Monthly Archives: February 2024

The Laws of Conservation and How They Connect Us to the Universe

New Scientist The poetically minded will sometimes refer to humanity as being made of “star stuff” to give some higher, grander description to our existence. No, we aren’t just a bunch of intelligent animals bickering with each other as we try to see who can destroy the world first as we’re flying through the vast […] Continue reading

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Tides During a Superstorm

As we know, the moon controls the tides, but what happens when the perfect circumstances come together and a storm is involved? This is part of what happened during Hurricane Sandy. In my Introduction post, I shared with everyone I am from New Jersey and love going to the beach, so back in 2012 when […] Continue reading

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Escape Velocity and Space Exploration

In our generation, space exploration has been an extremely valuable way to learn more about our solar system and our galaxy, the Milky Way. It is astounding that humans have been able to set foot on the moon, and that astronomical research centers have sent probes to a variety of astronomical objects within our galaxy, […] Continue reading

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Historical Astronomers in Context

Nicolaus Copernicus – 2/19/1473 – 5/24/1543 Nicolaus Copernicus the first in the modern era (C.E) to develop a model of the universe with the sun at its center, rather than the earth. His work sparked the Copernican Revolution, a paradigm shift which paved the way for the works of Kepler, Galileo, Newton, and others. Copernicus […] Continue reading

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Historical Astronomers in Context

I chose the astronomer Johannes Kepler who was born on December 27th, 1571 in Germany and died on November 15th, 1630 (age 58) in Germany. In the timeframe that Kepler was alive, Shakespeare died, the thirty-year war began, and the protestants began their revolt against the Catholics. Overall this assignment helped me realize more of […] Continue reading

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Historical Astronomers in Context

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) was important to astronomy because he discovered that orbits are not perfectly circular, but move in ellipses. He is credited with three laws that are still heavily used in the study of astronomy. Kepler’s first law is: “The orbit of each planet about the sun is an ellipse with the sun at […] Continue reading

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Historical Astronomers in Context

Isaac Newton (B. December 25, 1642 D. March 20, 1727) was important because he was one of the first people to accurately describe mathematically how planetary motion works. He was able to begin to mathematically describe how gravity works and especia… Continue reading

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Historical Astronomers in Context

Johannes Kepler (Nov. 27, 1571- Nov. 15, 1630) was a German scientist and early astronomer. He was responsible for discovering three major laws of planetary motion: 1. Planets orbit the sun in an elliptical movement; 2. The area law; 3. The harmonic law. He also modified Copernicus’ Sun-centered system to a dynamic universe approach, where […] Continue reading

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Historical Astronomers in Context

TYCHO BRAHE (1546-1601): Tycho Brahe is most famous for making the best observations of stars and planets in his era. He did this at a time without a telescope so he provided the most accurate empirical data of celestial bodies at the time. His documentation of  planetary positions helped lead Johannes Kepler to create his […] Continue reading

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Historical astronomers in context

Isaac Newton: Isaac Newton was born in December 1642 and died in March 1727. Newton made important contributions to the study of astronomy. One of Newton’s first accomplishments was the invention of integral calculus, which was an important foundation of mathematics for his astronomical discoveries. Newton’s experiments with prisms and sunlight led to the discovery […] Continue reading

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