Category Archives: Light

So, is a light-year some kind of diet plan or whatever? The speed of light and space

Posted on January 23, 2016 by d51blog

To answer the titular question in a word: no. So then, what exactly is a light-year and what does it have to do with the speed of light? A light-year is the amount of distance that a given light wave (light, radio waves, X-rays) travels in a year. Because the speed of light is approximately 300,000 meters per second, […] Continue reading →

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What if the speed of light were 60 mph

Posted on January 23, 2016 by jasperluastronomy

In class the other day, we were asked about what we thought would happen if the speed of light were much much lower. I forget the exact number now, but I believe it was around 60 mph. I decided to research the subject a bit more.   Assuming that someone just flicked a switch one […] Continue reading →

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The Aurora Phenomenom

Posted on March 14, 2015 by bryancm1

Auroras are caused when particles from the sun become trapped in a planet’s magnetosphere. These particles gain energy and travel down the magnetic field and collide with atmospheric atoms and molecules. This collision is what produces the light that we see in an aurora. We have all probably seen pictures of auroras on Earth. Do […] Continue reading →

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Northern Lights

Posted on March 11, 2015 by Marissa LePore

Auroras happen when charged particles from the magnetosphere travel to the Earth’s atmosphere and collide with its atoms and molecules, emitting the moving lights.But, the collisions of the charged particles do more than produce this incredible vision. Two operators of the American Telegraph Line between Boston and Maine held a conversation without battery power for two […] Continue reading →

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Global Warming – Who’s to Blame?

Posted on March 10, 2015 by michellelei

Nowadays, the issue of global warming has been growing in controversy and concern. The effects of it are already very noticeable – rising sea levels, the melting of polar ice, endangered species, and so much more. Many people believe that the greenhouse gases are mostly to blame, but that is not exactly the case. Greenhouse… Continue reading Global Warming – Who’s to Blame? Continue reading →

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Dragonfly Telescope

Posted on February 14, 2015 by adyacob

Telescopes are instruments used in the observation of distant objects by collecting electromagnetic radiation (Wikipedia). Because of their necessity for …

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The Dual Nature of Light

Posted on February 14, 2015 by nathanielrabin

One thing that has always fascinated me about light is that is that it has both wave-like properties and particle-like properties. Intuitively, light seems like a wave, and Young’s double slit experiment – which can and has been recreated easily in freshman physics labs – seems to show “definitively” that it is a wave. But […] Continue reading →

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Earth in Infrared

Posted on February 14, 2015 by revanth111

Source: rt.com Two of NASA’s geosynchronous satellites, GOES 13 and GOES 15, have captured infrared light emitted from the Earth, and a University of Victoria graduate student recently used this data to put together a video that shows the behavior of this light over a two month period. Infrared light is generated by heat from the […] Continue reading →

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Gravitational Redshift

Posted on February 14, 2015 by farhannshabab

Most of us know about redshifting, a phenomenon of the Doppler effect. This is the change in frequency of a wave, both mechanical and electromagnetic, for an observer when there is relative motion between the source and the observer. For example, when an observer is moving closer to a wave source, each successive wave front […] Continue reading →

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A Smiley Face in Space :)

Posted on February 14, 2015 by leedd1

A picture taken by Hubble shows what appears to be a face complete with two eyes, a nose, and a smile. The two eyes are actually galaxies while the smile is made up of curving light that forms a partial circle around the figure. However, the smile doesn’t exist. There is lots of immeasurable and […] Continue reading →

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