Author Archives: Ethan Jones

Black Holes

Posted on April 29, 2024 by Ethan Jones

Black holes have always been one of the most fascinating things about our universe. I’m sure everyone remembers how the internet went insane when this photo was released. Black holes are everywhere in popular media like movies and video games. The concept that something so massive exists and nothing can ever escape from it astonishes […] Continue reading →

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Fermi Paradox

Posted on April 29, 2024 by Ethan Jones

Paradoxes are always interesting to contemplate, and the Fermi paradox is no different. First proposed by Enrico Fermi (above) the Fermi paradox in a nutshell is if the scale and probability of our universe favors intelligent life developing elsewhere, then why have we not found any evidence of that life. This paradox sparked Frank Drake […] Continue reading →

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The Solar Eclipse

Posted on April 8, 2024 by Ethan Jones

Like many of you I was very excited to see the solar eclipse today. I thought about driving to see totality, but ended up choosing against it as I figured it would be too much, and I had a quiz the morning of. So, I decided to stick around campus and watch it from here. […] Continue reading →

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The Kuiper Belt

Posted on April 7, 2024 by Ethan Jones

The Kuiper Belt was foreign to me before this class. I had never heard of it and because of that it stuck out to me. The basics of the Kuiper Belt is that it is the large region beyond Neptune. It stretches from about 30au-50au from the Sun. So far NASA says that only 2000 […] Continue reading →

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The Golden Record

Posted on March 5, 2024 by Ethan Jones

Aboard Voyager 1 and 2 there sits a golden record. This golden record contains anything NASA thinks is important to understanding humanity. The record contains both photos and images. The golden record fascinates me so much because of what they chose to put on it. First, they needed a way to communicate how to play […] Continue reading →

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Carbon Dating

Posted on March 4, 2024 by Ethan Jones

Ever wonder how we know how old dinosaurs were? Or how long humans have been on the Earth? Well, it all comes down to a technique that scientists use called carbon dating. The process starts with the Sun’s radiation colliding with a N-14 causing a proton to fall off and creating C-14. This C-14 reacts […] Continue reading →

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Fun Fact About Gravity

Posted on February 13, 2024 by Ethan Jones

One thing that has always fascinated me is how gravity and time are interlocked. Specifically, people at higher altitudes experience time relatively faster than people at sea level. This is due to a concept called gravitational time dilation. Time dilation comes from Newton’s theory of relativity. Basically, the more gravity you feel, the slower you […] Continue reading →

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Historical Astronomers In Context

Posted on February 5, 2024 by Ethan Jones

Galileo Galilei (2/15/1564-1/8/1642) began his important contributions to astronomy with his further development of the telescope. According to Wikipedia, he has many important contributions. One of his notable contributions is the progress he made in observing the moon. He focused on the moon’s craters, valleys, and mountains. He discovered Jupiter’s four largest moons through observing […] Continue reading →

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Blog 1: Scale of the Universe

Posted on January 23, 2024 by Ethan Jones

It is difficult to truly grasp the size and scale of our universe. And while using units like light years might be helpful in some cases, it can also be helpful to put things in a scale that is more common in everyday life. This image helps me understand the scale of the universe in […] Continue reading →

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Post #0

Posted on January 15, 2024 by Ethan Jones

This is a photo of my dog because he is cute. Here is the link to the photo taken by me. Continue reading →

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