Monthly Archives: April 2023

Waterworlds Make Earth Look Dry

Image Source In a system 218 light years from Earth, scientists have discovered two planets, Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 d, which make Earth look like a desert in comparison. Both planets were initially thought by scientists to be rocky super-Earths. However, after closer examination by the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists were able to determine that […] Continue reading

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Interferometry: Viewing the Minute

Saying the universe is incomprehensibly massive, so much so only the brightest and closest objects and phenomena are visible to the naked eye. Throughout history people have had work arounds, be it using devices to mark inclination of stars to focusing light through telescopes to make the faintest bodies visible. One of the most interesting […] Continue reading

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Super Earths, what’s beyond the solar system?

Super Earth  CoRoT-7b next to Earth and Neptune for comparison, Source: Science News, Wikipedia The planets of the solar system, and the categories they fall into is basically common knowledge in this day and age. There are the rocky and dwarf worlds with a mass and size comparable or less than that of Earths. These […] Continue reading

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Comets and Their Periods

Comets are characterized by their highly eccentric orbits and incredibly long periods. Comet Swift-Tuttle, for example, has an orbital period of 133 years. This is comparable to the orbital period of the furthest planet from the Sun, Neptune, which has a period of 165 years. From our perspective on Earth, 150 years is a long […] Continue reading

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Why is Jupiter the way it is?

Have you ever wondered why Jupiter looks so colorful? Well look no further than Jupiter’s atmosphere, where you’ll find similar and yet different features from Earth’s own atmosphere. Jupiter’s atmosphere consists of the thermosphere, stratosphere, and the troposphere, much like Earth’s atmosphere, yet where they differ is what each layer consists of. Jupiter’s thermosphere is […] Continue reading

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What is up with Io?

Today I wanted to talk about one of the most fascinating moons in the Solar System, Io is one of the four Galilean moons that orbits Jupiter, which are each large enough to be counted as planets or dwarf planets if they orbited the Sun. Io is covered in snow, and yet is by far […] Continue reading

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Saturn V

Saturn V the moon, also known as Rhea, is the second largest moon of Saturn. But Saturn V, the rocket used in the Apollo missions, is one of the largest rockets ever built by mankind. NASA’s Saturn V is the largest rocket in the Saturn family and was used in 9 Apollo missions to carry […] Continue reading

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Touching the Sun

Many space missions are aimed outwards, away from the center of our solar system into the deep unknown. Fewer are aimed inwards, because what else is there to explore? The Sun is a fiery ball of extraordinary mass that we likely have no hope of making contact with soon, but how close can we get? […] Continue reading

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Miranda

Uranus is the only planet in the Solar System that rotates on its side, with an axis tilt of 97.77 degrees. This is most likely the result of a large collision not long after the planet formed. Among Uranus’ moons, there is one in particular that has drawn my attention, one that is also likely […] Continue reading

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Callisto, The Ugly Duckling

When it comes to Jupiter’s Galilean moons, Callisto is the odd one out. Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar System, Io is the most volcanically active world in the Solar System, Europa has incredible, potentially life-bearing subsurface liquid oceans, and Callisto… looks as dead as Mercury. It does not take part in the […] Continue reading

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