Author Archives: Ayden Harris

The Unknown Planet

Growing up we always heard about how our solar system had eight main planets orbiting the Sun; Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. But, what if there was another planet? This is known as the ninth planet hypothesis, and no I don’t mean Pluto. It is estimated that it could have ten […] Continue reading

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The Lesser Known Moon

Titan is a commonly forgotten about moon in our solar system. It is the second largest moon that orbits Saturn. There are a few interesting things about Titan. Titan is one of the most Earth-like worlds found to date. Titan’s atmosphere is comprised of mainly nitrogen (95%) and some methane (5%). However, why it is […] Continue reading

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Asteroid Mining

As we know, the Earth’s resources are finite. There are only so many materials and metals that we can extract from Earth before it runs out. To help combat this problem, a new solution was envisioned, asteroid mining. What asteroid mining would do is collect precious metals from asteroids near Earth. Some of these include […] Continue reading

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Tectonics, plate tectonics, and Pangea

Something that is interesting is the difference between plate tectonics and tectonics. Tectonics is the faulting or folding or other deformation of the outer layer of a planet. This goes hand in hand with volcanism because of the required internal heat. A good example of this in our solar is mars having the Tharsis region […] Continue reading

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Understanding Gravity

There are many different ways to visualize how gravity functions. However, one of the best way I have found to visualize gravity is with strings and using the center of mass. Gravity is the weakest force of the four fundamental forces, however, it works over an infinite amount of distance. I put this in perspective […] Continue reading

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Historical Astronomers in Context

Isaac Newton (B. December 25, 1642 D. March 20, 1727) was important because he was one of the first people to accurately describe mathematically how planetary motion works. He was able to begin to mathematically describe how gravity works and especia… Continue reading

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Chapters 1 and 2

Something that I thought was interesting about the readings was the concept of the speed of light, but more specifically how it applies to space travel. We know, based on looking out into the universe, that the universe is about ~14 billion years old. Obviously this means, that if we were to travel at the […] Continue reading

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Intro post

I am excited to learn about the solar system this semester! I have taken Astronomy which inspired me to become a physics major! You can learn more about the physics major at Vanderbilt here. The attached image is My buddy and I playing volleyball 
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