Category Archives: Galaxies

First Galaxies Formed Today

…according to the cosmic calendar. The cosmic calendar is a visualization method to help comprehend the age of the universe. This calendar puts the beginning of the universe at the start of the first of January, and the end of December 31st at our current point in time. In this demonstration model, January 22nd (today!) … Continue reading First Galaxies Formed Today Continue reading

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Andromeda and the Size of the Universe

  In 2015, Hubble was able to take the most detailed image of Andromeda ever taken. The image had a pixel density of 69.536×22,230 pixels. The picture was taken using 7398 exposures. Images like this really put into light how vast the universe is. In the video, they focus in on a shot of the … Continue reading Andromeda and the Size of the Universe Continue reading

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Hubble’s Law and a Window to the Past

Hubble’s Law is one of the most fundamental observations in cosmology – that objects far off in space are almost … More Continue reading

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Blog 1: We Are All So Small!

Space is such a fascinating thing. There is just so much out there beyond our planet: so much we know about and even more we don’t know about! Growing up in school, we all learned about the solar system. As a result, we concluded that maybe our world isn’t the center of the universe like we may have … Continue reading “Blog 1: We Are All So Small!” Continue reading

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Light from the Past

Although light travels through space at the fastest speed physically possible (no object with mass can reach the speed of … More Continue reading

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The Fermi Paradox

As Arthur C. Clarke once famously said, “Two possibilities exist. Either we are alone in the universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” This quote is relates in a very basic way to the Fermi Paradox. The paradox is that through the Drake Equation and the sheer size of the universe, there should […] Continue reading

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The Crab Nebula

When a star dies, it goes supernova and shoots everything that it was once made of across space. The explosion that formed the Crab Nebula was first documented by the Chinese in 1054 AD. Though, you didn’t need to be an astronomer to recognize the explosion or its resulting nebula. The Crab Nebula was visible for […] Continue reading

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Supermassive Black Holes

Astronomers have recently discovered a supermassive black hole in a region of space that is sparsely populated.  The black hole is 17 billion times bigger than the Sun (by mass), making it one of the larger black holes ever discovered.  The strange part is that scientists had only ever found supermassive black holes at the […] Continue reading

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The Mystery of “Hot Jupiters”

Over the last decade, astronomers have discovered thousands of exoplanets, many of which have gone against our current understanding of planet formation. Most of these exoplanets orbit very close to their star, as these are the easiest to discover since they block out more light from their respective stars than planets orbiting farther out do. […] Continue reading

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Many Different Milky Ways

We know that there are many different types of light in the Universe. Each type gives us unique information about the object we are studying. The above picture from NASA contrasts the same celestial object, the Milky Way, in different wavelengths. Note that the further we deviate on either side (longer or shorter wavelength), the […] Continue reading

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