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Author Archives: Europa
The History and Future of the Universe: A Time Scale
If you’d like to feel the crushing weight of existential dread as we approach the end of this course, and for me, the end of my time at Vanderbilt, I have just the video for you! It’s a YouTube video called “Age of Universe: Time in Perspective,” and it uses a time-to-volume comparison in order […] Continue reading
Where Are All the Aliens? Potential Solutions to the Fermi Paradox
In class, Dr. G mentioned a Wait But Why article about the Fermi Paradox. I absolutely love this article and the entire concept of the Fermi Paradox–I even wrote about it in my Common App essay four years ago! The Fermi Paradox, first informally presented by physicist Enrico Fermi, describes the apparent contradiction between our […] Continue reading
Posted in Aliens, Class, Space Travel
Tagged astro2110, blog7, fermiparadox, life
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Strange Stars (Literally)
Neutron stars are the collapsed cores of massive stars of 10-25 solar masses. They are formed when these supergiant stars collapse under their own gravity and undergo a supernova explosion, which compresses the star’s core to the extremely high density of atomic nuclei. In fact, they are called neutron stars because the extreme forces within […] Continue reading
Ocean Worlds of Supercritical Fluid
In class, we learned about various categories of exoplanets, including Super-Earths, terrestrials, ice giants, gas giants, and hot Jupiters. One other category that was mentioned was “water worlds,” an ill-defined and not entirely proven category of planets. This category would describe planets that are on the border between terrestrials and ice giants, or terrestrial worlds […] Continue reading
Posted in Class, Exoplanets, Physics
Tagged astro2110, blog5
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Time Dilation and the Theory of Relativity
With our totally unrestricted guidelines on Blog 4, I would like to make a bit of a deviation from the content of our course and discuss time dilation and the theory of relativity! When I first learned about time dilation, which refers to the difference in elapsed time as measured by different clocks due to […] Continue reading
Voyager 1 and the Golden Records
Voyager 1 is the farthest human-made object from Earth (Space.com). Voyager 1 is a space probe, launched in 1977 with the mission to explore the outer planets of the Solar System. Voyager 2, its twin probe, was actually launched first, with a slower, more meandering trajectory past Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Voyager 1 soon […] Continue reading
Posted in Aliens, Class, Space Travel
Tagged astro2110, blog3, goldenrecord, Solar System, spacecraft, voyager1
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Ancient Egypt Switches from the 360 to 365-Day Year
The other day, my friend told me about an Ancient Egyptian myth regarding the switch from the 360 to the 365-day calendar in Egypt. At the time, I just thought it was a cool story, but later realized that it was a perfect example of archaeoastronomy. Before 4200 BCE, the Ancient Egyptian calendar year was […] Continue reading
Posted in Class, Historical
Tagged archaeoastronomy, astro2110, blog2, Time
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To Be Circular, or Elliptical: That Was Kepler’s Question
Johannes Kepler was an astronomer and mathematician best known for his development of the three laws of planetary motion. The first reflected a major upheaval in astronomical thought at the time: that planetary orbits are elliptical, with the Sun located at one of each orbit’s two foci, rather than perfectly circular. The second is that […] Continue reading
Posted in Class, Historical
Tagged astro2110, HW2, Kepler
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Identifying Jupiter and Mars
Last night, I was looking up at the night sky while walking to dinner. I noticed a few constellations, as well as two brighter points of light that I was pretty sure were Mars and Jupiter. Normally, I can identify them, but for some reason Mars didn’t look as red to me as it normally […] Continue reading
Posted in Class, Jovians, Observables, Sun, Terrestrials
Tagged astro2110, blog1, jupiter, Mars, motion, Solar System
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Introduction
Hello ASTR 2110 class! My name is Kathryn, and I’m a senior majoring in Biomedical Engineering. I wasn’t quite able to fit an Astronomy minor into my schedule, but I’ve always loved learning about space (fun fact: I wrote my college admission essay about the Fermi Paradox), so I’ve tried to pick up astronomy courses […] Continue reading