Daily Archives: April 29, 2024

We are Lucky

Posted on April 29, 2024 by John Newell

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!

Posted on April 29, 2024 by Jonas Kobza

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?

Posted on April 29, 2024 by John Newell

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

Posted on April 29, 2024 by Garrett

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

Posted on April 29, 2024 by Jonas Kobza

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???

Posted on April 29, 2024 by Justin Kim

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

Posted on April 29, 2024 by Jack Abrams

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

Posted on April 29, 2024 by Seth Creech

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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Space Weather

Posted on April 29, 2024 by Ayden Harris

Space weather is an interesting topic that has not been discussed much. We know that the temperature in space is ~3 degrees Kelvin, however, we don’t consider space weather to be important because it is hard for us to visualize weather in space. Space weather is primarily affected by the interplanetary magnetic fields carried by […] Continue reading →

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Goldilocks Planet

Posted on April 29, 2024 by Ayden Harris

Looking for another habitable planet outside of Earth has drawn the attention of scientists for years. Initially scientists believed that as long as a planet orbits a star in a habitable zone that the could be a potential planet for humans to colonize on. However, over the years that list has gotten more extensive. So, […] Continue reading →

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