Daily Archives: April 4, 2017

TRAPPIST-1

NASA’s Spitzer telescope has recently discovered multiple Earth size planets orbiting a single star. 7 planets to be exact. The system was named TRAPPIST after the Belgian operated telescope in Chile that discovered the first two planets. These planets are relatively close to us as well. 40 lightyears may seem like a lot, but in astronomical […] Continue reading

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Blog #5: Triton: From Kuiper Belt to Neptune

The Kuiper Belt is a disc in the solar system, extending from Neptune’s orbit to 50 AU from the Sun. The belt is like an asteroid belt, but it is far larger and more massive, containing many small bodies and remnants from the formation of the solar system. As expected, most objects in the Kuiper […] Continue reading

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New Horizons Probe Halfway Between Pluto and Its Next Target in Kuiper Belt

Just today, (April 4) the NASA probe New Horizons reached its halfway point between the Pluto system and its next target in the Kuiper belt, the small object 2014 MU69. 2014 MU69 is a trans-Plutonian, rather small Kuiper Belt object; with an average diameter of only about 30 miles it is only about 1% the size of […] Continue reading

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Some Planets Are Just So Extra… (Extrasolar, That Is)

An extrasolar planet, or an exoplanet, is one which orbits a star other than our Sun. These planets provide interest and opportunities for research, because under the correct conditions, such as those upon Earth, there is a possibility that life could exist and/or be discovered upon these planets. By observing exoplanets, and specifically searching various… Continue reading Some Planets Are Just So Extra… (Extrasolar, That Is) Continue reading

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Blog 4: Electron Rainfall

Picture   Earths two radiation belt known as the Van Allen belts where discover in 1958. But recent discoveries have shown that a third belt will sometimes appear. The image above shows the three belts in yellow and green represents the space between them. The Van Allen Belts since they are regions of dynamic radiation […] Continue reading

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Blog 4 – The Sunspot Cycle and Earth’s Climate

For this blog I thought I’d write about how sunspots affect the Earth’s climate, as I am studying environmental sciences and I recently took Professor Gilligan’s Global Climate Change course (highly recommended and it counts for AXLE).  Sunspots are the most interesting feature on the sun’s surface.  They are the dark patches that periodically appear […] Continue reading

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Blog #4: How did the Moon form?

  For a long time, we were generally unsure of how Earth’s moon originally formed, and there were a few popular theories which were later disproven. Below are original theories about the formation of the Moon and how they were disproven: Fission Theory: This theory is based on the fact that the chemical composition of the […] Continue reading

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Blog #6

Image of Ceres The asteroid belt lies between Mars and Jupiter. This area is where the dwarf planet Ceres is located. Given that it was the first dwarf planet to be visited by a spacecraft and the largest object in the asteroid belt, there have been quite a few interesting discoveries about this celestial object. Here … Continue reading Blog #6 Continue reading

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Juno Probe Makes Fourth Passage of Jupiter’s Clouds

  Last Monday (March 27), NASA’s Juno spacecraft made a historic passage within the vicinity of the cloud tops of Jupiter’s atmosphere, marking its fifth overall flyby of the gas giant and fourth “science pass”, or experimental run. The probe marked its closest point to the planet at 08:52 GMT, coming within 2700 miles of its […] Continue reading

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Blog #5

An Overview of the New Horizons Mission The Kuiper Belt is a very fascinating region of our solar system consisting largely of icy bodies and comets. Thus, there is a lot of really interesting research aiming to better understand the Belt itself and the objects that call it home. One NASA initiative in this regard is … Continue reading Blog #5 Continue reading

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