Author Archives: jesszhang782

Using Fungus in Space?

Posted on April 28, 2022 by jesszhang782

There are a lot of barriers to humans living in space. But two of the problems may have an innovative solution involving fungus. A major problem is radiation. Once you get farther away from Earth, Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field can no longer pro… Continue reading →

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Nucleobases in Asteroids

Posted on April 27, 2022 by jesszhang782

Nucleobases are the building blocks of DNA and RNA. There are five total nucleobases (adenine, thymine, cytosine, guanine, and uracil) and three of the five have been found in meteorites. Recently, the last two nucleobases have also been identified. Th… Continue reading →

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Asteroid Mining

Posted on April 8, 2022 by jesszhang782

Rocky asteroids contain metals that are commonly used on Earth. What if there was a way to mine those metals from asteroids and bring them back to Earth? The potential gains seem promising, as even a small asteroid can contain enough industrial metals … Continue reading →

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Kepler-186f

Posted on April 6, 2022 by jesszhang782

Kepler-186f is an extrasolar planet that was discovered on July 23, 2015. It was the first rocky planet about the size of Earth found in the habitable zone. The habitable zone is an area around a star where the temperature is good for liquid water. Oth… Continue reading →

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Halley’s Comet

Posted on March 20, 2022 by jesszhang782

Halley’s Comet was the first comet understood to be a periodic comet, or a comet that can pass through the solar system multiple times. The English astronomer Edmund Halley (1656-1742) noticed that the previously recorded orbits of three comets were ve… Continue reading →

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Rock Samples from Mars

Posted on March 19, 2022 by jesszhang782

Mars has been of interest because of evidence that it may have once supported life. NASA’s latest rover, Perseverance, has been sent to Mars to look for signs of ancient life. A big part of this endeavor is sending samples from Mars back to Earth for m… Continue reading →

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The First Space Telescope

Posted on February 19, 2022 by jesszhang782

Telescopes have come a long way since they were invented in 1608. Not only have ground based telescopes made significant advances, but in recent decades telescopes have even been launched into space to mitigate the effects of Earth’s atmosphere on obse… Continue reading →

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Historical Astronomers in Context

Posted on February 7, 2022 by jesszhang782

Galileo Galilei was an Italian astronomer who lived from February 15, 1564, to January 8, 1642. He made significant contributions to the field through his telescopic observations. Galileo learned of telescopes, a newly invented device at the time, and … Continue reading →

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Phases of the Earth

Posted on January 28, 2022 by jesszhang782

If you live on Earth, you can probably picture the Moon cycling through its different phases in the sky. But have you ever thought about what it would look like if you lived on the Moon and saw Earth in the sky? Turns out Earth has phases too. Similar … Continue reading →

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Introduction

Posted on January 23, 2022 by jesszhang782

Hi everyone! My name is Jessica and I’m a sophomore at Vanderbilt University majoring in computer science. I took ASTR 1010 last year and really liked it so I thought I would take another astronomy class. I’m from Upstate New York so I visi… Continue reading →

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