Monthly Archives: April 2023

What do we know about the Oort Cloud?

Posted on April 10, 2023 by alicebyrnes

Not much is known about the Oort Cloud, because it is simply so far away! Rather than being a disk like the asteroid and Kuiper belts, it is thought to be a spherical shell that surrounds the Solar system. The precise bounds of the cloud are not known, but it is thought to extend from […] Continue reading →

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Blog #6: Detecting Extrasolar Planets

Posted on April 9, 2023 by Astro 2110

The photo above features the transit method of detecting extrasolar planets. Detecting extrasolar planets is a very delicate and challenging task for scientists. The distances between stars and relative sizes of stars compared to planets make it extremely hard to pick them out. Stars are also typically a billion times brighter than planets. There are […] Continue reading →

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 New Horizons: Exploring Pluto and Beyond

Posted on April 9, 2023 by 7smessier45

Hello (again), and welcome (back) to my Astronomy Blog! Today we’re picking up where we left off with Pluto and the New Horizons mission.  The New Horizons Mission Although NASA approved the mission in 2001, the New Horizons mission officially entered the public conscience when the craft was launched on January 19th, 2006. The speedy […] Continue reading →

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Solar Eclipse

Posted on April 9, 2023 by niqretnuh

The Sun provides us the most necessary elements for life, and is the reason why we can see whatever surrounds us. The objects reflect sunlight and as those light reaches our eyes, we pick up the signals and “see” the objects. What would the world look like if the sun were to magically disappear? Solar […] Continue reading →

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James Webb Space Telescope and the Carina Nebula

Posted on April 9, 2023 by lightwyrs

The James Webb Space Telescope is by far the most intricate piece of technology we have ever sent into space. The engineering process for the JWST took nearly 30 years to build with Randy Kimble (who had worked on its predecessor – the Hubble Space Telescope) and had a cost of $10 billion. The components […] Continue reading →

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Sky News

Posted on April 9, 2023 by thisisntzenon

For my “any astronomy” blog posts, I like to somewhat link them to my personal life. Last time, I shared my hometown planetarium, the Adler Planetarium. This time, I wanted to focus on this week’s astronomy-related event as my birthday is this Thursday. I found this amazing website called This Week’s Sky at a Glance. […] Continue reading →

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Pluto: New Horizon

Posted on April 9, 2023 by niqretnuh

Pluto, a dwarf planet farther out than Neptune in the Kuiper Belt, was once thought to be the ninth planet of our solar system. However, the discovery of Pluto’s moon, Charon, led to the revision of calculations on Pluto’s mass, and the redefinition of planets finally “kicked” Pluto out of the solar system planets since […] Continue reading →

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Ganymede, Aurorae, and the Potential for Life Outside of Earth

Posted on April 9, 2023 by groblesnieles727

Artist’s conception of Ganymede and Jupiter. Image by NASA Although by visible light and upon first glance Ganymede might seem like an unassuming satellite, further inspection and deeper exploration demonstrates that this view is both tired and untrue. Simply by size alone, Ganymede is a headliner. As the largest moon in our solar system, it […] Continue reading →

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I want to belive.. but I can’t!

Posted on April 9, 2023 by dougkyles422111

As I do so often, I would like to talk about the possibility of extraterrestrial life within the Universe. I will take this last blog as an opportunity to reflect on the things which I have been able to learn from the course as a whole as it relates to one of the topics I […] Continue reading →

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The Cosmic Microwave Background

Posted on April 9, 2023 by constellationsarentreal

One of the pillars that the Big Bang Theory Model rests on is the existence and characteristics of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). The CMB is an observed cosmic glow of radiation seen everywhere, filling the universe like a sea. Roughly 380,000 years after the Big Bang, the universe cooled enough (~3,000K) for free-roaming electrons […] Continue reading →

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