Daily Archives: February 16, 2016

How Gravity Affects Space-Time

One of the more interesting (and more confusing) concepts we’ve learned thus far in the Solar System is the bending of spacetime. As can be seen in the figure below, massive objects with gravity (such as planets or stars) have the unique property in that they can bend the spacetime “grid” around them. Before you […] Continue reading

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How Gravity Affects Space-Time

One of the more interesting (and more confusing) concepts we’ve learned thus far in the Solar System is the bending of spacetime. As can be seen in the figure below, massive objects with gravity (such as planets or stars) have the unique property in that they can bend the spacetime “grid” around them. Before you […] Continue reading

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The Sun’s Absorption Spectrum

Absorption spectra occur when a hot solid or liquid or very dense gas give off a continuous spectrum, with all colors, and then that continuous light moves through a thin gas that is cooler than the source of the continuous light. This thin gas absorbs some of the light being given off by the source […] Continue reading

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love is in the spacetime

gravity has found itself grounded in a great deal of pop culture recently. from depictions in cinematic blockbusters to the recent historic breakthrough at LIGO, gravity has become somewhat of a household/cocktail party topic of conversation. being a physics major, over the years i’ve come to think of cosmological things in visuals, or colors, or little … Continue reading love is in the spacetime Continue reading

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Lunar and Solar Tides

Tides are a fascinating effect of the Moon and Sun’s gravitational forces acting on the Earth. They are a visible sign of how distance effects the strength of a gravitational force. Because the Sun is so large, it has the greatest gravitational force acting on the Earth. However, because it is so far away, the […] Continue reading

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The Solar System’s Symphony

Its common knowledge that space is a vacuum, and that sound can not be heard inside of a vacuum. However, this is not technically true.  The solar system is constantly pulsating and producing electromagnetic waves. While these electromagnetic waves go undetected by human ears, our friends at NASA have created a special tool that uses […] Continue reading

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One Shift, Two Shift, Redshift, Blueshift

Images: Redshifted, blueshifted spectra,   The Doppler shift You’re probably already familiar with the doppler effect of sound. Every time you hear a car zoom past, it pitch changes from higher as it approaches to lower as it leaves. This is because sound is dependent on the relative position of the observer, and if the sound […] Continue reading

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One Shift, Two Shift, Redshift, Blueshift

Images: Redshifted, blueshifted spectra,   The Doppler shift You’re probably already familiar with the doppler effect of sound. Every time you hear a car zoom past, it pitch changes from higher as it approaches to lower as it leaves. This is because sound is dependent on the relative position of the observer, and if the sound […] Continue reading

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I’m not an astrophysicist, but this is still exciting

captain’s blog, Stardate 69592.2 This blog post is the first without restrictions. and you know what that means. And because there are no rules, we’re gonna get crazy. This blog post is allowed to be about anything related to astronomy, so I figure why not blog about THE BIGGEST SCIENTIFIC FINDING OF THE YEAR. Yeah. I don’t […] Continue reading

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HW #B4 – To Blink Or Not To Blink

On a warm night this summer on Edisto Island, SC, my friends and I took to the beach to go shrimping. The after-dark escapade turned into a feeding frenzy, reaping monstrous crustaceans with beady, red eyes. The younger kids eventually took turns in the water, and I sat on a sand dune and looked up at the clear […] Continue reading

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