Category Archives: Class

Blog 7: The Fermi Paradox

Pictured Above: ET from the movie ET The universe is almost infinitely large, and there are many planets that appear habitable in our astronomical observations. These worlds are commonly a comparable distance from their parent star, replete with suitable levels of specific elements, and in many ways are indistinguishable from Earth. Despite all of this, […] Continue reading

Posted in Aliens, Class, Historical | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Blog 7: The Fermi Paradox

Deadly Exoplanet

While my last blog post talked about the search for intelligent alien civilizations on habitable planets, I want to dedicate this blog post to the exact opposite. This blog post is dedicated to one of the weirdest exoplanets discovered, HD 189773b. Do not be confused by it’s bright blue beauty. The planet is anything but […] Continue reading

Posted in Class, Exoplanets | Tagged , | Comments Off on Deadly Exoplanet

Blog 8 – Beyond Saturn

There is likely a subsurface ocean on Enceladus! Enceladus is the sixth moon of Saturn and is the brightest world in the solar system. This world is small and icy, which lead scientists to believe it was geologically dead, as most small, icy worlds tend to be. However, it was discovered geyser-like jets spew water […] Continue reading

Posted in Class | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Blog 8 – Beyond Saturn

Blog 8

Welcome to my last blog on topics related to our Solar System! It has been fun time writing random stuff running through my head and calling it a blog. Here’s another: It’s really interesting to see the connections between worlds in science fiction and worlds in our solar system. For example, let’s compare Mustafar and […] Continue reading

Posted in Class, Physics, Science, Universe | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Blog 8

It’s a Great, Big Universe…

The thing about space is, it’s big. There’s always something new being discovered even in the solar system; ancient astronomers used to think Venus was a star, and now we’re discovering actual stars that even have their own solar systems. More exceptions are being discovered to rules that our own system led us to think […] Continue reading

Posted in Class, Science, Universe | Tagged , | Comments Off on It’s a Great, Big Universe…

Black Holes

Black holes have always been one of the most fascinating things about our universe. I’m sure everyone remembers how the internet went insane when this photo was released. Black holes are everywhere in popular media like movies and video games. The concept that something so massive exists and nothing can ever escape from it astonishes […] Continue reading

Posted in Class, Science | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Black Holes

The Ultimate Thrillseekers

Extremophiles, as their names insinuate, are capable of withstanding extreme conditions that would kill any other organism. The tardigrade, informally known as the “water bear”, is the most well known of these and can comfortably reside in ludicrous environments despite barely being any bigger than a millimeter. So how does this pertain to astronomy? Well, […] Continue reading

Posted in Class, Science | Tagged , , | Comments Off on The Ultimate Thrillseekers

Fermi Paradox

Paradoxes are always interesting to contemplate, and the Fermi paradox is no different. First proposed by Enrico Fermi (above) the Fermi paradox in a nutshell is if the scale and probability of our universe favors intelligent life developing elsewhere, then why have we not found any evidence of that life. This paradox sparked Frank Drake […] Continue reading

Posted in Class, Science | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Fermi Paradox

Drake vs Seager Equation

The Drake Equation is The Seager Equation is Dr. Drake formulated his equation a century ago (in 1951) whereas Seager formulated hers approximately a decade (the interview was taken in 2013). As we can see, there are wild differences between the two equations. Seager’s equation only deals with all the stars that we’ve observed, which […] Continue reading

Posted in Class | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Drake vs Seager Equation

Would humans survive without Jupiter?

“Our solar system is a cosmic dance of planets, moving together in perfect harmony.”-Unknown At the beginning of this course I understood that the solar system had planets and other objects, such as asteroids and comets, but I believed that they all acted independently of each other, with the exception of gravity. In other words, […] Continue reading

Posted in Class, SolarSystem | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Would humans survive without Jupiter?