Author Archives: matthewastro

Blog 7: The Fermi Paradox

Posted on April 27, 2024 by matthewastro

Many scientists have theorized that we are not alone in the universe. Indeed, there are many scenarios that should lend themselves to the existence of life. The conditions inherent in theoretical models that have been developed to explain Earth’s formation and subsequent development of life exist elsewhere. Not only do they exist, but they appear […] Continue reading →

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bLOG 6: HOW MUCH DOES SIZE MATTER (FOR VOLCANISM and CRYOVOLCANISM)?

Posted on April 8, 2024 by matthewastro

Even some of the smallest world in our solar system exhibit (or have exhibited) evidence of volcanism or cryovolcanism. Asteroids like Vesta, with radii of only several hundred kilometers, displays features that indicate that they once exhibited active volcanism and even separation by differentiation. Although their volcanism lasted for periods that were geologically very brief, […] Continue reading →

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Blog 5: WHAT MAKES A METAL?

Posted on April 6, 2024 by matthewastro

Jupiter’s magnetosphere is generated thanks to a “metallic” layer of hydrogen around its core that is electrically conductive. Saturn also has “metallic,” electrically conductive hydrogen around its core, which enables it to have a magnetosphere as well. But the quotation marks? The answer is that metallic hydrogen isn’t a metal, in the traditional sense. First, […] Continue reading →

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Blog 4: Explaining Relativistic time dilation

Posted on March 2, 2024 by matthewastro

Time seems to be one of the only immutable aspects of the universe, besides death and taxes. Many people believe that the passage of time is altogether unstoppable and unyielding. And for most intensive purposes, they are right. Indeed, time is our most precious resource and one that many of believe we have an extremely […] Continue reading →

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Blog 3: Equilibrium and the stability of earth

Posted on March 2, 2024 by matthewastro

The formation of Earth and its current sustainability as they only known life-sustaining body in the universe have been caused by a number of extremely specific conditions which combine to make our planet the only one on which life is known to thrive. In this post, I will survey two of the specific conditions on […] Continue reading →

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blog 2: Gravity over time

Posted on February 1, 2024 by matthewastro

Isaac Newton originally conceptualized gravity as a mutually attractive force between all objects with mass. Those who came before him, such as Galileo, had performed experiments and attempted to establish increasingly robust understandings of this force, but none quite unified the idea like Newton. The story goes that Newton saw an apple fall from a […] Continue reading →

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Newton in Context

Posted on February 1, 2024 by matthewastro

The five most important astronomical pioneers which we are studying in this course are Nicholas Copernicus (February 19, 1473 to May 24, 1543), Galileo Galilei (February 15, 1564 to January 8, 1642), Johannes Kepler (December 27, 1571 to November 15, 1630), Isaac Newton (December 25, 1642 to March 20, 1727) and Tycho Brahe (December 14, […] Continue reading →

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Blog 1: size of the universe

Posted on January 18, 2024 by matthewastro

The size and scale of our universe is nearly incomprehensible. While many comparisons have been formulated to describe certain cosmological distance (such as from the Earth to the Moon, and so on), I believe that only one can even claim to do justice to the size of the universe. To gain even a slight comprehension […] Continue reading →

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Introduction

Posted on January 15, 2024 by matthewastro

My name is Matthew Moy. I am an undergraduate student at Vanderbilt University. I am pursuing a major in Political Science and a minor in Astronomy. I am passionate about learning more about astronomy and astrophysics. I am also the President and Founder of Vanderbilt Undergraduate Science Olympiad (VUSO). While we work on finishing our […] Continue reading →

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