Author Archives: parallaxHubble

Key Takeaways

When I enrolled in this class at first, I knew that quite obviously the class would be focused on learning more about the Solar System (as the title of the class was quite literally “The Solar System’). However, I think that what we covered in this class did help me learn much more about theContinue reading “Key Takeaways” Continue reading

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The Fermi Paradox

“If life is so easy, someone from somewhere must be calling by now.” Nobel prize winning physicist Enrico Fermi, over casual lunch 70 years ago in 1950, asked confronted this very same question (Space). Given the current scientific literature of his time, Fermi realized that the requirements for life are not as elusive or asContinue reading “The Fermi Paradox” Continue reading

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Nuclear Weapons, Asteroids, and PHOs

Both nuclear weapons and asteroids are incredibly powerful and potentially dangerous objects with capabilities for mass destruction. The impact of the Chicxulub Asteriod about 65 million years ago had an explosive force about two million times greater than the Tsar Bomba, the most powerful man-made nuclear weapon ever deployed, which had an explosive power ofContinue reading “Nuclear Weapons, Asteroids, and PHOs” Continue reading

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Pluto – A Planetary Anomoly

When the spacecraft New Horizons first flew past Pluto in 2015, astronomers didn’t really have too much of an idea of what to expect. Pluto had only been discovered about 85 years earlier (source) on February 18th, 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. Due to Pluto’s immense distance, small size,Continue reading “Pluto – A Planetary Anomoly” Continue reading

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The Expanding Universe

The Universe is expanding – and expanding at a rate that is accelerating. Based off simple knowledge of physics, one would assume that this would be the opposite. The Universe should be shrinking over time as gravity slowly pulls billions of galaxy clusters, galaxies, stars, and solar systems towards each other on an inevitable collisionContinue reading “The Expanding Universe” Continue reading

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Star Fuel – Nuclear Fusion

The sun has been around for 4.603 billion years, about one third of the entire duration of the universe. With a mass 330,000 times greater than Earth and a radius 108 times larger (source), the sun is a very massive object (though not that large when compared to other stars). Have you ever wondered whatContinue reading “Star Fuel – Nuclear Fusion” Continue reading

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The Nature and Beginnings of Science

Ever since the development of the rational brain, human beings have tried to understand the world around them. For the first few millennium, we went about understand the world around us through story and narration. Whether or not you consider yourself religious, it is evident that prominent religious works, such as the Bible of Christianity,Continue reading “The Nature and Beginnings of Science” Continue reading

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The Gravitas of Sir Isaac Newton

The astronomer that I am choosing to write about is Sir Isaac Newton. Newton was an important astronomer, mathematician, and physicist and perhaps one of the most important contributors to our current understanding of the solar system and universe today who lived from January 4, 1643 to March 31, 1727. Most notably, his discovery ofContinue reading “The Gravitas of Sir Isaac Newton” Continue reading

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Blog 1 – Solar and Lunar Eclipses

Hello everyone, the topic that I am choosing to blog about this week is the similarities and differences between solar eclipses and lunar eclipses. Firstly, we can define an eclipse as a moment in time in which one celestial body, be it a moon, planet, asteroid, or star, effectively blocks out a significant portion ofContinue reading “Blog 1 – Solar and Lunar Eclipses” Continue reading

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Blog 0 -Introduction

Hello, this is a picture of me with a bluefin tuna caught at the Cortes Bank, located 100 miles off the coast of Southern California. Continue reading

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