Category Archives: Class

climate change

Posted on March 1, 2023 by Emma Williams

It’s no secret that our planet is in the midst of a global climate crisis– rising sea levels, compounding greenhouse gas emissions, and depleting natural resources have left our environment at a very real risk of collapse, endangering all living creatures on our planet. When studying astronomy, it becomes easy to lose focus on the […] Continue reading →

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M45 – The Seven Sisters

Posted on February 28, 2023 by 7smessier45

Hey, y’all, and welcome back!  Today, we’re taking a quick jaunt outside our solar system to visit the Pleiades. This grouping of stars–commonly referred to as Messier 45 (M45)–is one of my favorite observables and can be best viewed in January–but the cluster is easily visible from late fall through the winter. The cluster is […] Continue reading →

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What will happen to our solar system when we collide with Andromeda?

Posted on February 28, 2023 by Melanie Marszal

You may be familiar with Andromeda, our closest neighboring galaxy. You may have also heard that Andromeda and our Milky Way are moving towards each other. But what will happen to Earth and the rest of our solar system when these two galaxies collide? Will Earth even still be around by then? The answer to […] Continue reading →

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Comparing the Atmospheres of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars

Posted on February 27, 2023 by Melanie Marszal

We may not think much about the presence of Earth’s atmosphere in our day-to-day lives, but it has an immense impact on us. Earth’s atmosphere contains the oxygen we need to breathe, protects us from many of the Sun’s harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays, helps stabilize the Earth’s temperature, and is responsible for weather patterns. If […] Continue reading →

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Evidence for Understanding

Posted on February 13, 2023 by dougkyles422111

I want to talk about an aspect of light that doesn’t make the most sense to me, and that is how we receive it. Thinking about sight abstractly, we cannot really comprehend at all times what we are seeing are particles of light. To us, our visual environment is our reality. Learning about how the […] Continue reading →

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Blog 2 – Tides: my thoughts from the anime Avatar: the Last Airbender

Posted on February 13, 2023 by niqretnuh

One of my favorite poetic interpretations of tides comes from the anime “Avatar–the last airbender”. In the episode “The Siege of the North”, the root of the mysterious power of “water-bending” is explained to stem from the moon, and the power of tides. The goddesses “tui (推)” and “la (拉)” (“push” and “pull”) directs the […] Continue reading →

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Blog Post 2: Celestial Navigation

Posted on February 12, 2023 by Myles7235

In order to navigate the vast seas when traveling in today’s time, we can easily use modern technology to pinpoint exactly where we are in the ocean. A prime example of this type of technology would be GPS systems. However, GPS systems haven’t been around forever. Celestial navigation is the art of determining both the […] Continue reading →

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Sextants – Then and Now

Posted on February 12, 2023 by 7smessier45

Humans have navigated the open ocean for thousands of years; among the first to do so were the aboriginal Australians and Polynesian seafarers about 50,000 years ago. More recently–but still a few hundred years ago–celestial navigation by Western cultures relied on a navigator’s understanding of the stars (and other heavenly bodies, including the sun), the […] Continue reading →

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The “Why?” behind Synchronous Rotation

Posted on February 12, 2023 by alicebyrnes

As we’ve discussed in class, the Moon revolves about the Earth in synchronous rotation, meaning it rotates such that the same side of the Moon always faces the Earth. Not only does the Moon do this, but all moons in our solar system do as well. (The information for this blog post is sourced here.) […] Continue reading →

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Blog Post 2 – The Doppler Effect

Posted on February 12, 2023 by constellationsarentreal

Most people have already heard of the Doppler Effect, an interesting phenomena of sound that alters the pitch of moving objects depending on their direction. The Doppler Effect functions similarly by affecting the shifts of light wavelengths. When, for example, a planet is moving toward us, its light waves will be clumped together and appear […] Continue reading →

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