Monthly Archives: March 2014

Aurora

The Aurora, both Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis, is an incredibly beautiful phenomenon that is the result of important characteristics of our planet and its atmosphere. It is actually a result of electrically charged particles from the sun entering our … Continue reading Continue reading

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Formation of the Solar System

I have always been a fan of Stephen Hawking. In this video, he does a great job of explaining the formation of the solar system beginning with the origins of the universe. From the Big Bang and how the explosion of an ancient star spread out all the elements generated from its life and death … Continue reading Formation of the Solar System Continue reading

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Things You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know: Bismuth Edition

Bismuth, a very neat looking little element, is one of those things in life that went largely unrecognized for a long time, until the world wised up and started to take notice. I like that, because it means bismuth was … Continue reading Continue reading

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Why did the other planets get cool names but not us?

If you start naming of the planets you will realize that they all have something in common except for one of the planets.  That planet is actually our very own Earth.  The rest of the planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) are all named after a Greek  or Roman God or Goddess.  Earth […] Continue reading

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Exploration of Europa

Image Source For years now, scientists have been fascinated with Jupiter’s fourth largest moon known as Europa. What makes Europa such an interesting subject is the fact that it is home to a saltwater ocean beneath a layer of ice. Such characteristics make Europa the most likely other place in our Solar System to have […] Continue reading

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Geological Activity of Mercury

Image Source For many years, scientists have regarded Mercury as a planet that has little to offer, as it is more or less a ‘dead’ planet. Mercury has acquired such dull attributes given its treacherous location in the Solar System. Its proximity to the Sun allows the sun-facing side of mercury to reach temperatures of […] Continue reading

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Now You See Me

The sun is what gives us life, sustains humanity, and provides our planet with everything it needs to survive day to day.  Without Such an important star we would cease to exist.  Although the sun is the most important thing to our survival we don’t know a whole lot about it.  We know some details […] Continue reading

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Gas giants are a girl’s best friend

Rappers these days seem to emphasize how they ‘make it rain’ with money, sex, and drugs. But the gas giants of our solar system seem to have one-upped these ‘young upstarts’ (as my grandparents would say) by making it rain diamonds. Yes, literally, diamonds. According to findings by Dr Kevin Baines, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison […] Continue reading

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Am I beautiful enough for you?

Every teenager can confess to that one time when they saw a girl and thought she was the one. She was absolutely perfect, in looks and in personality. Let’s be real, it was only the looks. But when she got acne, that aura of divine beauty around her suddenly disappeared for you. You found it […] Continue reading

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The global warming “controversy” and the politicization of science

Despite popular, largely politically-based claims to the contrary, global warming is a scientific observation explained by an accepted, well-defined scientific theory. Most debate over whether global warming exists and how it is caused occurs not among scientists who study climate change, but among the general public, mostly due to a lack of understanding and what… Continue reading

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