Category Archives: Class

Blog 3: Climate Change

Astronomy has been around for many many years, as we have learned in class. Astronomy used to be a hobby for the wealthy, now it is an occupation for the smartest to learn about the universe we are in. One major facet that astronomers have observed and questioned is climate change. Recently, it has become […] Continue reading

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The moon’s origin

Earth’s moon is unique for several reasons. Earth’s moon relevant to its planet’s size, Earth is the largest in our solar system and that fact has drawn my curiosity to the subject of the moon’s origins and what makes it so unique. It is speculated that the moon originated when another terrestrial planet, Theia crashed […] Continue reading

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Earth and Venus: Zach and Cody?

Scientists argue that Venus is earth’s astronomical twin for a number on reasons. Like Zach and Cody from the Disney Channel sitcom, The Suite Life of Zach and Cody their physical similarities and dependance on each other cannot be overlooked. Looking at Earth and Venus’ similarities, the similar diameter comes to mind. The diameter of […] Continue reading

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The Sun’s Nuclear Fusion

The Sun has been producing a huge amount of energy for over 4 billion years through nuclear fusion. Nuclear fusion is the process by which the Sun converts mass to energy. Albert Einstein’s equation, E=mc^2, reveals that a little bit of mass has a huge amount of potential energy which indicates why the sun has […] Continue reading

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Blog#4 Dark Energy and Dark Matter

Dark Energy and Dark Matter sound both exotic (and yes they absolutely are) but they have very different meanings and opposite effects: One expands our universe while one creates more gravity. High-z Supernova Search Team was founded in 1994 and in 1998 they found that one investigated supernova is fainter than Hubble’s law predicted. This […] Continue reading

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Blog#3 Radioactive Decay

Our world is composed of elements all of which are made of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Protons are positively charged while electrons are negatively charged. Unstable (i.e., radioactive) atomic nuclei can become more stable after the emission of particles and energy, a process called radioactive decay. These emitted particles or energy (the latter emitted as […] Continue reading

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Halley’s Comet

Halley’s Comet was the first comet understood to be a periodic comet, or a comet that can pass through the solar system multiple times. The English astronomer Edmund Halley (1656-1742) noticed that the previously recorded orbits of three comets were ve… Continue reading

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Solar Sailing Through The Sea of Space

As an imaginative mind might ask: can we use the Sun’s light to propel a spacecraft through space? Surprisingly, this avenue of spacecraft propulsion has, and is being, explored. Figure 1 displays the Japanese IKAROS satellite that was deployed on May 21, 2010. The spacecraft was equipped with a 14 m x 14 m solar […] Continue reading

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Mercury and its core | blog IV

Measuring just over one-third of Earth’s diameter, Mercury is the smallest terrestrial planet in the solar system. However, relative to other worlds, Mercury’s core constitutes a very large part of its volume. Despite the vast difference in their scale, “Mercury’s inner core is indeed solid [and] very nearly the same size as Earth’s inner core,” […] Continue reading

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Black Holes!

Black holes are regions of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing can escape. I have always found the idea of black holes because they can be hard to understand or conceptualize. A weird fact about black holes is how hot they are on the outside and how incredibly freezing they are on the […] Continue reading

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