Author Archives: nadiamcglynn

Blog #8: Antarctic Astronauts

Posted on April 29, 2022 by nadiamcglynn

This fall (summer in the southern hemisphere!) I will be spending two months in the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV) in Antarctica collecting rock samples and later using zircon dating to better understand glacial movement and exposure times of the MDVs. I will be spending 3 out of my 8 weeks at McMurdo Station training and […] Continue reading →

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Blog #7: Sara Seager Ted Talk

Posted on April 29, 2022 by nadiamcglynn

I watched the 2015 Ted Talk from Sara Seager (of the Seager Equation) called The Search for Planets Beyond our Solar System. She sets out to introduce what we currently know about our solar galaxy and extra solar planets. She presents a few interesting artist conceptions of the various exoplanets we know of (mainly from […] Continue reading →

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Blog #6: Enceladus’s Tiger Stripes

Posted on April 17, 2022 by nadiamcglynn

The Cassini Spacecraft revealed dramatic geysers spewing from Enceladus’s tiger stripes, horizontal, nearly parallel fissures near the moon’s south pole, in 2006. It was believed that these may have been caused by “cryo-volcanism” (icy volcanos!), but new research suggests that it may be caused by the changes in the eccentricity of Enceladus’s orbit over 100 […] Continue reading →

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Blog #5: AR Aur b (protoplanet formation caught in action!)

Posted on April 17, 2022 by nadiamcglynn

As we have been able to look farther outside of our neighborhood of the solar system, our understanding of extrasolar planets and the formation of other planetary systems has had to undergo questions and testing to ensure that our hypothesis is reasonable. The surprising orbits of some extrasolar planets has caused some such questioning, such […] Continue reading →

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Blog #3: Radioactive Decay and Radiometric Dating

Posted on March 22, 2022 by nadiamcglynn

Radioactive decay is one of the processes by which Earth produces heat. Radioactive isotopes start off unstable (these are called the parent isotopes), and so they decay into other, more stable daughter/progeny isotopes. The decay produces alpha, beta, or gamma radiation which is then converted into thermal energy. The decay of isotopes like uranium, thorium, […] Continue reading →

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Blog #4: Coronal Mass Ejections

Posted on March 22, 2022 by nadiamcglynn

Coronal Mass Ejections are ejections of solar wind and plasma from our Sun’s corona. The blast from a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), carries about a billion tons of material away from the sun at speeds ranging from 250 km/s to almost 3000 km/s. (NOAA) If they are directed toward Earth when they are ejected from […] Continue reading →

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Blog #2: Archeoastronomy

Posted on February 20, 2022 by nadiamcglynn

Reflecting on how science and astronomy have grown and blossomed into what we study today really illustrates how amazing ancient feats of astronomy and observation were. The impacts of ancient observations of the night sky still effect us today, including in the name of months, the days of the week, and the length of our days and years. Continue reading →

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Historical Astronomers in Context

Posted on February 9, 2022 by nadiamcglynn

My chosen astronomy is Galileo. He was born Feb 15, 1564 and died Jan 8, 1642. Galileo was important for astronomy because he published his work using telescopes to observe the night sky, discovered three of Jupiter’s moons, made detailed observations of our moon, observed the phases of Venus, described the Milky Way as being […] Continue reading →

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Blog #1: Why is our neighborhood special?

Posted on January 30, 2022 by nadiamcglynn

But what about our place in the solar system makes life so conducive to earth? Why don’t we have cousins on Mars that we spend Thanksgiving with? Why doesn’t my uncle live on Venus? Continue reading →

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About Me

Posted on January 22, 2022 by nadiamcglynn

Hello! I am a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences majoring in Earth and Environmental Science with a minor in Sustainability Studies. I am super excited for this class because I am considering an Astronomy minor and am very interested in the subject in general. My plan after undergrad is to study Planetary Geology in graduate school. Continue reading →

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