Author Archives: JT McJunkins

Spacecraft of the Future

Posted on April 11, 2013 by JT McJunkins

Image Source After the end of the Space Shuttle program, many alternative spacecraft designs have begun to surface. Most of these designs are spaceplanes, much like the Space Shuttle, which means that they can glide through Earth’s atmosphere and… Continue reading →

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Building the Launch Pad of the Future

Posted on March 20, 2013 by JT McJunkins

NASA’s Ground Systems Development and Operations (GSDO) Program is currently upgrading and modifying Launch Pad 39B (pictured above) at the Kennedy Space Center. The Space Launch System, with the Orion spacecraft atop it, will release from this … Continue reading →

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GRAIL Maps the Gravity of the Moon

Posted on March 20, 2013 by JT McJunkins

  Twin NASA probes orbiting the moon for the Gravity Recovery and Interior Labority (GRAIL) mission have created the most highly detailed gravity field map of any celestial body. Pictured above, this map reveals an abundance of features includ… Continue reading →

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Copernicus vs. Tycho Brahe

Posted on February 20, 2013 by JT McJunkins

While both Copernicus and Tycho contributed to the evolution of astronomy and the Scientific Revolution in general, the nature of their accomplishments and challenges to the status quo were fundamentally different and defined their respective reception… Continue reading →

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Plato’s Cosmology

Posted on February 20, 2013 by JT McJunkins

While Plato’s cosmology may seem odd to a modern observer, it was a carefully reasoned, innovative theory in its time. Plato departed from his predecessor’s ideas beginning with his belief in a deity. While pre-Socratic philosophers attributed orde… Continue reading →

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Galileo Galilei in Context

Posted on February 6, 2013 by JT McJunkins

Galileo Galilei (February 15, 1564 – January 8, 1642) was the first astronomer to observe celestial objects with telescope and publish his observations and sketches. He discovered the moon’s surface was not perfectly smooth, the sun experi… Continue reading →

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Expansion of the Universe

Posted on January 28, 2013 by JT McJunkins

As Jackson mentioned here, the Universe is expanding fast enough that our observable universe is around 93 billion light years in diameter. This was initially pretty confusing to me, as I thought it impossible to see something 45 billion lightyears &#8… Continue reading →

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The 13th Sign of the Zodiac

Posted on January 28, 2013 by JT McJunkins

The zodiac system was first developed roughly 2,500 years ago in ancient Babylonia. Unfortunately, the astronomers who first developed the system did not know about the precession of the Earth’s axial tilt. Even after this precession was known, W… Continue reading →

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Hello world!

Posted on January 15, 2013 by JT McJunkins

This is my first post on the my.vanderbilt.edu platform, and I hope I’m doing it right! Here is a picture of my girlfriend and I at my fraternity’s winter semi-formal event in downtown Nashville: Continue reading →

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