Monthly Archives: April 2022

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Growing up with Pluto being known as the ninth planet, I’m interested in Pluto, its uniqueness and why it was revoked of the prestigious planetary title.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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Planetary migration theory | blog VI

Posted on April 15, 2022 by clviggiano

Discoveries of extrasolar planets and the growing pool of knowledge surrounding them has raised innumerable new questions. Many of these worlds do not follow the patterns or rules of planetary composition, location, etc. that exist within our own solar system. One of the biggest ones in response to these inconsistencies—is our current solar nebula formation […] Continue reading →

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486958 Arrokoth | blog V

Posted on April 15, 2022 by clviggiano

486958 Arrokoth claimed its rank as a notable solar body after the New Horizons flyby in early 2019, a mission executed in conjunction with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, and Southwest Research Institute. This object, often tagged with its informal name of Ultima Thule, is Trans-Neptunian Object (TNO) located on the outskirts of the […] Continue reading →

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My Favourite Planet in Solar System — Uranus

Posted on April 15, 2022 by sissichen17

Uranus was my favorite planet in the solar system. From childhood, I was first attracted by its fabulous faint blue color. After learning astronomy, I recognized more fascinating facts about this mysterious planet which made me love it more! Uranus was famous for its large tilting angle, and this was probably due to a collision […] Continue reading →

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What Would a City Look Like Inside of Olympus Mons?

Posted on April 15, 2022 by timmyshaheen

In Avatar: The Last Airbender, the capital of the fire nation is a city built inside the crater, or caldera, of a volcano. The idea of this got me thinking, what would a city look like inside of the largest volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons? The picture shows Olympus Mons compared to Arizona. […] Continue reading →

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Is There a Planet Nine?

Posted on April 15, 2022 by timmyshaheen

For centuries, humans have been observing the stars and the planets searching to understand more about the sky. As our technology becomes more sophisticated, so do the problems that we try and solve. Currently, there is a cluster of extreme trans-Neptunian objects with unexplained phenomena in their orbits. These objects all complete the closest part […] Continue reading →

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