Daily Archives: April 16, 2022

Possibility of Life on Europa

Posted on April 16, 2022 by Johann West

Picture from European Space Agency As of now scientists believe there are three requirements for a planet to develop and sustain life. Liquid water, the appropriate chemical elements, and an energy source. Europa has more than enough water, as it is believed that below the roughly 15 miles of solid ice, lies twice as much …

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Chicxulub Impactor Found?

Posted on April 16, 2022 by Brian

In class, we discussed the Chicxulub impact, which is highly likely to have triggered the extinction event that killed the dinosaurs. Despite the large size of the impactor, the catastrophic impact and 65 million years of geological processes have hidden the exact nature of the impactor from scientists. While iridium deposits in sedimentary rock layersContinue reading “Chicxulub Impactor Found?” Continue reading →

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The Future of Exoplanet Analysis

Posted on April 16, 2022 by Brian

The search for extrasolar planets and alien life is a fascinating research focus that sits at the intersection of astronomy, physics, planetary science, and biology. As we have discussed in class, discovering exoplanets is a very difficult task, but we have discovered roughly 5,000 exoplanets to date and are making significant progress in that area.Continue reading “The Future of Exoplanet Analysis” Continue reading →

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Asteroid, meteor, meteoroid, meteorite

Posted on April 16, 2022 by joubertklopper

These four terms are often misunderstood and the objects/occurrences they represent are thought of to be similar when in reality that is not the case. I am here to put these false assumptions about these misunderstood terms to rest. Looking at the definitions. An asteroid is a rock in space orbiting the sun, a meteoroid […] Continue reading →

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Nuclear Weapons, Asteroids, and PHOs

Posted on April 16, 2022 by parallaxHubble

Both nuclear weapons and asteroids are incredibly powerful and potentially dangerous objects with capabilities for mass destruction. The impact of the Chicxulub Asteriod about 65 million years ago had an explosive force about two million times greater than the Tsar Bomba, the most powerful man-made nuclear weapon ever deployed, which had an explosive power ofContinue reading “Nuclear Weapons, Asteroids, and PHOs” Continue reading →

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Pluto – A Planetary Anomoly

Posted on April 16, 2022 by parallaxHubble

When the spacecraft New Horizons first flew past Pluto in 2015, astronomers didn’t really have too much of an idea of what to expect. Pluto had only been discovered about 85 years earlier (source) on February 18th, 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. Due to Pluto’s immense distance, small size,Continue reading “Pluto – A Planetary Anomoly” Continue reading →

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Pluto: dwarfPLANET

Posted on April 16, 2022 by joubertklopper

Growing up with Pluto being known as the ninth planet, I’m interested in Pluto, its uniqueness and why it was revoked of the prestigious planetary title. The discovery of other planetary objects in the outer solar system today known as dwarf planets made the switch of Pluto’s classification from a planet to a dwarf planet. […] Continue reading →

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