Author Archives: pgolemanska

Hubble Telescope’s 25th Birthday

Posted on April 26, 2015 by pgolemanska

On April 24th, 2015, Hubble celebrated its 25th anniversary. It celebrated its birthday by taking some amazing images of some giant star clusters. The image above is one of Westerlund 2 which is a giant cluster of stars and dust – a breeding area for new stars. The dust pillars are the main areas where […] Continue reading →

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Voyager 2

Posted on April 26, 2015 by pgolemanska

Today Voyager 1 was on Earth just 38 years and now it’s more than 130 AU away. It is venturing into deep space and exploring areas of the Universe that we have never seen before. On September 12, 2013, the spacecraft left the Solar System. The spacecraft is unique and fascinating in many ways. We […] Continue reading →

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Krakatoa: Will It Erupt Again?

Posted on April 5, 2015 by pgolemanska

Krakatoa is one of the deadliest volcanoes in human history. The island of Krakatoa (Krakatau) is part of the Indonesian Island Arc. It’s a volcanic island that has undergone a dramatic eruption in 1883. In May 1883, sailors began noticing clouds of ash rising more than 6 miles above the volcano as shown on the […] Continue reading →

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Ganymede’s Ocean

Posted on April 5, 2015 by pgolemanska

When we think of Earth we tend to associate it very strongly with water and life. It makes sense since water covers up 75% of Earth’s surface. Water in liquid form seems to be unique to our world … or does it? … As it turns out, Earth’s salty water oceans may not be the […] Continue reading →

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A Star In a Box

Posted on March 10, 2015 by pgolemanska

A solution to our energy problems? A star in a box. Taking the process of fusion that powers stars and recreate it on Earth can be the road to large quantities of energy with very little pollution and radioactive waste. One of the most efficient ways to generate energy nowadays is a fission reactor, but […] Continue reading →

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Dawn’s New Home

Posted on March 10, 2015 by pgolemanska

If we want to understand the universe, we need to understand our Solar System first. And NASA is well underway to exploring every bit of our solar neighborhood. Just a couple of days ago the spacecraft Dawn send a message to NASA that it was “healthy and thrusting with its ion engine” in an orbit […] Continue reading →

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The Super-Saturn

Posted on February 12, 2015 by pgolemanska

Astronomers in the University of Rochester recently discovered a planet with a massive ring system that dwarfs Saturn’s rings. Exoplanet J1407b is a gas giant with 10 to 40 times the mass of Jupiter orbiting a 16-million year old star located 434 light years away. Scientists usually find and study exoplanets and stars when the […] Continue reading →

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Hubble Telescope

Posted on February 11, 2015 by pgolemanska

In April 1990 NASA launched the Hubble Telescope in an orbit around Earth. The telescope has been orbiting Earth for almost 25 years and is monumental in its contribution to science. The information gathered by the telescope has helped astronomers to narrow down the age of the universe down to a few hundred million years, […] Continue reading →

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Historical Astronomers in Context: Isaac Newton

Posted on January 30, 2015 by pgolemanska

Major Contributions: Isaac Newton (1642 – 1726) established the most basic principles used in physics and astronomy. He is known for developing the idea of gravity and transposing the micro events occurring on Earth to the macro motion of celestial bodies like the Moon. He realized that the reason why objects fall on Earth has to […] Continue reading →

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Total Solar Eclipse

Posted on January 19, 2015 by pgolemanska

People have been fascinated with total solar eclipses. Part of that fascination comes from how rare they are. Solar eclipses occur every 18 months on average, but what makes them so rare is that they are visible from limited number of locations on Earth. It ends up being that a particular location would observe a […] Continue reading →

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