Category Archives: Historical

Historical Astronomers in Context— Galileo

Picture of Galileo Galileo (February 15, 1564 – January 8, 1642) made major strides in the argument for heliocentrism, observing sunspots and the phases of Venus, two pieces of information that seemed to point to the imperfection of the celestial world and that the Sun was the gravitational center of the Solar System about which […] Continue reading

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Messages to Space

Ever since humans realized there are worlds beyond our own, we have been curious if there is life outside of planet Earth. The universe is huge, so we can likely assume that somewhere out in the vastness of space there is life. But is it intelligent? Could we communicate with them? Would we even want […] Continue reading

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The Most Famous Comet

The Bayeux tapestry For my blog post I wanted to focus on comets. I figured I would do some research on the only comet I knew by name before taking astronomy, Halley’s Comet. Halley is the most famous of its kind and its presence in our history goes back more than 1000 years. Halley was […] Continue reading

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Blog SOLAR ECLIPSE

Today was the day, I saw the eclipse. It was amazing, and truly a piece of art. There were lots of clouds and I was barely able to see the eclipse although when seeing it, it was eye burning. Literally. As I had no glasses, I took a video of it that I am very […] Continue reading

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Ancient History of Eclipses

Hello all! In honor of the partial solar eclipse we got to briefly see in Nashville on Monday, I wanted to explore some of the interesting history of eclipses. The first known recording of an eclipse was from November 30th in 3340 BCE in Ireland. This discovery was based on “overlapping circular rock carvings, called […] Continue reading

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Blog 6: The Solar Eclipse Today

This is my picture of the solar eclipse from today. The fact that eclipses even happen is one of the craziest coincidences, as the difference in relative size of the Moon and the Sun is the same percentage-wise, meaning that when the Moon is exactly in front of the Sun, it completely blocks it. There […] Continue reading

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Blog 5: The Controversy Behind Pluto’s Planethood

Pluto orbits our Sun far out past Neptune, and has been the source of controversy as we have learned more about it. The argument centers around whether this celestial object should be defined as a planet or a dwarf planet. This leads to an even bigger question: what separates a dwarf planet from a planet? […] Continue reading

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Robert Navarro, Blog Post 05 FUN FACTS ON PLUTO

Pluto’s as a planet is very intriguing. Despite being located far from the Sun; Pluto has seasonal changes due to its tilted axis (just like earth!) and highly elliptical orbit. When Pluto is closer to the Sun in its orbit, the frozen nitrogen, and methane on its surface can temporarily sublimate, creating a thin atmosphere. […] Continue reading

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Blog 4: Systema Cosmicum

History Channel Portrait of Galileo Galileo was one of, if not the most revolutionary astronomer of all time. He lived at a point where the Catholic Church controlled a large section of public and private life, but they were also seeing their power wane through the Protestant Reformation, championed by Martin Luther (among others). The […] Continue reading

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Blog #4

Composition -The solar system is primarily composed of the Sun, which makes up about 99.8% of its total mass. The Sun is primarily composed of 74% hydrogen and about 24% helium with some amounts of heavier elements. Planets in our solar system are divided into two main groups based on their composition: the terrestrial planets […] Continue reading

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