Category Archives: Class

blog 2: Gravity over time

Posted on February 1, 2024 by matthewastro

Isaac Newton originally conceptualized gravity as a mutually attractive force between all objects with mass. Those who came before him, such as Galileo, had performed experiments and attempted to establish increasingly robust understandings of this force, but none quite unified the idea like Newton. The story goes that Newton saw an apple fall from a […] Continue reading →

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Blog 1 – The Cosmic Calendar

Posted on February 1, 2024 by Leni Ertel

Cosmic Calendar Image The Cosmic Calendar summarizes the history of the universe into a way that is easy for humans to comprehend-one 12-month calendar year. The universe is about 14 billions years old, so each month of the year represents a little more than a billion years of the universe’s history. Using this model, all […] Continue reading →

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Newton in Context

Posted on February 1, 2024 by matthewastro

The five most important astronomical pioneers which we are studying in this course are Nicholas Copernicus (February 19, 1473 to May 24, 1543), Galileo Galilei (February 15, 1564 to January 8, 1642), Johannes Kepler (December 27, 1571 to November 15, 1630), Isaac Newton (December 25, 1642 to March 20, 1727) and Tycho Brahe (December 14, […] Continue reading →

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Historical Astronomers in Context -Cameron Klein

Posted on January 31, 2024 by Cameron Klein

The astronomer that I have selected to look into is Tycho Brahe. Tycho Brahe was born on December 14th, 1546 and died on October 24th, 1601. Tycho Brahe was known as the best naked-eye observer of all time. During his childhood in Denmark, Brahe became entranced with the thought of astronomy when he witnessed a […] Continue reading →

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Blog1: The powers of 10

Posted on January 23, 2024 by Garrett

Image from Video: Powers of Ten™ (1977) The Powers of 10 is a video meant to help you understand the Universe’s relative size. After doing several exercises in class that dealt with relative sizes and distances, I realized I did not have a strong understanding of the scale of outer space. The video linked begins […] Continue reading →

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The farmers’almanac

Posted on January 23, 2024 by Angela Harris

In elementary school, my library teacher always had the Farmers’ Almanac for the year on her desk. The Farmers’ Almanac has a forecaster who works under the pseudonym Caleb Weatherbee. Weatherbee’s predictions are based on a formula that takes many things into account including the Moon phases. Every fall, my classmates and I looked forward […] Continue reading →

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Our Speed Limit

Posted on January 23, 2024 by John Newell

(its slower than you think) Many people know that the laws of physics dictate that nothing – and I mean nothing – can travel faster than the speed of light. It is not possible for any object, nor any information, to exceed 299,000,000 meters per second. At first, this seems to be an incredibly high […] Continue reading →

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Blog 1: Eclipse Chasers

Posted on January 23, 2024 by liamoneill95

On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse will happen in North America. For those in Nashville, a mere 2-3 hour drive will allow viewers to witness it. For some, it is worth the journey to witness this rare occurrence, and for others perhaps not. For a select few, however, it is always worth the […] Continue reading →

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Blog 1: Asymmetry of the Moon

Posted on January 23, 2024 by Mackenna Guadagnoli

By looking at the image above, it’s clear to see that the dark splotches we’ve come to associate with our closest cosmic neighbor, the Moon, are only seen on one side! The farside of the moon is much more uniform with a lot more craters than the side we see. This stark difference has puzzled […] Continue reading →

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Blog 1: Scale of the Universe

Posted on January 23, 2024 by Ethan Jones

It is difficult to truly grasp the size and scale of our universe. And while using units like light years might be helpful in some cases, it can also be helpful to put things in a scale that is more common in everyday life. This image helps me understand the scale of the universe in […] Continue reading →

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