Author Archives: pkunetz97

Europa Clipper

Posted on April 24, 2017 by pkunetz97

In the not too distant future, NASA will be sending a probe to one of Jupiter’s moons. I’m sure you can guess from the title of this blog post that the probe will be sent to Europa. Recently, NASA announced the name of this mission: Europa Clipper. It is named after clippers, swift ships that […] Continue reading →

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Saccharomyces Cerevisiae

Posted on April 24, 2017 by pkunetz97

Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, also known as “Brewer’s yeast”, is a very strange extremophile. It is known as an “Osmophile”, or an organism that thrives in environments with high sugar concentrations. Many people fear osmophiles because they are responsible for the spoiling of many sugary drinks such as orange juice or soda. However, Saccharomyces Cerevisiae is a species […] Continue reading →

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The Hale-Bopp Comet

Posted on April 3, 2017 by pkunetz97

Comet Hale-Bopp, also known as the The Great Comet of 1997, was a comet that appeared in – you guessed it – 1997. It was first discovered in 1995 by both Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp, after whom it was named. It was first visible in mid 1996, but did not reach its brightest until […] Continue reading →

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The Trojans and Greeks

Posted on April 3, 2017 by pkunetz97

As was recently discussed in class, there are two clusters of asteroids ahead of and behind Jupiter known as the “Trojans” and the “Greeks”. The first one to be discovered was an asteroid now known as “Achilles”, a hero who fought on the Greek side of the Trojan War. The Greeks are all slightly ahead […] Continue reading →

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The Voyager Golden Record

Posted on March 29, 2017 by pkunetz97

  The Voyager Golden Record was a disc of sounds and images included with both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, both designed to study Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 2 went on to study Uranus and Neptune, and is the only spacecraft to have visited them. However, these spacecraft are still gathering and emitting data even […] Continue reading →

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The Invention of the Telescope

Posted on February 14, 2017 by pkunetz97

Galileo was the first astronomer to use a telescope to observe the moon, the phases of Venus, and the largest four moons of Jupiter. In fact, Galileo was the first astronomer to use a telescope for anything because he was the dude who invented it. He first heard about a dutch inventor who put curved […] Continue reading →

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Gravity Waves

Posted on February 14, 2017 by pkunetz97

Have you ever wondered what the speed of gravity is? Were you under the assumption that the force of gravity was immediate? Like everything else in the universe, gravity has a finite speed. In fact, gravity travels at precisely c, the speed of light in a vacuum. This was first theorized as a result of Einstein’s […] Continue reading →

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The New Zodiac

Posted on January 25, 2017 by pkunetz97

Recently, NASA announced that the Zodiac, as we knew it, was incorrect. Based on current models of the night sky, there should be 13 Zodiacal signs, not 12 as we have been led to believe all of our lives. NASA has added Ophiuchus as the new constellation, which lies between Scorpius and Sagittarius. The dates […] Continue reading →

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