Monthly Archives: March 2022

The Different Atmospheres in our Solar System

An atmosphere consists of the gases surrounding a planet. Atmospheres are created by volcanism (outgassing of volcanoes involves eruptions that take gasses from the earth’s interior and put them into the atmosphere), evaporation (of compounds such as water), and life (outgassing of carbon dioxide and oxygen). Life is an interesting component of an atmosphere as […] Continue reading

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Blog 4: Black Holes

Black holes have always been a topic that interests me, and this article gives some very cool insight to a possible cause for the formation of these black holes. Most black holes have been found to form as the result of stars collapsing, and then when matter in multiple black holes collides, these black holes […] Continue reading

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Earth’s Atmosphere and Life

Earth’s atmosphere is conducive to life in a way other terrestrial worlds’ atmospheres are not.  This is because of the greenhouse effect, which keeps Earth warm and allows water to exist in its liquid form. Other planets such as Mercury which do not have an atmosphere or the greenhouse effect are extremely hot during the […] Continue reading

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Blog 3: Climate Change

Astronomy has been around for many many years, as we have learned in class. Astronomy used to be a hobby for the wealthy, now it is an occupation for the smartest to learn about the universe we are in. One major facet that astronomers have observed and questioned is climate change. Recently, it has become […] Continue reading

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The moon’s origin

Earth’s moon is unique for several reasons. Earth’s moon relevant to its planet’s size, Earth is the largest in our solar system and that fact has drawn my curiosity to the subject of the moon’s origins and what makes it so unique. It is speculated that the moon originated when another terrestrial planet, Theia crashed […] Continue reading

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Earth and Venus: Zach and Cody?

Scientists argue that Venus is earth’s astronomical twin for a number on reasons. Like Zach and Cody from the Disney Channel sitcom, The Suite Life of Zach and Cody their physical similarities and dependance on each other cannot be overlooked. Looking at Earth and Venus’ similarities, the similar diameter comes to mind. The diameter of […] Continue reading

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The Sun’s Nuclear Fusion

The Sun has been producing a huge amount of energy for over 4 billion years through nuclear fusion. Nuclear fusion is the process by which the Sun converts mass to energy. Albert Einstein’s equation, E=mc^2, reveals that a little bit of mass has a huge amount of potential energy which indicates why the sun has […] Continue reading

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Blog#4 Dark Energy and Dark Matter

Dark Energy and Dark Matter sound both exotic (and yes they absolutely are) but they have very different meanings and opposite effects: One expands our universe while one creates more gravity. High-z Supernova Search Team was founded in 1994 and in 1998 they found that one investigated supernova is fainter than Hubble’s law predicted. This […] Continue reading

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Blog#3 Radioactive Decay

Our world is composed of elements all of which are made of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Protons are positively charged while electrons are negatively charged. Unstable (i.e., radioactive) atomic nuclei can become more stable after the emission of particles and energy, a process called radioactive decay. These emitted particles or energy (the latter emitted as […] Continue reading

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Halley’s Comet

Halley’s Comet was the first comet understood to be a periodic comet, or a comet that can pass through the solar system multiple times. The English astronomer Edmund Halley (1656-1742) noticed that the previously recorded orbits of three comets were ve… Continue reading

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