Author Archives: Europa

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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