Category Archives: Class

Earth-like Exoplanet

The super cool story of a discovery of an exoplanet! It’s so cool that an exoplanet look like this! There has been an incredibly interesting and exciting discovery made recently! The James Webb telescope has discovered and photographed an exoplanet and collected data to validate its existence as an exoplanet. An exoplanet is an astronomical […] Continue reading

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An even grander Grand Canyon

Have you ever seen the Grand Canyon? Well take that image and toss it out because it’s not even close to the size of the canyon we’re talking about here! An inside scoop on this canyon is supported by the image above, found at Business Insider! The New Horizon’s mission has been one of the […] Continue reading

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Blog 6 – Planet Nine

Unfortunately, “Planet Nine” does not refer to Pluto. However, its potential existence could explain the interesting movement of some objects in the Kuiper Belt. Researchers at Caltech have found mathematical evidence of a large planet far out in our Solar System, which has been named Planet Nine. This hypothetical planet would be about the same […] Continue reading

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Blog 5 – Pluto

Many of us may remember back when we were younger and Pluto was still considered to be one of the nine planets in our Solar System. What happened? Below I will explain the reasons Pluto is no longer considered to be a 9th planet as well as some arguments for why it should be. Anti-planet: […] Continue reading

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The Planets Inspiring Art

Planets have always been a large source of inspiration for classical music composers, and there is probably no larger example than Gustav Holst’s Planets Suite. This work’s popularity has also reached the masses, and his music is known to have significantly influenced John Williams in his compositions for his film scores. What I find interesting […] Continue reading

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Kessler Syndrome and The Future of Satellite Use

The topic of spacecraft in our solar system made me curious about the use of satellites in our exploration of space. Although we hear more about the telescopes and imaging systems that we send far beyond Earth’s vicinity, the only low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite that I hear often about is the ISS. I wanted […] Continue reading

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Star Formation

When I was a kid, I thought stars were mysterious, distant, beautiful little things in the sky. I often pictured them as little beacons far out into the universe where the “spacemans” – a cute figment of my imagination – use to locate themselves once they get lost in the dark. A polar opposite of […] Continue reading

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The Λ-CDM Model

As this blog post presents me with much more freedom in topic, I’ve decided to discuss the most widely accepted theory for the origin and evolution of our universe: the Λ-CDM model. This model, named for the cosmological constant Λ which governs the accelerating expansion of space-time and for Cold Dark Matter, lays out a […] Continue reading

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The Unimaginable Nature of Space-Time

Most depictions of the space-time continuum display it as a two-dimensional plane in three-dimensional space. In such a model, objects make indents in the plane based on their gravity, with more massive objects having larger indents. This model is helpful to display how gravity works, but it doesn’t capture the whole picture. The planar model […] Continue reading

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What would happen if an asteroid struck present-day Earth?

We normally only see asteroids striking Earth in science fiction (what a relief!). NASA actually has an observatory whose sole purpose is to track both asteroids and comets and that appear like they might come close to Earth. During December of 2022, there were 5 asteroids that were placed on watch. Two of these asteroids […] Continue reading

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