Category Archives: Historical

Historical Views of Comets

Posted on April 12, 2021 by rightascensionanddeclinolan

According to NASA, comets are “frozen leftovers from the formation of the solar system composed of dust, rock and ices.  They range from a few miles to tens of miles wide, but as they orbit closer to the sun, they heat up and spew gases and dust into a glowing head that can be largerContinue reading “Historical Views of Comets” Continue reading →

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Caroline Herschel

Posted on April 10, 2021 by wendyyb

Many are familiar with William Herschel, the man accredited with discovering Uranus, but lesser known is his sister: Caroline Herschel. Born March 16, 1750, Caroline Herschel was the first female professional astronomer. Growing up, Caroline’s mother did not support Caroline’s pursuit of an education. As a result, Caroline largely relied on her brother to learnContinue reading “Caroline Herschel” Continue reading →

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Becoming One with Saturn

Posted on April 5, 2021 by yvan247

On September 17, 2017, NASA’s Cassini’s spacecraft exhausted its fuel supply. This marked the end of a 20 yearlong space exploration and 13 yearlong orbit around The planet Saturn. The Cassini Mission was monumental in more ways than one. It was the first spacecraft to orbit Saturn, first to land in the outer solar system, […] Continue reading →

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The Iron Catastrophe

Posted on April 5, 2021 by yvan247

Many believe that under the Earth’s crust, deep within the center of our planet, lies a molten core of iron and nickel responsible for heating up the earth’s and being the source for the lava that flows form our volcanoes. This is an understandable misconception as the temperature of the core of the earth rivals […] Continue reading →

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Blog 4—Plato’s cosmology

Posted on March 23, 2021 by zvrec

In this blog, I would like to introduce the cosmology of the ancient Athenian philosopher Plato. His cosmology was the first systemic and complete cosmology in the history. He and his most famous student Aristotle both hold the geocentric view of the universe, and their perspectives of the universe were influential in the following thousandsContinue reading “Blog 4—Plato’s cosmology” Continue reading →

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The Formation and Evolution of our Atmosphere

Posted on March 22, 2021 by derrick37027

Us residents of the Earth take our atmosphere for granted. We constantly bombard it with harmful chemicals and pollute it with manmade substances that can permanently damage our “forcefield” around Earth. After all, it is responsible from keeping us safe against the harmful rays of the sun and provides us with the oxygen we needContinue reading “The Formation and Evolution of our Atmosphere” Continue reading →

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The Northern Lights: Mythical Explanations

Posted on March 22, 2021 by rightascensionanddeclinolan

For thousands of years, humans have looked to the sky, and every time we uncover an astronomical surprise, we try to explain it.  Today, we use the scientific method to do so; in comparison, older societies frequently created myths.  In this blog post, I am going to explore some of the myths surrounding the NorthernContinue reading “The Northern Lights: Mythical Explanations” Continue reading →

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The Carrington Event: What would happen today?

Posted on March 21, 2021 by connorrobbwilcox

The Carrington Event, named due to astronomer Robert Carrington observing that the phenomenon derived from the Sun, was an extremely powerful geomagnetic storm occurring on September 1-2, 1859. Earth’s magnetosphere was hit by a solar coronal mass ejection, or CME, from sunspots, causing auroras to light up Earth’s sky, telegraph and other communication to fail,Continue reading “The Carrington Event: What would happen today?” Continue reading →

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Putting the “Super” in Supernova

Posted on March 17, 2021 by joeangella13

Within the past year, astronomers have made an incredible discovery about 4.5 million light years away from us. A supernova, but not just any supernova, the most powerful supernova recorded in history ever spotted by astronomers. This explosion is so powerful that astronomers did not even know that it was possible to have such aContinue reading “Putting the “Super” in Supernova” Continue reading →

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Moon Rock Mischief!

Posted on March 16, 2021 by olivesobservatory

Apparently theft isn’t exclusive to Earth! In 2002, college NASA interns Thad Roberts, Tiffany Fowler, and Shae Saur stole more than $20 million worth of moon rocks from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. How did they pull it off, exactly? An elaborate heist that eventually ended in an FBI sting operation. In May… Continue reading →

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