Monthly Archives: April 2022

Nucleobases in Asteroids

Nucleobases are the building blocks of DNA and RNA. There are five total nucleobases (adenine, thymine, cytosine, guanine, and uracil) and three of the five have been found in meteorites. Recently, the last two nucleobases have also been identified. Th… Continue reading

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Blog 8: Planet Womb Discovery

Wombed Planet This weird picture is set to resemble a massive planet scientists have just discovered. This planet is about nine times the size of Jupiter, and its in its very early stage of formation. This star was discovered through the use of a Hawaiian telescope, and it was discovered floating “unusually far” from its […] Continue reading

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Blog 7: Drake Equation

The Drake equation, as we know, has served to estimate the amount of possible intelligent life in the universe. Up to this point, we only know of one, us. We were previously searching for life by looking for radio signals. But obviously, we have not had success with this. Despite this, a new method of […] Continue reading

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Key Takeaways

When I enrolled in this class at first, I knew that quite obviously the class would be focused on learning more about the Solar System (as the title of the class was quite literally “The Solar System’). However, I think that what we covered in this class did help me learn much more about theContinue reading “Key Takeaways” Continue reading

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The Fermi Paradox

“If life is so easy, someone from somewhere must be calling by now.” Nobel prize winning physicist Enrico Fermi, over casual lunch 70 years ago in 1950, asked confronted this very same question (Space). Given the current scientific literature of his time, Fermi realized that the requirements for life are not as elusive or asContinue reading “The Fermi Paradox” Continue reading

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The Double Ridges of Europa: An Opportunity For Life

While looking into climate change related developments on the surface of Greenland, associate professor of geophysics at Stanford University’s School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences Dustin Schroeder noticed small double-ridge formations developing, similar to those observed on the surface of Jupiter’s moon, Europa. The double ridges form when pressurized water from below pushes up […] Continue reading

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Super Volcanoes: Yellowstone

Continuing on the geological structures train, super volcanoes can be very interesting to learn about. First, let’s define what a super volcano is: A supervolcano is a volcano that has had an eruption with a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 8. This means that if this volcano were to erupt, it would span for over 1,000 […] Continue reading

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Stromatolite Structures

What is Stromatolite? It is a layered deposit made mainly of limestone. They are known to be thin and alternate from light to dark layers. They were common in Precambrian time which is more than 542 million years ago.  Where can you find them? They grow in areas such as Shark Bay in western Australia, […] Continue reading

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Blog Post 6: What Sokka and King Tut have in common.

Avatar the Last Airbender has received a surge of popularity in the past few years, as it is considered one of the most popular cartoon shows to ever air. One of the characters, Sokka, is a teenage boy from the Southern Water tribe and has multiple tools and skills, like his boomerang, to save the […] Continue reading

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Life in the Milky Way

Other than life on Earth, is there any other planet in the Milky Way which might harbor life intelligent enough for inter-stellar communication? Many approaches to this question, with different philosophies have come to fruition throughout the years. One such approach is the Drake Equation: There are 7 different parameters to the Drake Equation, considering […] Continue reading

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