Category Archives: General

My Big Takeaway

Astronomy has taught me a lot of stuff about the universe that I didn’t know. What I will remember learning though is the size of our earth. Relative to our Sun, we are quite small. Relative to our solar system, we are barely visible, and relative to our galaxy, earth is nothing. The lesson is that … Continue reading My Big Takeaway Continue reading

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New Zealanders

Picture from here. Improvise, adapt, and overcome. That’s what the Marines say. That’s what Life does, when you put it under extreme circumstances. The Anglerfish is one example of this adaptation and in this post, I’d like to take a look at some much simpler examples known as extremophiles. My parents recently took a trip … Continue reading New Zealanders Continue reading

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The Future Looks Bright

<Video from post from here> Around a century ago, humanity thought we had finally conquered the final frontier – Antarctica. It was quite unfathomable for many to think that we could ever leave the confines of Earth, but within a matter of three and a half decades we succeeded in building the first aircraft, retrofitting … Continue reading The Future Looks Bright Continue reading

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Unaccountable Freak: A Story of Halley’s Comet

I’ve been interested in Halley’s comet for a long time. Something about the fact that it always come back, and the times when it will are so utterly predictable while being huge in terms of human conceptions of time, has … Continue reading Continue reading

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Ganymede Has a Hidden Ocean, and I Think That’s So Cool

Ganymede is my personal favorite moon (sorry, Luna) because it has a hidden ocean inside of it, and I cannot get over that! I mean, sandwiched in between an external layer of icy matters and the core is an entire … Continue reading Continue reading

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Astronomy Jargon

Some words I like. Here are some words I’ve encountered in astronomy I had not known elsewhere. Barycenter–The point of the center of mass between two or more bodies. Lagrangian points–Zones around the sun where an object placed there will orbit the sun relative the the Earth’s orbital progression. “Dwarf Planet”–The International Astronomical Union always […] Continue reading

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Is Pluto a planet?

A few weeks ago, I was discussing my astronomy class with a friend, when he interrupted to tell me his summation of the subject: “Spoiler Alert,” he told me. “Pluto isn’t a planet after all.” It wasn’t as thrilling as the … Continue reading Continue reading

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Observing the Night Sky

The website Sky and Telescope is very cool! It shows an easy to understand layout of what planets, stars, etc. you will be viewing in the night sky and where they will be moving throughout the night and week. It also gives you categories of different celestial objects you can try to search for in … Continue reading Observing the Night Sky Continue reading

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Space Walking

As of late, I’ve become a bit obsessed with Reddit; but, the other day, I stumbled across this post, so maybe my addiction isn’t as troubling as it seems. If you click on the link, you’ll see an incredible set … Continue reading Continue reading

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A Different Kind Vacation

During several of our classes we have taken time to watch videos and view pictures of aurora. All that kept going through my head was where I can go to see this and this would be great for a vacation. I found a Huffington Post article about aurora. In it the writer states that the […] Continue reading

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