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Monthly Archives: March 2014
NASA’s Budget Problems
Space should be made more accessible to the average person. That should be one of the main concerns for mankind as a whole in the next few decades. For years, interest in space has been dwindling, and it seems that all that is left are the last few dying embers of a once great … Continue reading NASA’s Budget Problems →
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The Probability of Life “Out There”
Is there other intelligent life in the universe? Mathematically speaking, there’s almost got to be some. In fact, it would be quite surprising to find out that there aren’t other intelligent life forms, let alone simple life. Life as we know it can exist in a plethora of places and environments on Earth itself, … Continue reading The Probability of Life “Out There” →
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Posted in Aliens, Exoplanets, Universe
Tagged astro201, blog5, exoplanet, extraterrestrial, life
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Goodness Gracious, Great Balls of Fire
The Sun is often referred to as a great big ball of burning gas, perhaps most famously by Pumbaa in Disney’s The Lion King. This is actually a misconception because the hydrogen in the Sun does not burn, but rather emits energy through the process of nuclear fusion. If the Sun was really burning, then […]
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Super Volcanoes
As we know, volcanoes have a significant impact on how Earth looks today. They replenish the atmosphere and fill in craters. However, those are just regular volcanic eruptions. Super volcanoes have magma chambers (which power the explosion) that dwarf that of “normal” volcanoes. A super volcano eruption could wipe out mankind. Luckily these explosions are incredibly […]
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Aurora
The Earth has a magnetosphere that protects us from charged solar particles coming from the sun. However, some charged particles manage to penetrate the magnetosphere. These then follow the magnetic lines of our magnetosphere. If these gain enough energy they can travel down into Earth’s atmosphere. Here they hit atoms and molecules, causing them to […]
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Why is there water on the Earth?
By the current model of solar system formation, the solar system formed according to what materials condense at which distances. Near the center of the solar system nothing could condense because it was so hot. It was also very dense there, and this was where the sun formed. Farther out from the center, rocky and […]
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Posted in Class
Tagged astro201, blog5, Solar System
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The Future of Life On Earth
The future of Earth and the future of life depends on multiple factors. Disregarding human technology and the effects of global warming, Earth’s future depends on interactions with other objects in the solar system, the increase in the Sun’s luminosity, and the rate of cooling of the Earth’s interior. For example, scientists have predicted that […]
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Space Travel
Most people think traveling through an asteroid field would take a complicated series of evasive maneuvers and luck, but as it turns out, Star Wars got that part wrong. Dodging asteroids (like in the above picture), but odds are, you could steer blindly and never even come close to hitting anything. This is because asteroids […]
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Posted in Class
Tagged astro201, blog 5, composition, misconception, spacetravel
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The Prodigious Sun
Is the Sun an efficient producer of energy via nuclear fusion? While humanity may be years away from commercializing nuclear fusion power, the Sun has been doing it for a while now (and for free!). The Sun is the most efficient generator of nuclear power in our solar system. Inside the Sun, nuclear reactions are … Continue reading The Prodigious Sun →
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If the Moon were only 1 pixel
Someone named Josh Worth made a to-scale model of our solar system wherein the Moon is only one pixel in diameter, and it’s totally awesome. The horizontally-scrollable webpage starts at the Sun, and moves right, with text interspersed into the vast distance between planets. What’s so cool about this particular model is that it represents…
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Posted in Class, Universe
Tagged astro201, blog6, If the Moon were only 1 pixel, scale, Solar System
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