Monthly Archives: March 2019

Songs of Space

Recently I’ve been collecting space-themed songs (for a McTyeire Hall event called the Galaxy Gala!), and then I thought of something I’ve heard of before: sounds coming from space! Because space is a vacuum, sound waves cannot travel through it. However, many objects within the Solar System do emit radio waves, and NASA scientists have […] Continue reading

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NASA’s Mars 2020 Mission

In 2020, sometime from July 17th to August 5th during the rover’s launch window, NASA will send a rover to Mars to try to answer a question being asked for over a century: was there life on Mars? The objective of the Mars 2020 Mission is to search for signs of previous microbial life as … Continue reading NASA’s Mars 2020 Mission Continue reading

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Electric Cars and Climate Change

Climate change is the change in global climate patterns due to an increase in fossil fuels. A solution to mitigate these emissions released by fossil fuels is converting automobiles to use only electric energy. However, the electricity used by electric vehicles also generates harmful emissions due to power plants that use fossil fuels to generate … Continue reading Electric Cars and Climate Change Continue reading

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Is There Life on Mars?

Mars, our red-tinted planetary neighbor, has long attracted human curiosity. Due to its unusual color, it was named after the Roman god of war. Although it is so much smaller than our planet (only about half Earth’s diameter and one-tenth its mass), it shares certain Earth-like features, particularly volcanoes and a great canyon. These structures, […] Continue reading

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How to Find Orion in the Night Sky

One of the most famous and recognizable constellations, Orion is most visible in the evening sky, winter in the Northern Hemisphere. It was named after a hunter in Greek Mythology, Orion. Rigel, a blue-white supergiant, and Betelgeuse, a red supergiant, are the brightest stars in Orion. Thousands of newly formed stars can be found in … Continue reading How to Find Orion in the Night Sky Continue reading

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The Star-Crossed Fates of Phobos and Deimos

The planet Mars was named after Mars, who to the Romans was the God of War. Its two moons, Phobos and Deimos, carry the names of the Greek Gods of fear (from which we get phobia) and terror, respectively. However, despite the naming scheme that seems to be inspired by Death Metal, Phobos and Deimos … Continue reading The Star-Crossed Fates of Phobos and Deimos Continue reading

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Venera, or the Soviets’ many attempts to reach Venus

Despite being the sister planet of Earth, Venus is far from hospitable. Very far. Its atmospheric pressure at the surface is 92 times that of Earth’s, has an average surface temperature of 863 degrees Fahrenheit, and at higher latitudes sulphuric acid rains onto the surface. So what better force could there be to attempt to … Continue reading Venera, or the Soviets’ many attempts to reach Venus Continue reading

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What’s the weather like on the Sun?

Just like the Earth, the Sun has weather. The most important features of the Solar Activity includes Sunspots, Solar flares, Coronal mass ejections. and solar winds.  • Sunspots are spots darker than the surrounding area on the Sun’s photosphere caused by concentration of magnetic flux field. Their number varies in an approximately 11-year cycle. • Solar flares … Continue reading What’s the weather like on the Sun? Continue reading

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