Monthly Archives: April 2022

Blog #5: AR Aur b (protoplanet formation caught in action!)

Posted on April 17, 2022 by nadiamcglynn

As we have been able to look farther outside of our neighborhood of the solar system, our understanding of extrasolar planets and the formation of other planetary systems has had to undergo questions and testing to ensure that our hypothesis is reasonable. The surprising orbits of some extrasolar planets has caused some such questioning, such […] Continue reading →

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‘Oumuamua: An Interstellar Visitor

Posted on April 17, 2022 by Quint Gfroerer

In 2017, a small, long object between 100 and 1,000 meters in length and between 35 and 167 meters in height and width passed through the inner solar system with a trajectory and speed only possible if it originated from beyond our solar system. This object, now known as ‘Oumuamua, is one of the first […] Continue reading →

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Blog#6 Red Giant and White Dwarf

Posted on April 17, 2022 by Irene

Pauli Exclusion Principle (Wikipedia): every electron is indistinguishable from another. Two identical electrons cannot locate in the same volume of space with the same exact properties (energy, spin, direction) Thus, the electron has to be excluded from this space or remain at the higher energy level.  When a main-sequence star (Wikipedia) comes towards the end […] Continue reading →

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Enceladus: Alien Life in Our Own Solar System?

Posted on April 17, 2022 by Quint Gfroerer

Enceladus is an icy moon of Saturn, and is fairly small (or medium-sized, for a moon) with a diameter of about 500 km. For reference, the Moon has a diameter of about 3,475 km. Despite its size, however, Enceladus has been rated as among the most probable sources of life in our own solar system […] Continue reading →

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Blog#5 Pluto

Posted on April 17, 2022 by Irene

Pluto, formerly considered one of the nine planets, has always been controversial. Nonetheless, since the International Astronomical Union redefined the meaning of planet (A planet is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic […] Continue reading →

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Magnetar — A Fascinating Neutron Star

Posted on April 17, 2022 by sissichen17

Neutron stars are the collapsed core of the massive stars (our Sun cannot qualify that). Neutron star was the smallest and densest stellar object in the universe. A city-sized neutron star can obtain the mass of the Sun. There are two types of neutron stars — magnetars and pulsars. Pulsars are neutron stars with fast […] Continue reading →

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Blog Post 5: Comets and their Tails

Posted on April 17, 2022 by isaachuggins

Comets are large balls of dust, rock, and ice that travel across our solar system and other solar systems. They are large like asteroids, around 10 km in diameter in our solar system. The largest one in our Solar System is Bernardinelli-Bernstein, a massive body about 85 miles in diameter. These objects can approach near […] Continue reading →

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Asteroid Mining

Posted on April 17, 2022 by Johann West

Picture of Asteroid With the current rise of privatized space travel, one industry that may very well likely be popularized within our lifetimes is asteroid mining. However the initial investment cost of getting to a profitable asteroid will be enormous, the payoff of mining and bringing back the metals that these asteroids contain would be …

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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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