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Category Archives: Historical
North Korean Space Program’s Latest Breakthrough in Propulsion Technology!
Look out NASA, there’s a new kid on the block, and he’s got a shiny new toy. In a highly unprecedented act of transparency and openess, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea allowed members of the Associated Press inside access to their closely guarded Kim Il Sung proving grounds for the debut of their latest […]
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Posted in Historical, Space Travel
Tagged space, spacecraft, Uncategorized
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The Demise of Pluto
Left: Pluto Demoted, Right: Size Comparison The discovery of Pluto had scientists ecstatic. Far out in the distance was this tiny, freezing, icy planet with moons! Then it was official: Pluto must be added to the list of planets. It’s round, orbits the Sun and has a posse of moons, what more could we need? […]
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Posted in Historical, Observables
Tagged astro2110, blog8, pluto, Solar System, Uncategorized
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What’s in a Name?
The Hubble telescopes famous successor was not always called the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The telescope, initially dubbed the Next Generation Space Telescope, was rechristened in 2002 to pay homage to the celebrated James Webb, NASA’s second administrator. Webb ran NASA from 1961-1968, a time when the emergent agency was still trying to define […]
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Posted in Historical
Tagged astro2110, blog8, JWST, NASA, technology, telescopes
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Let’s Talk About Carl Sagan (Remix)
“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” These are the only words I really remember of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos series when I watched it in high school physics class. However, Carl Sagan left a much greater legacy than his musings on apple pie. Carl Sagan inspired an […]
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Posted in Historical, Physics, Science
Tagged astro2110, blog8, Carl Sagan, cosmos
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Where did all the dinosaurs go?
I think one of the more fascinating topics in Earth’s past is the mystery of the dinosaurs. They were here 65 million years ago (for a shockingly long time—if you remember, they were here for almost a week in the “calendar” of the universe!) and then suddenly disappeared. So, what happened to them? It is […]
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Posted in Historical, Terrestrials
Tagged asteroid, astro2110, blog8, comet, Dinosaurs, extinction, impact, Solar System
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Radiocarbon Dating
Radiocarbon Dating is a method of determining how old an object is by the amount of carbon in it. The majority of organic matter contains carbon, and while carbon is not usually radioactive one of its isotopes, 14C is radioactive. This means that 14C will have a defined half-life, the amount of time is takes […]
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A Natural Lightshow
When I think about light shows, I think about Disney World. Every night in the Magic Kingdom that have a “lightshow spectacular” full of elaborate parade floats decked out in incredible light schemes set to music. The show is pretty cool, but there’s one even cooler that our Earth puts on every night all on […]
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The Formation of the Solar System
The general consensus amongst astrophysicists is that our solar system was formed through a process of gravitational collapse of a dense cloud. Over time, a large portion of the mass settled at the center, forming the Sun. The formation of the sun produced a swirling disk called a solar nebula. This disk of matter orbiting […]
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Posted in Class, Historical, Universe
Tagged astro2110, blog5, formation, space, theuniverse
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The Pock-Marked Sun God
Sunspots are areas on the Sun that appear darker compared to their surroundings because they are cooler than the areas around them. This does not mean that the spots are actually cold, but relative to the 5800K temperature of the rest of the Sun, sunspots are much cooler at 4000K. Magnetic fields prevent the hotter …
The Pock-Marked Sun God
Sunspots are areas on the Sun that appear darker compared to their surroundings because they are cooler than the areas around them. This does not mean that the spots are actually cold, but relative to the 5800K temperature of the rest of the Sun, sunspots are much cooler at 4000K. Magnetic fields prevent the hotter […]
Continue reading