Author Archives: noahherrero

Variable Stars and change in the Night Sky

Posted on April 29, 2023 by noahherrero

Image of Omicron Ceti (Mira) Source: Digitized Sky Survey 2 Looking up at the night sky it may seem that while the stars do move around, they remain the same brightness all year round. This was a common belief pushed by philosophers like Aristotle, believing that stars are eternal and invariable. However in 1638 Johannes […] Continue reading →

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The Statistics of Life

Posted on April 29, 2023 by noahherrero

Artist interpretation of Kepler-452b, currently the most Earthlike planet discovered, which could potentially have an atmosphere and life Source: NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle When faced with an effectively boundless universe, it inevitable to ask the question of how many other lifeforms are out there. In asking this question we tend to be a bit biased, looking […] Continue reading →

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Interferometry: Viewing the Minute

Posted on April 9, 2023 by noahherrero

Saying the universe is incomprehensibly massive, so much so only the brightest and closest objects and phenomena are visible to the naked eye. Throughout history people have had work arounds, be it using devices to mark inclination of stars to focusing light through telescopes to make the faintest bodies visible. One of the most interesting […] Continue reading →

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Super Earths, what’s beyond the solar system?

Posted on April 9, 2023 by noahherrero

Super Earth  CoRoT-7b next to Earth and Neptune for comparison, Source: Science News, Wikipedia The planets of the solar system, and the categories they fall into is basically common knowledge in this day and age. There are the rocky and dwarf worlds with a mass and size comparable or less than that of Earths. These […] Continue reading →

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Tycho’s Supernova Shifting World Views

Posted on March 7, 2023 by noahherrero

Tycho Brahe, quite a prominent astronomer in the 16th century, is one of the most well known individuals to have sighted a new light filling the night sky. This strange appearance is now known as SN-1572 or more colloquially Tycho’s Supernova, and is revolutionary towards how we view the night sky. Historically speaking, this change […] Continue reading →

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Keeping Stars Alive

Posted on March 7, 2023 by noahherrero

How exactly do stars live? Above is an image of the sun given by SOHO, which is an extraordinarily massive object, which due to that possesses a very large gravitational pull, not just on others but also on itself. Everything that has mass possesses this trait, however these bodies are either two light, or are […] Continue reading →

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Black Body Radiation, analyzing the Universe at Long Distance

Posted on February 12, 2023 by noahherrero

Illustration of Supermassive BlackHole Formation (An Ideal Black Body) from GOODS Source: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Scuola Normale Superiore/Pacucci, F. et al, Illustration: NASA/CXC/M. Weiss Optical: NASA/STScI; Celestial Bodies throughout the universe are extraordinarily far away, yet despite this we are able to describe these objects with precision. The reason this is possible is because the radiation of these […] Continue reading →

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Changing the Status Quo: Galileo And More

Posted on February 2, 2023 by noahherrero

Galileo Galilei (b. February 15th, 1564, d. January 8th, 1642), can be considered one of the most influential scientist in history solely for his contributions to both Physics such as disproving Aristotelian motion, and principles of relativity. However, some of his greatest accomplishments comes from astronomy. When presented with the newly made telescope, he spent […] Continue reading →

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Light: Dangerously Fast?

Posted on January 21, 2023 by noahherrero

Gamma Ray Burst Close-Up Credit: NASA/Swift/Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keith and John Jones The Image above is an artists rendition of a phenomena known as a Gamma Ray Burst (GRB), where a star can project massive amounts of dangerous high energy light across the Cosmos. GRB’s are bit outside the scope of our solar system, so I […] Continue reading →

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Introductions

Posted on January 16, 2023 by noahherrero

Setting up a telescope in the Winter (Source: My Dad) Hello there, my name is Noah Herrero. I’m a freshman planning on majoring in Physics with a minor in Astronomy. The image above is from two years ago where my dad and I went out to Pennsylvania in attempt to observe the Great Conjunction. I […] Continue reading →

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