Daily Archives: April 8, 2024

The Eclipse Almost Stole My Sight

by Marca On Monday, April 8, 2024, North America witnessed a solar eclipse, and it almost blinded me. But before I talk about that, what is a solar eclipse? A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves between the Sun and the Earth, which blocks the Sun totally or partially and casts a shadow on […] Continue reading

Posted in Class, Science, Sun | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Eclipse Almost Stole My Sight

Blog 5 – Triton!

Things that break all patterns are often the most interesting objects in our solar system. Neptune’s moon Triton is a prime example of breaking general patterns. It is the only large moon in our solar system that orbits in retrograde, opposite the rotation of Neptune (NASA). Originally I was interested in Triton because of its […] Continue reading

Posted in Moons | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Blog 5 – Triton!

Solar Eclipse in Nashville

Around 2 pm today on Apr 8, 2024, I was fortunate enough to see the eclipse reach its peak in Nashville amidst intermittent cloud cover. Although Nashville wasn’t in the path of totality like it was in 2017, it was very close! For a quick background on solar eclipses, a solar eclipse happens when the […] Continue reading

Posted in Moons, Sun | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Solar Eclipse in Nashville

nASA’s OSIRIS-REx Mission

The sample return capsule from the OSIRIS-REx mission OSIRIS-REx was NASA’s mission to collect a sample from the asteroid Bennu. In September 2023, OSIRIS-REx returned to Earth to drop off material from Bennu.  OSIRIS-REx continued on a new mission, OSIRIS-APEX. The objective of the new mission is to study Apophis, which the spacecraft will reach […] Continue reading

Posted in Class, Science | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on nASA’s OSIRIS-REx Mission

Solar Eclipse

Being in Nashville, I saw a partial solar eclipse today. It was unfortunate that it was extremely cloudy. Hence, the solar eclipse showed up once in a couple minutes. The clouds proved to be an excellent source of shades. So much so, that the combination of the thick clouds and the eclipse glasses blocked out […] Continue reading

Posted in Class | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Solar Eclipse

bLOG 6: HOW MUCH DOES SIZE MATTER (FOR VOLCANISM and CRYOVOLCANISM)?

Even some of the smallest world in our solar system exhibit (or have exhibited) evidence of volcanism or cryovolcanism. Asteroids like Vesta, with radii of only several hundred kilometers, displays features that indicate that they once exhibited active volcanism and even separation by differentiation. Although their volcanism lasted for periods that were geologically very brief, […] Continue reading

Posted in Class, Physics | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on bLOG 6: HOW MUCH DOES SIZE MATTER (FOR VOLCANISM and CRYOVOLCANISM)?

Water on the Moon?

We first landed on the moon over 50 years ago, but despite the relative feasibility of going back to the moon, we have only conducted a few missions since then for people to travel to our closest celestial neighbor. Why is that? Going to the moon is incredibly expensive, and there’s always been little reason […] Continue reading

Posted in Class, Universe | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Water on the Moon?

Earth’s Distant Twin

Kepler-186F is an exoplanet that exhibits strikingly similar characteristics to Earth. The planet is roughly the size of Earth, and is within the “habitable zone” of its red dwarf star, Kepler-186. The habitable zone implies that due to its distance from its star, it’s very possible that the exoplanet could have liquid water on its […] Continue reading

Posted in Class, Universe | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Earth’s Distant Twin