Daily Archives: April 10, 2013

The K-Pg Event, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Exterminate the Dinosaurs

Posted on April 10, 2013 by rtjobe

Also known as the K-T Event, its name is derived from the German words for Cretaceous and Paleogene. It has been a long-held belief by scientists that it was an impact by a large comet or asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs. Fossil records indicate that 66 million years ago, almost 75% of life on […] Continue reading →

Posted in Class | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on The K-Pg Event, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Exterminate the Dinosaurs

The Galilean Moons

Posted on April 10, 2013 by rtjobe

The Galilean moons of Jupiter are in order of distance Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. They are the four largest and most prominent of the 67 moons orbiting Jupiter, these four moons are some of the largest moons in the solar system–Callisto and Ganymede are even larger than Mercury, while Io and Europa are smaller […] Continue reading →

Posted in Class, Moons | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Galilean Moons

Comets and Meteor Showers

Posted on April 10, 2013 by YanruChen

Everybody loves comets. Just think of a flashy ball with a lovely tail crossing the night sky. How beautiful it is! Most people like me have many misconceptions about comets however. The most surprising thing about comets I learned from Astronomy 201 is that meteor showers are actually from comets! How can that be? The […] Continue reading →

Posted in Class | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Comets and Meteor Showers

Gushing With Life

Posted on April 10, 2013 by burnspress

The search for extrasolar planets and potential for alien life is one of the hottest topics in modern science. As such, I thought it would be interesting to discuss the place that some scientists say is most likely to alien host life. Enceladus seems to be at the top of everyone’s list for alien host […] Continue reading →

Posted in Aliens | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Gushing With Life

Gravitational Slingshots

Posted on April 10, 2013 by ibrahim2016

I always wondered why doesn’t the sun slow space probes down when they are leaving the Earth for outer planets. Isn’t there a risk that the probe might change its trajectory and fall into the sun? There is. You see, the more distant the space probe gets from the Sun, the more potential energy it […] Continue reading →

Posted in Physics, Science | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Gravitational Slingshots

Stories about Europa

Posted on April 10, 2013 by YanruChen

Among four Galilean moons, my favorite one is Europa. Known as the water world, Europa has huge abundance of liquid water beneath its icy surface. Let’s take a closer look of how this extrapolation of liquid water on Europa. Water is suspected to be the agency that erases Europa’s relatively young surface. The double-ridges on […] Continue reading →

Posted in Class | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Stories about Europa

Transiting Exoplanets: The Search for Terrestrial Worlds

Posted on April 10, 2013 by werdercj

On Monday, NASA announced a new project scheduled to launch in 2017: the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).  This project was selected after a three-year competition, and will use surveys covering 400 times as much sky as any past missions to discover transiting exoplanets.  This struck me as particularly significant having just studied methods of […] Continue reading →

Posted in Exoplanets, Stars | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Transiting Exoplanets: The Search for Terrestrial Worlds

Astronomy and its Misconceptions

Posted on April 10, 2013 by zoodrey

I was browsing earlier and decided to think back on some of the assumptions I had about our Solar System before beginning this class. I stumbled upon this page and was proud to say that although I was not THAT clueless, I was guilty of some of the common misconceptions about Astronomy. It was interesting to … Continue reading » Continue reading →

Posted in Class | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Astronomy and its Misconceptions

And Then There were 8

Posted on April 10, 2013 by zoodrey

Bye pluto We all learned the acronym back in elementary school: My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas. Now the joke going around is that we have to learn My Very Evil Mother Just Served Us Nothing. Not only is Pluto killing our childhood knowledge, it’s also being mean to moms! So the … Continue reading » Continue reading →

Posted in Class | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on And Then There were 8

TESS: a New Eye in the Sky

Posted on April 10, 2013 by zvgio

NASA has a new project set to launch in 2017 and it’s going to be big. The TESS project will be tasked with the most trendy task in astronomy these days: finding exoplanets. Using a slew of wide-view cameras, TESS will peer tirelessly at the stars looking for “transits,” or dips in brightness when an […] Continue reading →

Posted in Exoplanets, Instruments | Tagged , , | Comments Off on TESS: a New Eye in the Sky