Author Archives: karenagrebenc

Doctor Who is not COMPLETELY fictional

Posted on April 23, 2015 by karenagrebenc

Image from wikipedia.com This article covers arguably one of my favorite topics to swoon over-Doctor Who.  I will be completely honest in saying that my intense interest in studying the solar system and beyond came pretty much single-handedly from watching Doctor Who (and maybe a teensy bit by my mom making me watch old Star […] Continue reading →

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Some pretty extreme(“ophiles”)

Posted on April 23, 2015 by karenagrebenc

Image from wikipedia.com That above picture is of a water bear, one of multiple really cool extremophiles discussed in this article.  The article makes a really cool comment about how we are lucky that water bears, and the same probably holds true for other extremophiles as well, are so small.  Otherwise, it is likely that […] Continue reading →

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What would life be like on Pluto for humans?

Posted on April 5, 2015 by karenagrebenc

photo from space.com Above is an artist’s conception of what Pluto would look like if one could stand on one of the dwarf planet’s moons and stare back at Pluto.  But this article goes on to tell us what our experiences would be if we were to actually step foot on the surface of Pluto […] Continue reading →

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Io’s crazy volcanoes!

Posted on April 4, 2015 by karenagrebenc

photo from space.com So, we all know that Io is notoriously the volcanic moon of Jupiter, but apparently a couple of years ago it randomly got…MORE volcanic? According to this article, in August of 2013 three large eruptions occurred on Io.  To put it in perspective, this is the number of large eruptions that we […] Continue reading →

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A trip to Venus?

Posted on March 15, 2015 by karenagrebenc

video from phys.org It seems like all of the talk in the field of space travel these days has been too focused on a trip to one single location…Mars.  But noticing while studying these past few chapters that Venus is actually a bit closer to Earth than Mars, that brought up a question in my […] Continue reading →

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Weight is just a number!

Posted on February 12, 2015 by karenagrebenc

picture from storejpg.com Weight IS just a number-it’s simply the product of the mass of an object and the force put on that object due to gravity!  Since the number is dependent on gravity, it’s totally logical that, since the force of gravity from the Sun is different in different locations in the Solar system […] Continue reading →

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The first navigational tool

Posted on February 12, 2015 by karenagrebenc

Image from kaloujm.com People have been using the sky as their source of navigation for years, and one of the first tools made for the purpose of aiding in navigation (that wasn’t a body part!) was the kamal.  The exact date is unsure, but it’s estimated that this tool came into use around the fifth […] Continue reading →

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Historical Astronomers in Context

Posted on January 27, 2015 by karenagrebenc

Johannes Kepler is arguably one of the most important astronomers in history.  Kepler was born on December 27, 1571 and died on November 15, 1630.  During his lifetime he was an apprentice to the famous astronomer Tycho Brahe, continuing Brahe’s work after his death. During this time Kepler developed his three laws of planetary motion, […] Continue reading →

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The oldest recorded solar eclipse!

Posted on January 22, 2015 by karenagrebenc

After talking about solar eclipses in class yesterday, I got super nerd-ily excited about reading more about them!  A quick wikipedia search (since that is totally acceptable and awesome!) links to tons more wikipedia pages that list the exact date, time, type, location, and path width, among other details.  The oldest recorded one listed on […] Continue reading →

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The oldest recorded solar eclipse!

Posted on January 22, 2015 by karenagrebenc

After talking about solar eclipses in class yesterday, I got super nerd-ily excited about reading more about them!  A quick wikipedia search (since that is totally acceptable and awesome!) links to tons more wikipedia pages that list the exact date, time, type, location, and path width, among other details.  The oldest recorded one listed on […] Continue reading →

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