Author Archives: kevinm387

Fusion Propulsion

Posted on May 2, 2013 by kevinm387

Here is an interesting ted talk on fusion propulsion. Fusion propulsion would be just about the only way humans would be able to achieve interstellar space travel. Unfortunately, this possibility is still a long way off, as the speaker Jason Cassibry points out, but the concept is still there. Scientists have long been working on […] Continue reading →

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100,000 Stars

Posted on April 9, 2013 by kevinm387

Above is a video of an awesome website, 100,000 Stars. This website is an interactive, 3D map of the closest 100,000 stars to us. The video gives a little taste, but I encourage everyone to go to the site and explore for yourselves. Zooming in on our Solar System, you encounter the Oort Cloud first, […] Continue reading →

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Habitable Exoplanets

Posted on April 9, 2013 by kevinm387

Researchers at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo have developed a rank ordering system of comparing exoplanets to Earth called the Earth Similarity Index. Using this system, scientists have been able to highlight a few exoplanets similar to Earth and have determined which ones are the most similar to Earth. To visit the website, […] Continue reading →

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Who wants to be a Martian?

Posted on March 18, 2013 by kevinm387

So this guy, Bas Lansdorp, has created a company that will send people to Mars starting in 2022. Unfortunately, his company does not offer a return flight, meaning that those who accept this mission will become permanent residents of Mars (assuming they make it), will live out the rest of their lives, and die on […] Continue reading →

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Space Shuttle Resting Spots

Posted on February 18, 2013 by kevinm387

Above is a photo of the shuttle Endeavor flying over my hometown, Houston, before it retired. The final resting spots for these shuttles included Los Angeles, New York City, the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. As you can see, Houston was not included as one of the final destinations […] Continue reading →

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Historical Figures In Context

Posted on February 5, 2013 by kevinm387

Newton (December 25, 1642-March 20, 1726) was important to astronomy because he was probably the most influential physicist ever. Newton’s laws of physics help explain why planets orbit stars and why moons orbit planets, for example. While many others just made observations, Newton was able to describe why these occurrences were happening through his discovery of […] Continue reading →

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Solar System Website

Posted on January 27, 2013 by kevinm387

This image comes from solarviews.com, a cool website that has lots of info on our Solar System. It has pages about each of the planets, their moons, asteroids and much more. It also has info about other things like exoplanets and the Oort Cloud, which is a spherical cloud that surrounds our Sun and extends […] Continue reading →

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The Speed of Light and Time Dilation

Posted on January 27, 2013 by kevinm387

Relativity is probably the most interesting area of physics in my opinion, and this video does a great job of succinctly explaining the concept of time dilation. To summarize, objects moving at speeds close to the speed of light experience time more slowly from the perspective of a stationary observer because the speed of light […] Continue reading →

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Houston

Posted on January 15, 2013 by kevinm387

by me
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