Category Archives: Class

Where Are the Aliens?

Posted on April 28, 2022 by Lindsey

Based on various calculations and estimations made by scientists all over the world, there is a very high probability that aliens (i.e. life elsewhere in the universe) exist. However, we have never encountered any tangible or irrefutable evidence of aliens. This contradiction is called the Fermi Paradox. One possible explanation for this paradox is that […] Continue reading →

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Extremophiles

Posted on April 28, 2022 by Lindsey

The word extremophile comes from the Latin words extremus (meaning extreme) and philia (meaning love). An extremophile is an organism with the ability to survive, or even thrive, in an environment that we as humans would consider extreme. These organisms are some of the oldest species to exist on Earth. Some of them date back […] Continue reading →

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The Golden Record: A Message Sent to the Cosmos

Posted on April 27, 2022 by Quint Gfroerer

In 1977, the Voyager I and Voyager II spacecrafts were launched into space to study the outer solar system. After conducting flybys of the planets in the outer solar systems, the Voyager spacecrafts continued to travel away from Earth, and will eventually travel out of our solar system. With this knowledge, golden records were placed […] Continue reading →

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Nucleobases in Asteroids

Posted on April 27, 2022 by jesszhang782

Nucleobases are the building blocks of DNA and RNA. There are five total nucleobases (adenine, thymine, cytosine, guanine, and uracil) and three of the five have been found in meteorites. Recently, the last two nucleobases have also been identified. Th… Continue reading →

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Blog 8: Planet Womb Discovery

Posted on April 27, 2022 by camsto42

Wombed Planet This weird picture is set to resemble a massive planet scientists have just discovered. This planet is about nine times the size of Jupiter, and its in its very early stage of formation. This star was discovered through the use of a Hawaiian telescope, and it was discovered floating “unusually far” from its […] Continue reading →

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Blog 7: Drake Equation

Posted on April 27, 2022 by camsto42

The Drake equation, as we know, has served to estimate the amount of possible intelligent life in the universe. Up to this point, we only know of one, us. We were previously searching for life by looking for radio signals. But obviously, we have not had success with this. Despite this, a new method of […] Continue reading →

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Key Takeaways

Posted on April 26, 2022 by parallaxHubble

When I enrolled in this class at first, I knew that quite obviously the class would be focused on learning more about the Solar System (as the title of the class was quite literally “The Solar System’). However, I think that what we covered in this class did help me learn much more about theContinue reading “Key Takeaways” Continue reading →

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The Fermi Paradox

Posted on April 26, 2022 by parallaxHubble

“If life is so easy, someone from somewhere must be calling by now.” Nobel prize winning physicist Enrico Fermi, over casual lunch 70 years ago in 1950, asked confronted this very same question (Space). Given the current scientific literature of his time, Fermi realized that the requirements for life are not as elusive or asContinue reading “The Fermi Paradox” Continue reading →

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Super Volcanoes: Yellowstone

Posted on April 25, 2022 by Emily Bertram

Continuing on the geological structures train, super volcanoes can be very interesting to learn about. First, let’s define what a super volcano is: A supervolcano is a volcano that has had an eruption with a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 8. This means that if this volcano were to erupt, it would span for over 1,000 […] Continue reading →

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Stromatolite Structures

Posted on April 25, 2022 by Emily Bertram

What is Stromatolite? It is a layered deposit made mainly of limestone. They are known to be thin and alternate from light to dark layers. They were common in Precambrian time which is more than 542 million years ago.  Where can you find them? They grow in areas such as Shark Bay in western Australia, […] Continue reading →

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