Author Archives: Karan Bhardwaj

KB’s Astronomical Review

Posted on April 30, 2022 by Karan Bhardwaj

Over the course of the semester, I have significantly improved my understanding of space, the stars within, and the 8 planets of our solar system. It was particularly interesting to me discussing the formation of the solar system, as I had no idea there were so many unique events that shaped our solar system to […] Continue reading →

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The Fermi Paradox & Possible Implications

Posted on April 30, 2022 by Karan Bhardwaj

Are we alone? This sentence, likely thought by many humans around the world and throughout history in hundreds of languages, brings forth a profound question. Also known as the Fermi Paradox, the search for intelligent extraterrestrial life has captured many minds. If life is so plentiful here on Earth, and there are so many habitable […] Continue reading →

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Life in the Milky Way

Posted on April 18, 2022 by Karan Bhardwaj

Other than life on Earth, is there any other planet in the Milky Way which might harbor life intelligent enough for inter-stellar communication? Many approaches to this question, with different philosophies have come to fruition throughout the years. One such approach is the Drake Equation: There are 7 different parameters to the Drake Equation, considering […] Continue reading →

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The Great Dark Spot

Posted on April 17, 2022 by Karan Bhardwaj

Jupiter’s ‘Great Red Spot’ is extremely famous, and it is very easily distinguishable when viewing Jupiter. However, there also exists another Great Spot, this time on Neptune: The Great Dark Spot. It is similar to the Great Red Spot as it is a result of a anticyclonic storm, however the storms on Neptune do not […] Continue reading →

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The Likelihood of Getting Hit with a Gamma-Ray Burst

Posted on March 22, 2022 by Karan Bhardwaj

A gamma ray burst is expected to hit Earth every 10,000 years to 1,000,000 years. How would this affect human society as we know it, why are gamma rays so dangerous, and can we do anything to stop it? Gamma ray bursts are extremely energetic spouts of energy, and similar to visible light, are part […] Continue reading →

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The Formation of Nebulae

Posted on March 21, 2022 by Karan Bhardwaj

In discussing how planets and stars form, one will quickly find the nebular hypothesis — an idea that stars and the planets that orbit them were formed from clouds of gas called nebulae. But how was this nebula first formed, where did it come from, and what are the different types of nebulae? A nebula […] Continue reading →

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The Speed of Gravity

Posted on February 20, 2022 by Karan Bhardwaj

If the Sun were to disappear, how long would it take for us to notice? This question usually brings about an answer of ‘8 minutes’, or about the time that it takes light from the Sun to reach Earth. However, Earth is orbiting the Sun, and if it were to instantaneously disappear, would Earth still […] Continue reading →

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Historical Astronomers in Context

Posted on February 9, 2022 by Karan Bhardwaj

#2 – Issac Newton was extremely important to the field of astronomy, with one of his most important contributions being calculus. Newton had devised new mathematical principles to model some of his observations in Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. Additionally, Newton had theorized that all objects are affected by each other by the concept of […] Continue reading →

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The Speed of Light (or so we think)

Posted on January 29, 2022 by Karan Bhardwaj

To measure the speed of anything, the simplest thing to do is to measure how long it takes to travel a known distance. By dividing the distance over the time, we obtain the speed: Speed = Distance / Time However, measuring the speed of light is not so easy. Colloquially known as about 3 x […] Continue reading →

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Introductory Post

Posted on January 24, 2022 by Karan Bhardwaj

The image featured is from my personal website. I had designed it to be a pulsar (still a work in progress) but I had done so in order to teach myself the basics of JavaScript. The red, white, and yellow squared are intended to represent distant stars, and are simple boxes to save on compute […] Continue reading →

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