Author Archives: abbieychen

☆Born to shine, forced to fuse☆

Posted on March 5, 2024 by abbieychen

Stars, like us, have an exciting life journey. Stars are born when gas and dust in cold molecular clouds collapse from gravity. Just like our solar system, the formation of a star involves the gas cloud spinning, heating, and flattening until the star is formed. Something I thought was cool was that stars tend to […] Continue reading →

Posted in Class, Stars | Tagged , , | Comments Off on ☆Born to shine, forced to fuse☆

From collapse to solar system

Posted on March 3, 2024 by abbieychen

Once upon a time, there was a huge interstellar cloud of cold, low-density gas called the solar nebula. This solar nebula came about from billions of years of galactic recycling, and consists of about 98% hydrogen and helium and 2% other random elements. The solar nebula collapsed under its own gravity, and BOOM! the Sun […] Continue reading →

Posted in Class | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on From collapse to solar system

Gravity holds the universe together

Posted on February 11, 2024 by abbieychen

Gravitational force, why planets have orbits, and how we know that black holes exist When you think of gravity, you might think of the force that makes apples fall on people’s heads (talking about you, Newton!). But it’s also why planets have orbits! Any two objects in space have a gravitational force between them. Kepler’s […] Continue reading →

Posted in Class | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Gravity holds the universe together

The Universe Isn’t Kepler-centric!

Posted on February 2, 2024 by abbieychen

Johannes Kepler made three of the most influential discoveries to the field of astronomy, also known as Kepler’s Laws. Kepler was born on December 27, 1571 (a true Capricorn!), and died on November 15, 1630. In case you forgot: Kepler’s 1st Law: planet orbits are elliptical (not necessarily perfect circles!) and the Sun is at […] Continue reading →

Posted in Historical | Tagged , | Comments Off on The Universe Isn’t Kepler-centric!

It’s not a phase, Mom! ⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

Posted on January 22, 2024 by abbieychen

One thing I love about the nighttime is getting to see the different phases of the Moon in different times of its cycle. The Moon cycle consists of 8 phases as you can see in the picture below, and lasts 29.5 days, which is around one month! In this period, we see the Moon go from […] Continue reading →

Posted in Class, SolarSystem | Tagged , , | Comments Off on It’s not a phase, Mom! ⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

Abbie’s intro post!

Posted on January 15, 2024 by abbieychen

Hi! I’m Abbie and I am taking ASTR2110!! I took ASTR1010 and ASTR1010L in my freshman year, and I absolutely loved learning more about stars, planets, the universe, as well as getting to observe during lab. I am so excited to learn more! Here is a hyperlink to Vanderbilt’s website. Continue reading →

Posted in Class | Tagged | Comments Off on Abbie’s intro post!