Monthly Archives: April 2023

How Extremophiles Work

Posted on April 30, 2023 by brandodan

As we talked about in class a few weeks ago, Extremophiles are living things that flourish under challenging conditions.They are amazing because they can endure situations that would be fatal to the majority of other life forms. They originate from Archaea, Eubacteria, and Eukarya, the three branches of the three-domain categorization scheme. Extremophiles have caused […] Continue reading →

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The Fermi Paradox

Posted on April 30, 2023 by sahilreddy2

A possible solution to the Fermi Paradox? The Fermi Paradox attempts to answer the question about extraterrestrial life that so many humans have thought about for centuries. Enrico Fermi a physicist, in 1950, while discussing extraterrestrial life he began to wonder if aliens did in fact exist then how have they not expanded throughout the […] Continue reading →

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The History and Future of the Universe: A Time Scale

Posted on April 30, 2023 by Europa

If you’d like to feel the crushing weight of existential dread as we approach the end of this course, and for me, the end of my time at Vanderbilt, I have just the video for you! It’s a YouTube video called “Age of Universe: Time in Perspective,” and it uses a time-to-volume comparison in order […] Continue reading →

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Dragonfly: Quadcopter on Titan

Posted on April 30, 2023 by willems49

After the recent rocket launch in preparation for the Artemis mission, I decided to look into the other space exploration projects currently underway. One that stuck out to me is the Dragonfly mission. After the landing of Huygens, a space probe sent from Cassini, in 2005, astronomers have desired a more advanced exploration of Titan. […] Continue reading →

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Could We Even Communicate With Aliens If We Found Them?

Posted on April 30, 2023 by willems49

After learning about the Golden Record, Arecibo message, and other ways astronomers have attempted to communicate with extraterrestrial life (if it is out there), I can’t help but think this outreach is very limited to civilizations that communicate in exactly the same way as we do. This seems unlikely to me, given the extreme diversity […] Continue reading →

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What’s Next?

Posted on April 29, 2023 by alicebyrnes

While I’ve always been vaguely interested in astronomy, before taking this class some part of my brain assumed we had somewhat stagnated on space exploration. This is largely because I knew other stars and galaxies were so far away, and we just don’t have the technology to travel to them. Ultimately, this class helped me […] Continue reading →

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Where Are All the Aliens? Potential Solutions to the Fermi Paradox

Posted on April 29, 2023 by Europa

In class, Dr. G mentioned a Wait But Why article about the Fermi Paradox. I absolutely love this article and the entire concept of the Fermi Paradox–I even wrote about it in my Common App essay four years ago! The Fermi Paradox, first informally presented by physicist Enrico Fermi, describes the apparent contradiction between our […] Continue reading →

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Post 8

Posted on April 29, 2023 by berlinbe

Now that the class has concluded, I would like to reflect on astronomy and the importance of the material that we learned. Astronomy is a fascinating topic, not only because of the nature of exploring the universe, but because it has implications for nearly every other science. From studying astronomy, we make revolutions in subjects […] Continue reading →

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Post 7

Posted on April 29, 2023 by berlinbe

The Fermi Paradox essentially states that given the size of the universe, there should be aliens. So where are they? This paradox is based on various estimation equations like the Drake and Seager equations, which are ways to estimate the number of other intelligent civilizations in the galaxy that should theoretically be able to contact […] Continue reading →

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JUICE Explorer

Posted on April 29, 2023 by alicebyrnes

As discussed briefly in class, the European Space Agency (ESA) just successfully launched the Juice (formerly JUICE: JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) mission on April 14th! I had no idea this mission even existed before it was mentioned, so I decided to explore it further. The goal of this mission is focused on Jupiter’s moons. While […] Continue reading →

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