Author Archives: georgeboardman20

Political Economics of Space Exploration

Posted on April 25, 2023 by georgeboardman20

Image from NASA Press Release I remember when I was young thinking, why haven’t we put humans on Mars yet? We have the feasibility to do so, but why? The answer comes down to the intersection between power politics and economics that often hamper, restrict and sometimes fuel the drive for space exploration. Before this […] Continue reading →

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Scientists Dream of Complex Life on Europa

Posted on April 25, 2023 by georgeboardman20

Images from BBC Article on Europan Life and CNET Article on Proposed NASA Rover The search for extraterrestrial life is often focused upon deep space with distances the human mind can barely comprehend. However, evidence has been building that complex life could be present in our cosmological backyard on the icy moon of Europa. The […] Continue reading →

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A World Where It Rains Glass

Posted on April 9, 2023 by georgeboardman20

Image Source This planet, HD 189733b, is the first exoplanet to have its color confirmed. We now know it is a deep, dark blue from a technique called secondary eclipse that scientists used to determine its albedo. As the planet was just about to finish transiting its host star relative to us, scientists measured light […] Continue reading →

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Waterworlds Make Earth Look Dry

Posted on April 9, 2023 by georgeboardman20

Image Source In a system 218 light years from Earth, scientists have discovered two planets, Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 d, which make Earth look like a desert in comparison. Both planets were initially thought by scientists to be rocky super-Earths. However, after closer examination by the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists were able to determine that […] Continue reading →

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JWST: The Newest Oldest Galaxy?

Posted on March 7, 2023 by georgeboardman20

Source of Image The James Webb Telescope has come across the most distant and oldest galaxy known to humankind. It has been named HD1 and is sitting at a redshift of 13.3, currently located 33.3 billion light years from the earth, and viewed at a time when the universe was only about 300 million years […] Continue reading →

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TRAPPIST-1e: Another Earth?

Posted on March 7, 2023 by georgeboardman20

Source for Image Circling a red dwarf star 40 light years away is a system of seven, Earth-like planets. All seven planets are similar enough in size to Earth to hold atmosphere and potentially have volcanic activity. However, only one of those is located within the Goldilocks zone. In other words, TRAPPIST-1e has the potential […] Continue reading →

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Why the Speed of Light May Not Be Constant

Posted on February 12, 2023 by georgeboardman20

Source: Speed of Light Properties Explained One of the biggest current paradigms in the science of astronomy is the certainty that the speed of light is constant in a vacuum. However, new research shows that this might not entirely be accurate which could have massive consequences for cosmology. Thanks to the use of lasers here on […] Continue reading →

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Historical Astronomers in Context

Posted on February 1, 2023 by georgeboardman20

Tycho Brahe was an aspiring Danish lawyer when he first became fascinated in astronomy. He was reportedly inspired by a total solar eclipse then later a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, which is where his practical advancements in astronomy came from. The Ptolemaian and Copernican models were off by several days on predicting the conjunction, […] Continue reading →

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The Unfathomable Scale of the Universe

Posted on January 24, 2023 by georgeboardman20

A logarithmic scale of the universe, used to highlight humanity’s cumulative knowledge about the universe. Source: A Logarithmic View of the Universe The above image will highlight what I’m writing here about today, because in all of our daily lives we’re pretty myopic, but for good reason! We grew up here on this planet with […] Continue reading →

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