Daily Archives: April 6, 2015

If Earth had Rings

One of the most distinctive astronomical features of our solar system is the brilliant ring system of Saturn. Due to their position, scale and material composition, Saturn’s rings have a visibility and tone not present in the ring systems of other planets. I wondered what it would look like if earth had rings and what […] Continue reading

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Armageddon: The End or a New Beginning?

Armageddon is a word that generally refers to an end-of-the-world scenario. One of the more common ideas, in regards to Armageddon, is that our end shall come at the hands of an impact from a near-Earth object (comets, asteroids, meteorites) that will create such a disturbance from not only the energy released from the initial impact, but also the […] Continue reading

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What is the true mission of NASA?

Ted Cruz has drawn both criticism and support in recent weeks for his declaration that NASA should be focused on the tangible goals of space exploration rather than their recent endeavors into earth science and climate change. Some see his arguments as longing for the inspirational spirit of NASA’s classic Apollo missions, but others see […] Continue reading

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Io being squeezed

We all know that Jupiter exerts tremendous tidal squeezing on Io, but we need images to truly grasp the magnitude of this force. This image shows Io spewing a 200 mile high volcanic plume! For reference, that is greater than the distance from Nashville to Knoxville! It is baffling to think that tidal squeezing alone […] Continue reading

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Green Galaxies?

Back in 2007, using the popular website Galaxy Zoo, Hanny van Arkel discovered galaxies with emitting a green color. Though stars emit the color green, it is thought that it isn’t possible for their color to appear green. Now equipped with new … Continue reading Continue reading

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Why I did not like the movie “Interstellar”

When Cristopher Nolan’s Interstellar hit the theaters in November 2014, I decided to wait for reviews from my friends. My friends, most of whom were pursuing Electrical Engineering and Physics majors, had this to say about the movie after they watched it: “Meh, too many logic holes”. So I skipped the movie; but over the […] Continue reading

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Lunar Eclipse Creates an Apocalyptic View

Last weekend, one of the first two lunar eclipses of 2015 occurred and left a great view. The moon dimmed and turned red giving it an eerie and dark feeling, leading some people to dub it as a blood moon. As we have learned already, eclipses consist of two parts. The penumbra is when the […] Continue reading

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Space has a lot of….space

Most people, including myself before ASTR201, have only seen seen the scaled models of the solar systems where planets are to scale but right next to each other. However, space is called space for a reason. You may have heard of the real life scaled down model, but you would never understand the true emptiness […] Continue reading

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An End to the Discovery of Bright Kuiper Belt Objects?

Check out this image from Universe Today: This shows the largest known objects in the Kuiper Belt. Pretty interesting to …

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Merging Green Galaxies

This picture is a pretty cool visual representation of what’s going on way out there in outer space. This picture …

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