Category Archives: Class

Colonization of Europa

Posted on April 10, 2018 by Taylor Matalon

Jupiter’s Ocean moon, Europa has been the subject of many works of fiction, as its oceanic surface of liquid water may be sustainable for life–either existing there today or humans in the future. One of NASA’s missions, the Europa Clipper, is set to launch in 2020 and should provide very detailed reconnaissance of the moon, … Continue reading Colonization of Europa Continue reading →

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Life on Titan?

Posted on April 10, 2018 by kathrynkellner

  This past weekend I watched a new movie on Netflix called ‘The Titan’. The plot of the movie revolved around the idea that Earth was becoming uninhabitable and the solution that scientists came up with was to use experiments of forced evolution on former soldiers to create a type of ‘new human’ that could … Continue reading Life on Titan? Continue reading →

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Why Galileo Mattered

Posted on April 9, 2018 by Jeanie Zeng

When Galileo began using his invention, the telescope, for observation of the cosmos, he was very quickly able to make three discoveries. The most revolutionary of his discoveries were that the surface of the moon was rough and uneven and satellite objects he later identified to be moons orbited Jupiter. These discoveries were fundamental in challenging … Continue reading Why Galileo Mattered → Continue reading →

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“You Heard About Pluto? It’s Messed Up Right?”

Posted on April 9, 2018 by kathrynkellner

When I was a kid we had 9 planets. That 9th planet was Pluto, which was (unfortunately for my generation) demoted to just a dwarf planet in 2006 (NASA: Pluto in Depth). As outraged as I was as a child that Pluto got demoted, the truth is, besides knowing it was the 9th planet, I … Continue reading “You Heard About Pluto? It’s Messed Up Right?” Continue reading →

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The Most Mysterious Star

Posted on April 9, 2018 by Michael Natinsky

Between these two constellations lies a star that scientists are just not able to figure out. As we’ve learned in class, a star’s light emission usually has minuscule dips as its planets orbit. But this star, which is not even visible to the human eye, seems to have a massive and constant bundle of matter … Continue reading The Most Mysterious Star → Continue reading →

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Halley’s Comet

Posted on April 9, 2018 by Michael Natinsky

  Halley’s Comet is named after the English astronomer Edmond Halley who first believed that there were three separate comets during the years from 1531 to 1682. He then discovered that all three of these appearances were the same comet. Edmond was the first to prove that comets could orbit the sun. It travels around … Continue reading Halley’s Comet → Continue reading →

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The Kuiper Belt Mystery: will we have nine planets again?

Posted on April 9, 2018 by Jeanie Zeng

    It’s the planet furthest from the sun. No, it’s not Neptune. It’s Planet Nine. Cold, icy, and shrouded in darkness, Planet Nine is potentially an undiscovered planet lurking in the outer regions of our solar system just beyond the Kuiper Belt. It’s estimated to be 10 times the mass of Earth and reside at … Continue reading The Kuiper Belt Mystery: will we have nine planets again? → Continue reading →

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Milky Way Center Home to Thousands of Black Holes

Posted on April 8, 2018 by evanjmiranda

Astrophysicists at Columbia University have discovered a dozen black holes surrounding Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole that lies at the center of the Milky Way. The prevailing theory rests that there are supposed to be tens of thousands of black holes filling areas just light-years wide, detectable only from X-ray bursts that originate as … Continue reading Milky Way Center Home to Thousands of Black Holes → Continue reading →

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Interesting Pluto Facts

Posted on April 8, 2018 by evanjmiranda

The “dwarf planet” we know and love got a whole lot more interesting after the New Horizons mission unveiled some interstellar gold on Pluto. Orbiting 3,117,640,853 miles from the sun, Pluto is a complex world with massive glaciers, mountain ranges as high as the Rockies, blue skies and red snow. Regardless of its size, Pluto has 5 … Continue reading Interesting Pluto Facts → Continue reading →

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Hubble Space Telescope Images the Most Distant Star Ever Observed

Posted on April 8, 2018 by astronomydylan

Last week, a group of astronomers announced in Nature Astronomy that they had discovered the furthest star ever seen: a blue supergiant named Icarus that shone nearly 10 billion years ago, and located more than halfway across the universe. The astronomers were able to do this with the Hubble, and gravitational lensing. Per the lead author of … Continue reading Hubble Space Telescope Images the Most Distant Star Ever Observed → Continue reading →

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