Category Archives: Class

How the Creators of “Interstellar” Came up with what a Black Hole Should Look Like

Posted on April 29, 2022 by timmyshaheen

As Christopher Nolan was creating “Interstellar,” he wanted to make sure that the film was as scientifically accurate as possible, so he hired a theoretical physicist named Kip Thorne to help. The largest contribution that he had to the creation of the film was his help rendering the stunning black hole. It was Thorne that […] Continue reading →

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Blog#7 The Fermi Paradox

Posted on April 29, 2022 by Irene

The famous Fermi paradox is the conflict between the lack of clear, obvious evidence for alien life and various high estimates for their existence (Wikipedia). Since the Universe has an almost infinite amount of stars and planets, given that the chance of having intelligent life is not zero (there is Earth and human beings), it is almost […] Continue reading →

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Blog #8: Antarctic Astronauts

Posted on April 29, 2022 by nadiamcglynn

This fall (summer in the southern hemisphere!) I will be spending two months in the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV) in Antarctica collecting rock samples and later using zircon dating to better understand glacial movement and exposure times of the MDVs. I will be spending 3 out of my 8 weeks at McMurdo Station training and […] Continue reading →

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Answer to the Fermi Paradox: They Just Don’t Need Us

Posted on April 29, 2022 by timmyshaheen

The Fermi paradox states that due to the relatively high chance of intelligent life existing somewhere else in the universe, they should have visited us by now, except they have not yet. So why? There are currently some explanations ranging from intelligent life just not existing to them not deeming us worthy of participating in […] Continue reading →

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Blog #7: Sara Seager Ted Talk

Posted on April 29, 2022 by nadiamcglynn

I watched the 2015 Ted Talk from Sara Seager (of the Seager Equation) called The Search for Planets Beyond our Solar System. She sets out to introduce what we currently know about our solar galaxy and extra solar planets. She presents a few interesting artist conceptions of the various exoplanets we know of (mainly from […] Continue reading →

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My Journey toward Astronomy

Posted on April 29, 2022 by sissichen17

As the course ASTR 2110 – Solar System calls to the end, I would like to write something about myself. I applied to Vanderbilt University in biomedical engineering, which was a very different subject from physics & astronomy. I started to be enthusiastic about physics and astronomy in childhood when staring into the infinite space […] Continue reading →

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Arecibo Message

Posted on April 29, 2022 by sissichen17

Arecibo message is a radio message that carries information about humans to globular star cluster M13. It was famous for the coding of the message. The message included 1679 binaries, and two prime factors — 23 & 73. When aliens receive the message, they will easily put the signal to the 23 x 73 matrix […] Continue reading →

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All Things Must Come to an End

Posted on April 28, 2022 by Natalie_paige

I’ll admit, at first when I had to go out observing I wasn’t thrilled at the idea of leaving my cozy dorm to walk a good 15 minutes to stare at the night sky. However when I got there and really had a chance to stop and really look at the sky and see the […] Continue reading →

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You Live There?

Posted on April 28, 2022 by Natalie_paige

Before humans and animals and even plants dominated the Earth, it was full of prokaryotic life. Extremophiles are types of prokaryotes that can not only survive, but thrive in extreme environments. There are several types of extremophiles. Acidophiles: like acidic environments, (pH levels of 3 and below) Alkaliphiles: alkaline environments, and like pH levels 9 […] Continue reading →

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Using Fungus in Space?

Posted on April 28, 2022 by jesszhang782

There are a lot of barriers to humans living in space. But two of the problems may have an innovative solution involving fungus. A major problem is radiation. Once you get farther away from Earth, Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field can no longer pro… Continue reading →

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