Author Archives: hellouniverse1234

Mass Extinction, Soon?

Posted on May 1, 2018 by hellouniverse1234

It’s no secret that that an asteroid impact 65 million years ago caused a chain of environmental disasters. Countless species were driven to extinction, evaporated by the impact, suffocated by volcanic ash, eradicated by the rapid climate change. It’s unlikely that we’ll ever have the technology to predict when the next extinction event will happen. […] Continue reading →

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Life in Our Solar System

Posted on May 1, 2018 by hellouniverse1234

One of the biggest questions that philosophers and scientists alike ask: Are we alone in the universe? Is it possible that there’s sentient life outside of our small blue planet? The Fermi Paradox asks us this question. The universe is so big. Using even the most conservative estimations of exoplanets in the habitable zone, calculations […] Continue reading →

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Footprints on the Moon

Posted on April 9, 2018 by hellouniverse1234

Going to the moon – a feat that was never even dreamed by our ancestors. It seems unthinkable. Being able to go to something so far away. Being able to survive the harshness of space, even just momentarily inside a puffy marshmallow suit. It was unthinkable, a few centuries ago. But now we have evidence: […] Continue reading →

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Walking on Diamonds

Posted on April 9, 2018 by hellouniverse1234

At some point in their life, every girl (or guy, I’m not judging!) wants a beautiful diamond on her finger. Not only are they shiny, sparkly, and oh-so-shimmery, but also incredibly expensive and valuable – from a material’s standpoint. But out there, floating out in the depths of the universe, exists a planet created with […] Continue reading →

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Venus – Is it Habitable?

Posted on March 17, 2018 by hellouniverse1234

When you think about humans moving to other planets, your train of thought probably leads you to think about Mars. Sending spacecrafts to Mars, talks of terraforming Mars, the works. But another planet that has been a subject of many science fiction stories is none other than Earth’s sister planet: Venus. Venus’ surface is hostile. […] Continue reading →

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SpaceX has officially created a non-zero chance of a car accident in space.

Posted on February 12, 2018 by hellouniverse1234

February 6, 2018. The Falcon Heavy launched into space with Elon Musk’s own personal Tesla Roadster. SpaceX has had many successful launches, had several successful landings, and on top of all of that… they can claim themselves to be the first ever company to send a car to space.   Yes, that’s a real image. […] Continue reading →

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Why Christopher Nolan’s tidal representation in Interstellar makes a terrifying sort of sense.

Posted on February 8, 2018 by hellouniverse1234

Note: Spoiler alert for those that haven’t seen the movie!     Within the Interstellar universe, there exists an enormous black hole in a distant galaxy, named Gargantua by the movie’s characters. Around this black hole orbits several different planets, and the characters are hoping to explore and learn more about them. One of these […] Continue reading →

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Historical Astronomers in Context

Posted on February 5, 2018 by hellouniverse1234

Johannes Kepler’s (December 27, 1571 – November 15, 1630) primary contribution to the astronomy field was his laws of planetary motion. Not only are these concepts important to modern day astrophysics (such as when sending satellites to study distant planets), but also lay the foundation for Newton’s work on universal gravitation. One major astronomical event that happened […] Continue reading →

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The Universe in Dots

Posted on January 22, 2018 by hellouniverse1234

Let’s say the average human has a lifespan of 80 years. To make it a little easier on our calculations, we’ll bump it up to 100 years. Let’s represent that as a dot. The species Homo Sapiens has been around for roughly 200,000 years. If the human lifespan is shown as a single dot, the […] Continue reading →

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Saying Hello

Posted on January 19, 2018 by hellouniverse1234

Quick introduction for Blog 0: My name is Emily Dong. I’m a sophomore at Vanderbilt University majoring in Computer Engineering and minoring in Astronomy. I’ve been interested in astronomy for a while now, as seen in the (very dark) picture above of a night-time astronomy lab. One of my favorite blogs: Wait but Why. The […] Continue reading →

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