Monthly Archives: March 2020

Why We Opted for Mars, not Venus

For years, the idea of colonizing another planet has fascinated the world (and with our climate crisis, become a very topical issue). After the moon, there are two obvious options, Mars and Venus. Obviously, we have directed our efforts towards Mars, but why not Venus? Venus is more comparable to the Earth in size andContinue reading “Why We Opted for Mars, not Venus” Continue reading

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Grey Whale Migration

Over this spring break, I came across an intriguing article in National Geographic that illustrated the closeness of space to life on Earth. The authors review a recently published study in the field of marine biology that suggests new insights into the way grey whales migrate. Grey whales have one of the furthest migrations ofContinue reading “Grey Whale Migration” Continue reading

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Parker Solar Probe: Understanding Coronal Dynamics

Launched on August 12th, 2018, the Parker Solar Probe will make the closest approach to the Sun in history. Over a time period of roughly seven years, PSP will use Venus for gravitational assist to make successively closer approaches to the Sun at distances as small as 4 million miles from the sun’s surface. PSPContinue reading “Parker Solar Probe: Understanding Coronal Dynamics” Continue reading

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Planetary Distances to the Sun

Okay, hear me out – Mercury is the closest planet to every other planet in the Solar System, on average. When I read this it kind of blew my mind but after reading this article it makes a lot of sense. This is true because Mercury is on a very tight orbit around the sun.Continue reading “Planetary Distances to the Sun” Continue reading

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Spacenectar!

Last Friday, my friends and I had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to watch a rocket launch during Bassnectar’s set at the Okeechobee Music Festival. Just over 100 miles from the Kennedy Space Center, we had a stunning view of the entire launch. A rocket launch by itself is an amazing site, but combining it with hard […] Continue reading

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Juno and Jupiter

For my post this week, I decided to learn more about the Jovian planets, specifically Jupiter. Through my research, I discovered that Jupiter had a spacecraft sent by NASA to observe Jupiter named Juno.  Juno was launched in 2011 and reached Jupiter by 2016. It is a rotating, solar-powered spacecraft. Because of the images andContinue reading “Juno and Jupiter” Continue reading

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The Telescope of the “Future”

Living up to its futuristic shape, James Webb Space Telescope is indeed a telescope of “future”: NASA has delayed its launch so many times that this telescope seems to only exist in the future. Jokes aside, the JWST carries with itself enormous scientific potential: it is supposed to be 100 times stronger than the HubbleContinue reading “The Telescope of the “Future”” Continue reading

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Blog 4: Cosmology

Cosmology is the study of the origins and evolution of the Universe. Cosmos is actually just another word for universe. My favorite theory is the theory of the Multiverse (thank you Spiderman!) This theory states that we are just one bubble in an infinite series of bubbles, and that the differences between the Universes areContinue reading “Blog 4: Cosmology” Continue reading

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Blog 3: Nuclear Fission

Nuclear Fission is a reaction (or radio decay process) in which the nuclear of an atom splits into two, smaller and lighter nuclei. This process produces gamma photons, and releases extremely large amounts of energy, which we then use to make our own usable energy. The release of the heat energy can be used toContinue reading “Blog 3: Nuclear Fission” Continue reading

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Breaking “c” and the Warping of Space-time

The speed of light, often denoted by the constant “c,” is faster than anything that we know. Although there have been attempts to get certain particles to travel faster than the speed of light, like when scientists at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland tried to get a hold of neutrinos, no one has successfully brokenContinue reading “Breaking “c” and the Warping of Space-time” Continue reading

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