Monthly Archives: February 2017

Blog #2: HAT-P-2’s Heart

Posted on February 14, 2017 by lillyastro2110

A very appropriate post for Valentine’s Day. NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered a unique quality of a star and its orbiting planet that are some 370 light years away. The gravitational interaction between the two cause some vibrations in HAT-P-2 when its orbiting planet HAT-P-2b gets close. HAT-P-2b is a planet with a mass … Continue reading Blog #2: HAT-P-2’s Heart Continue reading →

Posted in Class, Exoplanets, Stars | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Blog #2: HAT-P-2’s Heart

A new class of black holes is found

Posted on February 14, 2017 by xiangyunastr2110

The movie Interstellar makes more and more people curious about what black hole is. The special effects team working on Interstellar no doubt make the movie undoubtedly wonderful and also it end up advancing people’s knowledge of black holes at the same time. According to Wikipedia,A black hole is a region of spacetime exhibiting such […] Continue reading →

Posted in Class | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on A new class of black holes is found

Blog #3: Asteroid Mining

Posted on February 14, 2017 by andrewsolarsystem

We commonly think of asteroids simply as left over debris from when the planets were formed, but researchers believe that we will be able to harness resources from them within the next 10 years. The most common type of asteroid, C-type, contains up to 20% water as well as various metals. The presence of water […] Continue reading →

Posted in Class | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Blog #3: Asteroid Mining

Eclipses

Posted on February 14, 2017 by kendylldellinger

Eclipses have been used to increased drama in books and movies for over a century. One specific example that comes to mind is the novel Delores Claiborne by Stephen King. A main focus of the story is around a solar eclipse during which the main character’s father dies in a suspicious way, depicted on the cover art […] Continue reading →

Posted in Class | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Eclipses

Blog #1: Understanding Moon Phases

Posted on February 14, 2017 by lillyastro2110

The moon has always captivated man. The pattern of moon phases is easy enough to understand on its own, but once you add in time of rise and fall and the position of the moon relative to Earth, things get a little more complicated. This website from McGraw Hill offers an interactive way to understand … Continue reading Blog #1: Understanding Moon Phases Continue reading →

Posted in Class | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Blog #1: Understanding Moon Phases

The Era of Long Refractors

Posted on February 14, 2017 by Nick Belsten

Telescopes focus light down to a point to increase the light gathering capacity of the astronomer’s eye. The optimal shape for such focus is a parabola, either a parabolic mirror, or a refracting lens of parabolic shape. Unfortunately, parabolic lenses do not have the same curvature everywhere the way spherical lenses do, making their construction … Continue reading The Era of Long Refractors → Continue reading →

Posted in Class, Historical | Tagged , , | Comments Off on The Era of Long Refractors

Milkomeda

Posted on February 14, 2017 by Haley's Comet

A collision is coming. Andromeda, our spiraled galaxy neighbor, and the Milky Way will collide in  4 billion years. This process will result in the two galaxies interacting for 1-2 billion years as they rearrange the orbits of stars and planets before finally merging into an elliptical galaxy. The movements of the galaxies toward each other… Continue reading Milkomeda Continue reading →

Posted in Universe | Tagged , | Comments Off on Milkomeda

Blog 1: We Are All So Small!

Posted on February 14, 2017 by terranojm

Space is such a fascinating thing. There is just so much out there beyond our planet: so much we know about and even more we don’t know about! Growing up in school, we all learned about the solar system. As a result, we concluded that maybe our world isn’t the center of the universe like we may have … Continue reading “Blog 1: We Are All So Small!” Continue reading →

Posted in Class, Galaxies, Universe | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Blog 1: We Are All So Small!

The Hubble’s Cooler Younger Sibling

Posted on February 14, 2017 by ritam216

Somewhat of an actual time machine, the telescope is probably the most well-known instrument of the field of astronomy. While the object itself is not a foreign concept, knowledge about specific telescopes is less common. In fact, aside from the Hubble, I probably could not have named one before this semester. Much to my surprise, […] Continue reading →

Posted in Instruments, Space Travel | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on The Hubble’s Cooler Younger Sibling

Transiting Extrasolar Planets

Posted on February 14, 2017 by kic27

A method for detecting planets beyond our solar system. Continue reading →

Posted in Class, Exoplanets | Tagged , | Comments Off on Transiting Extrasolar Planets