Daily Archives: March 14, 2015

Space Movies – Fact or Fiction?

Our in class discussion about some space movies had me venturing down a rabbit hole about Hollywood’s misconceptions about space. The most entertaining aspect for me is how movies portray character deaths in space. Movies always find creative and dramatic ways for their characters to die in space – none of which are accurate. In […] Continue reading

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Dark matter

Dark matter is a hypothetical matter that neither emits nor absorbs light or any other electromagnetic radiations so that it cannot be seen with any telescopes nowadays. However, dark matter accounts for most of the matter in the universe, and it should be responsible for many phenomena occurring in the universe. According to the standard… Continue reading

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The Aurora Phenomenom

Auroras are caused when particles from the sun become trapped in a planet’s magnetosphere. These particles gain energy and travel down the magnetic field and collide with atmospheric atoms and molecules. This collision is what produces the light that we see in an aurora. We have all probably seen pictures of auroras on Earth. Do […] Continue reading

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Climate Change

Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time (i.e., decades to millions of years). (Definition from Wikipedia) Climate change is caused by biotic processes, variations in solar radiation, plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions. Human activities have also been regarded as a cause of recent… Continue reading

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The Biggest Volcano in the Solar System

The biggest volcano in the solar system was discovered in 1971 by the space probe Mariner 9, though it is …

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Debating about the Dwarf Planets

When I received an e-mail from my astronomy professor from last semester, David Weintraub, about an article that he had recently written for The Conversation, I was quite excited to read it. Professor Weintraub is very passionate about Pluto and quite vocal about his disapproval of its demoted status. This article, entitled “NASA missions may […] Continue reading

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A Moment of Appreciation for the Sun

One object in the Solar System that I tend to take for granted proves to be the Sun. Because it is a constant in my life and I always know that I can depend on it rising and setting everyday, I often overlook how powerful it is. The Sun has been shining for 4.6 billion […] Continue reading

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