Author Archives: fathomingthestars

The Universe

Posted on April 28, 2013 by fathomingthestars

One thing I have been struck by this semester is how full the universe is, but at the same time, how empty it is.  When we look up at the night sky, even in ideal conditions with excellent eyesight, we would see at most a few thousand stars.  That gives you some perspective when I tell […] Continue reading →

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The Fermi Paradox

Posted on April 27, 2013 by fathomingthestars

The galaxy is a pretty big place.  With around 400 billion stars, it seems very likely that some of those stars have planets that can support life, that some of those planets have intelligent life, and maybe some of that intelligent life becomes space-faring.  Even if we say the chance of a star having a […] Continue reading →

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The toughest animal on the planet

Posted on April 9, 2013 by fathomingthestars

Most creatures require a specific set of conditions to survive: a certain amount of oxygen, temperature, pressure, food, etc.  However, some animals can live in conditions so extreme they kill almost everything else.  These animals are called, fittingly, extremophiles.  One extremophile is the tardigrade, more commonly called water bears or moss piglets. In general, tardigrades […] Continue reading →

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Why is Europa so Awesome?

Posted on April 7, 2013 by fathomingthestars

A lot of the science community is excited about the possibility of life of Mars.  But, as we know, the vast majority of Mars’s atmosphere is composed of carbon dioxide and what water it does have is frozen in its polar ice caps.  An arguably much more exciting destination in our own Solar System is […] Continue reading →

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So, what exactly is the Higgs Boson?

Posted on March 19, 2013 by fathomingthestars

Now, I’m not going to pretend that I know as much about the now famous Higgs Boson as the scientists at CERN, but I do have a conceptual understanding of what it is and why it is important.  The Higgs Boson used to the only piece of the standard model of particle physics that we […] Continue reading →

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Venus

Posted on March 17, 2013 by fathomingthestars

Venus is a unique planet among the terrestrial worlds and possesses  many features that make it an interesting planet to study.  Often called a sister planet of Earth because of the two planet’s similar sizes and compositions, Venus is, in some ways, a very different planet from Earth.  To start, Venus is completely inhospitable to life, with […] Continue reading →

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Dark Matter vs Dark Energy

Posted on February 19, 2013 by fathomingthestars

In my previous post, I wrote about dark matter and how we can infer its existence through gravitational lensing.  Here, I will more fully explore what dark matter is and what dark energy is. Dark matter, as the name implies, is matter that is dark and cannot be seen.  “Seen” here does not mean visible […] Continue reading →

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Gravitational Lensing

Posted on February 10, 2013 by fathomingthestars

Isaac Newton may be well known for his Law of Universal Gravitation, but the law has a fundamental flaw—it states that only things with mass can be affected by gravity.  Photons, the quanta of light, have no mass, but we know that they are affected by gravity.  One of the ways we can see how […] Continue reading →

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Sir Isaac Newton

Posted on February 6, 2013 by fathomingthestars

Biography Year of Birth: 1642 Year of Death: 1727 Historical Events Occurring During the Life of Isaac Newton Great Fire of London.  This five day fire during September of 1666 is one of the most famous disasters in the history of London.  During the fire, much of London was destroyed and 100,000 people became homeless. […] Continue reading →

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Why does the moon look red?

Posted on January 27, 2013 by fathomingthestars

If you have ever seen an image of a lunar eclipse, or have had the privilege of viewing one in person, you probably noticed that the moon does not retain its bright, whitish color; instead, the moon turns a shade of orange or red.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, this very cool youtube video […] Continue reading →

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