Category Archives: Instruments

includes telescopes and space probes

Blog Post 6 – Hubble Space Telescope

Posted on April 7, 2024 by Thomas Shelton

NASA Science The Hubble Space Telescope! How cool! The idea for the telescope first came around in the 1940’s! Nearly 100 years ago, a scientist wrote a paper about the advantages of having a big telescope out in outer space, and they were right! Work on the telescope didn’t then begin until 1974 but the […] Continue reading →

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Spacecraft

Posted on March 3, 2024 by Maddy Pollard

Our solar system is full of many mysteries, and spacecraft are one of the main ways we can gather information about it. There are four types of robotic spacecraft: flybys, orbiters, landers and probes, and sample return missions.  Flybys travel past a world only once, and then continue on their way into space. Because of […] Continue reading →

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Night Sky App

Posted on January 21, 2024 by Maddy Pollard

I downloaded the Night Sky app at the beginning of this semester, before I even knew I would be taking this class. On a late night walk back from the library, my friend and I noticed an unusually bright star in the sky. Interested to find out what it was, I downloaded this app and […] Continue reading →

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Dragonfly: Quadcopter on Titan

Posted on April 30, 2023 by willems49

After the recent rocket launch in preparation for the Artemis mission, I decided to look into the other space exploration projects currently underway. One that stuck out to me is the Dragonfly mission. After the landing of Huygens, a space probe sent from Cassini, in 2005, astronomers have desired a more advanced exploration of Titan. […] Continue reading →

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Ganymede, Aurorae, and the Potential for Life Outside of Earth

Posted on April 9, 2023 by groblesnieles727

Artist’s conception of Ganymede and Jupiter. Image by NASA Although by visible light and upon first glance Ganymede might seem like an unassuming satellite, further inspection and deeper exploration demonstrates that this view is both tired and untrue. Simply by size alone, Ganymede is a headliner. As the largest moon in our solar system, it […] Continue reading →

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Touching the Sun

Posted on April 9, 2023 by andrewccascio

Many space missions are aimed outwards, away from the center of our solar system into the deep unknown. Fewer are aimed inwards, because what else is there to explore? The Sun is a fiery ball of extraordinary mass that we likely have no hope of making contact with soon, but how close can we get? […] Continue reading →

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Opportunity and Spirit

Posted on March 6, 2023 by araceal

Opportunity and Spirit are two rovers that have been to the incredible Red Planet – Mars.  Opportunity launched out of Florida in 2003 and landed on Mars in 2004, which was soon after its twin Spirit landed. Opportunity is one of the more well known rovers, in that it broke a record of operating for […] Continue reading →

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The Coolest Telescope

Posted on February 15, 2023 by Liam Prescott

The James Webb telescope, unveiled on December 25 2021, is by far the coolest telescope. Webb has the power to view infrared light rays from exoplanets that are potentially habitable. Also the innovative technological achievement can better observe our own solar system and the first galaxies that were formed 13.5 billion years ago. It has […] Continue reading →

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Blog Post 2: Celestial Navigation

Posted on February 12, 2023 by Myles7235

In order to navigate the vast seas when traveling in today’s time, we can easily use modern technology to pinpoint exactly where we are in the ocean. A prime example of this type of technology would be GPS systems. However, GPS systems haven’t been around forever. Celestial navigation is the art of determining both the […] Continue reading →

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Blog Post 2 – What was Stonehenge really for?

Posted on February 10, 2023 by Melanie Marszal

Most people have seen pictures or heard of Stonehenge, an ancient monument on the Salisbury Plain in England. Personally, while I had seen references to Stonehenge in the media, I never actually knew what it was for, or what people thought it was for. It has been difficult for historians to find a definitive answer, […] Continue reading →

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