Author Archives: John Harrington

Blog #6 (EC): The Fermi Paradox

Posted on March 24, 2020 by John Harrington

An interesting concept that occupies the minds of many philosophers and scientists alike is the idea of life outside of Earth (and outside of our solar system). Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi posited that there exists a paradox describing the possibility of life outside of our world: there is no physical evidence to prove (or evenContinue reading “Blog #6 (EC): The Fermi Paradox” Continue reading →

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Blog #5: Pluto’s Demotion

Posted on March 24, 2020 by John Harrington

Several years ago, as I’m sure we all remember, Pluto was demoted from Planet status to Dwarf Planet status. This change was an interesting (and controversial) one because Pluto essentially remains in limbo between the two classifications. Pluto was the smallest planet in the solar system–but it’s now the largest dwarf planet in the solarContinue reading “Blog #5: Pluto’s Demotion” Continue reading →

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Blog #4: Statistics Behind Our Solar System

Posted on March 9, 2020 by John Harrington

A concept that has always intrigued me is the possibility of life on Earth. It seems like every topic we cover reveals another statistical improbability that has allowed life to exist on Earth at all. For example, we are just far enough from the sun that we have an atmosphere, but not so far fromContinue reading “Blog #4: Statistics Behind Our Solar System” Continue reading →

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Blog #3: Spacecraft

Posted on March 9, 2020 by John Harrington

Spacecraft is a topic that takes relatively simple mechanics and merges it with the already fairly complex topic of astrophysics to create an extremely complicated topic that has gained notoriety for becoming considered one of the most difficult professions in existence (think of “this isn’t rocket science”). Something interesting to me about spacecraft is this:Continue reading “Blog #3: Spacecraft” Continue reading →

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Gravity in Space

Posted on January 30, 2020 by John Harrington

An intriguing phenomenon that took millennia for the modern human to explain is gravity. First explained by Sir Isaac M. Newton, gravity as a force as a function of mass is a difficult one for many to wrap their heads around. The reason many non-scientists struggle to understand the basics of gravity is because itContinue reading “Gravity in Space” Continue reading →

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Blog #1: The Scale of the Universe

Posted on January 20, 2020 by John Harrington

Something that fascinates me is the idea of scale of our universe. In particular, “scale” relative to a more traditional size/distance scale that we use more often. The metric scale, whose utility to humans generally ranges from millimeters to kilometers (measurements that we are easily able to estimate and compare), represents an indescribably minuscule spectrumContinue reading “Blog #1: The Scale of the Universe” Continue reading →

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Introductory Post

Posted on January 14, 2020 by John Harrington

Welcome to my ASTR 2110 blog. This is my introductory post. I have attached a photo of an exploding star, which was taken by the Hubble spacecraft. You can read more about this image and how it was taken here. Continue reading →

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