the student argued the same that the Christian scholars used this to further their argument of ETI existing, which is correct. The student has logically answered the