Monthly Archives: April 2024

Culmination Blog

This will be my final blog for this course. I just want to say that I learned so much, and I am grateful for what I learned. My eyes have been opened up, and I learned so much information that I never knew. My favorite part of this course was the actual observing of celestial […] Continue reading

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Immortal Water Bears?

by Science News So what is a water bear and how is it immortal? Water bears, also known as Tardigrades, are eight-legged micro animals that can survive extreme conditions. Their size is typically 0.05mm-1.2mm. Water bears can survive in space, radioactive environments, near volcanoes, and even at the bottom of the ocean. Animals that can […] Continue reading

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We are Lucky

We should be grateful for our place in exploration. Sometimes I get sad, and mope around upset that I was born at the wrong time. The phrase goes something like “born too late to explore the Earth, too early to explore the stars.” And it is so easy to get caught up in it. But […] Continue reading

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Blog Blog 8: Culminating Blog!

Overall, this class has greatly improved my knowledge of space and the solar system.  I learned some useful (and fun) skills such as finding the north star, and the increased perspective I now have on both the solar system and the universe will be invaluable as we explore and travel more into space. I have […] Continue reading

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Light Has Momentum?

How is that possible – And how can we take advantage? We know that light has no mass. And, according to classical mechanics, momentum is given by 1/2mv^2; in other words, according to classical mechanics, light cannot have momentum. But, as we know, light is different — and oh so interesting! By virtue of energy […] Continue reading

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Our Neighbor?: The Andromeda Galaxy

Image of the Andromeda Galaxy 1888 For this blog I wanted to talk about The Andromeda Galaxy. Other than it being the closest galaxy to our Milky Way I really didn’t know much about it. The Andromeda galaxy was first photographed in 1888 by Issac Roberts (picture above). Andromeda is located over 2 million light-years […] Continue reading

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Blog 7: Space Propulsion

Though designing and building a rocket is a very complex endeavor, most people have a pretty good idea of what makes them fly: Burn a whole lot of fuel to produce thrust. This method does a great job of getting a rocket up to a high speed, relative to our planet and the solar system. […] Continue reading

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Are We Living in a Black Hole???

While this question seems ridiculous, we shouldn’t dismiss the theory outright. Maybe there are lessons to be extracted out of this thought experiment. Or maybe our universe truly exists within a black hole. The theory is called Schwarzschild cosmology which posits that our universe lies within the black hold of a larger parent universe. The […] Continue reading

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The Search for Extraterrestrial Life

One of the most exhilarating topics in astronomy to me is the search for extraterrestrial life. The Drake Equation is one way to estimate the number of active and communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way. This equation was formulated in 1961 by Frank Drake to stimulate intellectual discussion about the factors that influence extraterrestrial […] Continue reading

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Blog 8: Culmination of the Course

Picture: Potentially viable planets visualization ASTRO 2110 was my fourth astronomy class that I have taken here at Vanderbilt, and it was also one of my favorites. Astronomy is seen by many as interesting but irrelevant, so it was nice getting a deeper understanding of the most relevant parts of the universe to us by […] Continue reading

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