Author Archives: annamcc9

Tardigrades

Posted on April 27, 2016 by annamcc9

Tardigrades are amazing extremophiles! They are minute animals that are the only organism proven to withstand the vacuum of space. Recently, thousands of them were attached to a satellite that was spent into space, and were exposed into the vacuum of space to see how they would survive. As they dried out in space, their DNA broke […] Continue reading →

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A Viral Photo Gone Wrong

Posted on March 15, 2016 by annamcc9

This image was talked about in class today; it has gone viral as a supposed image of Earth from the Hubble Deep Space Telescope. There are a number of reasons why this is absolutely impossible. One clear reason is the size of the atmosphere. From this distance, the atmosphere on Earth could not possibly be […] Continue reading →

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The Orion Nebula

Posted on March 15, 2016 by annamcc9

Nasa’s website overlays two images of the Orion Nebula, utilizing information from both the Spitzer Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope. This image shows the cosmic cloud, within which astronomers believe more than a thousand young stars are forming. There are four in particular, found near the center of the cloud, that are particularly monstrously […] Continue reading →

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The Sun’s Absorption Spectrum

Posted on February 16, 2016 by annamcc9

Absorption spectra occur when a hot solid or liquid or very dense gas give off a continuous spectrum, with all colors, and then that continuous light moves through a thin gas that is cooler than the source of the continuous light. This thin gas absorbs some of the light being given off by the source […] Continue reading →

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Lunar and Solar Tides

Posted on February 16, 2016 by annamcc9

Tides are a fascinating effect of the Moon and Sun’s gravitational forces acting on the Earth. They are a visible sign of how distance effects the strength of a gravitational force. Because the Sun is so large, it has the greatest gravitational force acting on the Earth. However, because it is so far away, the […] Continue reading →

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Johannes Kepler in Context

Posted on February 9, 2016 by annamcc9

Johannes Kepler (December 27, 1571 – 1630) was important to astronomy because he developed three laws of Planetary Motion. They were a result of analyzing observations made by Tycho Brahe concerning the orbit of Mars. The laws are: Planets move in ellipses with the Sun at one focus, the radius vector describes equal areas in […] Continue reading →

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Phases of the Moon

Posted on January 26, 2016 by annamcc9

I enjoyed this video from the history channel, which shows phases of the moon. It was interestingly relevant to my last post, since the image of the moon and Earth is so entirely NOT to scale because they are so large, and so close together. However, I did enjoy the explicit way that they explained each […] Continue reading →

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The size and scale of the solar system

Posted on January 26, 2016 by annamcc9

http://www.space.com/30590-solar-system-built-to-scale-in-nevada-desert-video.html I thought this video was a fascinating new way to consider both the size and scale of the Solar System in one experience; so often orbits in images of our Solar System are to scale compared to each other, but not compared to the size of the planets. Instead, often the planets are far too […] Continue reading →

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Introduction

Posted on January 20, 2016 by annamcc9

This is a picture I took while studying abroad last fall; it’s a picture of the church I lived down the street from, during the holiday season when there was a christmas market in the square in front of it. I loved walking through this square every day and looking up at the beautiful facade. Continue reading →

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