Monthly Archives: April 2023

“Mars Will Come to Fear My Botany Powers”

While this line was a comical hit in the box-office hit “The Martian,” it also emphasizes a particular problem that we are experiencing as we explore new worlds. It is very heavy, cumbersome, and expensive to send all the food we need on space missions, and for a prolonged colonization mission, it just isn’t feasible. […] Continue reading

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Halley’s Comet

I used measurements from Halley’s Comet for the impact homework, so I wanted to learn more about it. It certainly has name recognition, but I wanted to learn more about it. I found some great information from NASA that I figured I would share. Halley’s Comet is named after an astronomer by the name of […] Continue reading

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Astronaut Bone Density

(X-Rays of astronauts in space for extended periods of time: https://images.app.goo.gl/yfa81MRNQ1S5k5UL7) When I was in 6th grade, I participated in a summer engineering competition called Zero Robotics through MIT. The objective was to create a code that would allow for droids aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to take pictures of research targets the most […] Continue reading

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The Fascinating World of Pluto

Pluto, known as the ninth planet of the solar system, was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006. Pluto is one of the most interesting objects to study in our solar system. In this blog test, I will discuss the biggest moon Charon and the discoveries of the New Horizons spacecraft. Pluto-Image by NASA One […] Continue reading

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The Kuiper Belt: Exploring New Horizons

Hello (again), and welcome (back) to my Astronomy Blog! Today’s post is about the Kuiper Belt and its objects.  What is the Kuiper Belt?  The Kuiper (Kai-per) Belt is a donut-shaped region beyond the orbit of Neptune. Within the Kuiper Belt, it is estimated that millions of icy objects (or even trillions of these objects, […] Continue reading

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aurorae

The shimmering curtains of color that make up the Northern Lights are incredibly fascinating. For many (myself included), it is a life goal to get to witness this phenomenon in person. The name Aurora Borealis has its roots in classical mythology. Famous astronomer Galileo Galilei combined the Roman goddess of the dawn, Aurora, with the […] Continue reading

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comets

The terms ‘asteroid’ and ‘comet’ are often used interchangeably, but in reality there are important differences between the two! The primary difference is in their composition; asteroids are rocky because they formed in the inner Solar System, and comets are more icy because they formed beyond the frost line! Comets are visible every few years […] Continue reading

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Earth-like Exoplanet

The super cool story of a discovery of an exoplanet! It’s so cool that an exoplanet look like this! There has been an incredibly interesting and exciting discovery made recently! The James Webb telescope has discovered and photographed an exoplanet and collected data to validate its existence as an exoplanet. An exoplanet is an astronomical […] Continue reading

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An even grander Grand Canyon

Have you ever seen the Grand Canyon? Well take that image and toss it out because it’s not even close to the size of the canyon we’re talking about here! An inside scoop on this canyon is supported by the image above, found at Business Insider! The New Horizon’s mission has been one of the […] Continue reading

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Blog 6 – Planet Nine

Unfortunately, “Planet Nine” does not refer to Pluto. However, its potential existence could explain the interesting movement of some objects in the Kuiper Belt. Researchers at Caltech have found mathematical evidence of a large planet far out in our Solar System, which has been named Planet Nine. This hypothetical planet would be about the same […] Continue reading

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