Author Archives: evinske

The Fermi Paradox

Posted on April 27, 2016 by evinske

To be, or not to be? Is that really the question? According to the Fermi Paradox, it’s a perfectly valid one. The Fermi Paradox, coined after Enrico Fermi, is a theory that addresses life elsewhere in the universe as a probable reality. The only issue is, however, that no other forms of life (that we […] Continue reading →

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Carl Sa(vior)gan

Posted on April 10, 2016 by evinske

We read about them in our textbooks. They’re the giants with discoveries that make our understandings of moon phases and seasonal changes seem minuscule and insignificant. We stand on their shoulders when we learn about atmospheric conditions on different planets. We hold their hands while launching expensive equipment into the hardly-known (space). We sometimes name this […] Continue reading →

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The Solar Shepherds

Posted on April 4, 2016 by evinske

Rings. It’s what many senior girls are looking for right now, just as graduation approaches. Spring brings the rings, right? The giant planets, however, sport perhaps the most breathtaking rings of all. What many won’t notice about rings of giant planets, such as Saturn, are its imperfections. The darker regions of the rings do not […] Continue reading →

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When the Sun Shows Off

Posted on March 15, 2016 by evinske

  There’s a spectacular light show every year at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. The grand venue boasts thousands and thousands of lights each year around Christmas. Yet, you don’t have to find a $30 parking spot at a debatably overrated hotel to see a grand, sparkling event. In fact, there’s a place giving […] Continue reading →

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These Are Not the Droids We’re Looking For

Posted on March 15, 2016 by evinske

Knowledge is power. We want more and more of it. It’s no surprise, then, that we see the Solar System as a well full of knowledge we’ve never encountered before. So, we send spacecrafts out into the Solar System, looking for information. We want pictures, data, surprises, and (now) sound. We’re obsessed. But we too often […] Continue reading →

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HW #B4 – To Blink Or Not To Blink

Posted on February 16, 2016 by evinske

On a warm night this summer on Edisto Island, SC, my friends and I took to the beach to go shrimping. The after-dark escapade turned into a feeding frenzy, reaping monstrous crustaceans with beady, red eyes. The younger kids eventually took turns in the water, and I sat on a sand dune and looked up at the clear […] Continue reading →

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HW #B3 – A Superpower Redefined

Posted on February 16, 2016 by evinske

Be it an elementary school sleepover or a university orientation, there’s always a place and time for the infamous question: If you could have any superpower, what would it be? Some people say they’d love to fly or breathe underwater, but one of the most popular answers is X-ray vision. The entire process behind X-ray […] Continue reading →

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Historical Astronomers in Context – Homework #6

Posted on February 9, 2016 by evinske

2. Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543) was important to astronomy because he served as a pioneer in drifting away from the geocentric model of the universe. He dove tediously into the tables and mathematics of the previous, geocentric model of the universe and found enlightenment in geometry. He thereby successfully determined the distances between planets and the Sun, as […] Continue reading →

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SCED: The Science of Perspectivism

Posted on February 6, 2016 by evinske

Hey guys! Rani and I have been talking a lot about perspective for this week’s blog. First, I wanted to think about the place historical context holds in a STEM course similar to this one. Dr. G mentioned last Tuesday that our lecture about historic science (Copernicus, Tycho, Gallileo, etc.) would likely be the last […] Continue reading →

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“Goodnight Nobody, Goodnight Mush”

Posted on January 26, 2016 by evinske

When we think we can’t see the moon, it can definitely see us. This doesn’t just hold true when we’re sleeping. As the children’s book, “Goodnight Moon,” goes, we may say “Goodnight” to the moon – but it’s still there outside our window and outside our atmosphere. Different parts of the moon disappear at different […] Continue reading →

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