Monthly Archives: March 2019

Stars: How to Make Just About Everything

Posted on March 12, 2019 by jpeilbert

You may be familiar with the Periodic Table, which lists every type of atom (referred to as ‘elements’) in the universe. Each of the elements is formed by combining subatomic building blocks in different ways. One of the most important element-creating events in the Universe was Big Bang nucleosynthesis, the period about 10 seconds to … Continue reading Stars: How to Make Just About Everything → Continue reading →

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Reducing Sky Glow

Posted on March 12, 2019 by JSpin

Stargazing is awesome! But sometimes, the night sky is not visible due to light pollution. In cities like Nashville, a common type of light pollution is “sky glow”. Sky glow is the brightening of the entire night sky, especially in populated areas. The light pollution around Nashville inhibits our view of zodiacal light, airglow, and … Continue reading Reducing Sky Glow → Continue reading →

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Climate Change: Debunked

Posted on March 12, 2019 by anna_h

Contrary to popular belief, Earth’s climate has not always been the same; just in the last 650,000 years there has been several cycles of temperature rise and fall due to small changes in Earth’s orbit and the amount of energy Earth receives from the Sun. However, in the past 50 years, Earth’s climate has changed … Continue reading Climate Change: Debunked Continue reading →

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Nuclear Fusion

Posted on March 12, 2019 by anna_h

The Sun generates energy by fusing hydrogen into helium due to a process known as nuclear fusion. Fusion occurs within the Sun because the plasma in the solar core is full of hot gases that collide with one another at extremely high speeds. In most cases, electromagnetic repulsion forces deflect the nuclei of the two … Continue reading Nuclear Fusion Continue reading →

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Voyager: The End of the Road

Posted on March 12, 2019 by Rivers Cornelson

Voyager 1 is the only human made object existing outside of the heliosphere of Earth. The Voyager space probes represent a level of exploration not seen since the era of European explorers, and in many ways exceed the ambition of those brave individuals. Aspects of the Voyager mission have been designed to last for an … Continue reading Voyager: The End of the Road Continue reading →

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Aurora Borealis

Posted on March 12, 2019 by haivilo

The Aurora Borealis is one of the most beautiful phenomena in the world, but how does it actually come to be? It all starts with the Sun. As the Sun rotates on its axis, magnetic field lines are twisted and jumbled around which cause sun spots, or regions on the suns surface of cooler temperature … Continue reading Aurora Borealis → Continue reading →

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Oort Cloud!

Posted on March 12, 2019 by Harrison Chen

I kept hearing about the Oort Cloud during this unit, so I wanted to do some more research on it. The Oort Cloud intrigues me because it is theoretical, meaning that we have not actually observed it empirically. In my last post, I talked about the Voyager missions. In another 300 years, the Voyager space … Continue reading Oort Cloud! → Continue reading →

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Updates on the Voyager Missions

Posted on March 12, 2019 by Harrison Chen

When I was younger, I was always fascinated by the amazing strides of space exploration technology. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were the pinnacle of human achievement in my opinion. It has been a long time since I reviewed their journey. I watched a YouTube video summarizing the achievements of these two amazing space probes. … Continue reading Updates on the Voyager Missions → Continue reading →

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How much is left in the tank?

Posted on March 12, 2019 by Rivers Cornelson

Geologists and neutrino physicists are currently striving to calculate the amount of radioactive power remaining in Earth’s core. Why does this matter? The hot core of the Earth is known to provide the driving force behind plate tectonics, a process that constantly refreshes the crust of the Earth and creates many of the geological features … Continue reading How much is left in the tank? Continue reading →

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Dark Matter and Dark Energy

Posted on March 12, 2019 by dillonplageman3

One of the more peculiar parts of our universe is the presence of a great deal of mass that we cannot see. When looking at the gravitational effects on the mass in the universe, it is apparent that a significant amount of matter must be present but is not visible to us, leading to its … Continue reading Dark Matter and Dark Energy → Continue reading →

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