Category Archives: Class

Jovian Layers

Posted on April 17, 2022 by solarelizabeth

The formation of our solar system helps explain the composition of the Jovian planets. Past the frost line, hydrogen compounds condensed into ices. The four jovian planets started as icy planetismals, but Jupiter and Saturn captured much more hydrogen and helium gas than Uranus and Neptune during solar system formation. This is probably because Jupiter […] Continue reading →

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Blog 6: Planet Nine

Posted on April 17, 2022 by Charles Littleton

Planet Nine is a hypothetical planet on the edge of the solar system. Its gravity would explain the weird orbit of objects beyond Neptune. It is predicted to be 5 times the size of Earth. It is assumed to be about 400- AU The Scientists who created this hypothesis believe that the star formed much […] Continue reading →

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Are Wormholes Possible?

Posted on April 17, 2022 by jschorr21

What is a wormhole? A wormhole is a theoretical bridge joining two points in space-time that would create shortcuts for extremely long journeys throughout the universe. Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen back in 1935 came up with the idea and concluded that due to Einstein’s theory of general relativity, wormholes could exist. He concluded that […] Continue reading →

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Fun Facts about Pluto

Posted on April 17, 2022 by jschorr21

Pluto was discovered by the Lowell Observatory in 1930 From then until 2006, it was considered a planet, now it is considered a ‘dwarf planet’ During these 76 years, it only completed 1/3 of its orbit Pluto was named by an 11-year-old girl Pluto is the name of the Roman god governing the underworld Pluto […] Continue reading →

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The Great Dark Spot

Posted on April 17, 2022 by Karan Bhardwaj

Jupiter’s ‘Great Red Spot’ is extremely famous, and it is very easily distinguishable when viewing Jupiter. However, there also exists another Great Spot, this time on Neptune: The Great Dark Spot. It is similar to the Great Red Spot as it is a result of a anticyclonic storm, however the storms on Neptune do not […] Continue reading →

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Planet 9 (Post 5)

Posted on April 17, 2022 by ccatanese1

The Kuiper Belt is a doughnut shaped group of ice, rock, comets, and dwarf planets, beyond Neptune. There have been discussion recently about whether there is a ninth planet within the Kuiper Belt. These discussions began back in 1846 after the discovery of Neptune, but they became more focused when it was discovered that the […] Continue reading →

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C/2014 UN2071: Largest Discovered Comet

Posted on April 17, 2022 by evang914

Scientists in the past week have confirmed the size of the largest comet ever discovered. It is measured to stretch over 80 miles wide (wider than the state of Rhode Island) and weigh 500 trillion tons- 100,000x more than the typical comet. The comet was originally discovered back in 2014 when it was still 3Continue reading “C/2014 UN2071: Largest Discovered Comet” Continue reading →

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New Horizons Still Bringing New Discoveries

Posted on April 17, 2022 by evang914

It’s been nearly 7 years now since the New Horizons spacecraft made its fly-by of Pluto, and even though it now finds itself in the remote parts of the Kuiper Belt (over 50 AU from the sun!), the photos it took of Pluto are still helping scientists today uncover new mysteries about the icy planet.Continue reading “New Horizons Still Bringing New Discoveries” Continue reading →

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Blog #6: Enceladus’s Tiger Stripes

Posted on April 17, 2022 by nadiamcglynn

The Cassini Spacecraft revealed dramatic geysers spewing from Enceladus’s tiger stripes, horizontal, nearly parallel fissures near the moon’s south pole, in 2006. It was believed that these may have been caused by “cryo-volcanism” (icy volcanos!), but new research suggests that it may be caused by the changes in the eccentricity of Enceladus’s orbit over 100 […] Continue reading →

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Blog #5: AR Aur b (protoplanet formation caught in action!)

Posted on April 17, 2022 by nadiamcglynn

As we have been able to look farther outside of our neighborhood of the solar system, our understanding of extrasolar planets and the formation of other planetary systems has had to undergo questions and testing to ensure that our hypothesis is reasonable. The surprising orbits of some extrasolar planets has caused some such questioning, such […] Continue reading →

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