Category Archives: Observables

things we can see from Earth using our eyeballs or telescopes

Comets: A Bunch of “Dirty Snowballs”

Posted on April 17, 2021 by captivatingcomet

It is only right to dedicate a blog post to the very things that inspired my username: comets! Comets are small objects that orbit the Sun and tend to have more eccentric orbits than other bodies in the solar system. A comet consists of a nucleus, coma, ion tail, and dust tail. The nucleus is solidContinue reading “Comets: A Bunch of “Dirty Snowballs”” Continue reading →

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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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The Death Star

Posted on April 10, 2021 by brianknapp

Saturn is the mooniest planet in our Solar System, with us having discovered over 80 of them. While many moons have interesting features, only one of them look like they could destroy Alderaan. Say hello to the moon Mimas, which as you may notice, looks a bit familiar. That’s right, Mimas look like the DeathContinue reading “The Death Star” Continue reading →

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Scenes from Hubble: Saturn’s Seasons

Posted on March 22, 2021 by allyworthington

Images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope show changing seasons on the gas giant, Saturn. Saturn has a slower orbit than Earth (29 years to orbit the sun!), which makes each “season” on the planet over 7 years long. Similar to Earth, Saturn is tilted on an axis, which affects the intensity of sunlight on sides … Continue reading Scenes from Hubble: Saturn’s Seasons → 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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No sunspots on the Sun?

Posted on March 21, 2021 by connorrobbwilcox

Have you ever seen pictures of the Sun and noticed that it has dark spots on its surface? These sunspots are cooler than the other regions on the Sun, but they also represent the beginning of new solar cycles. In fact, some signs point to the next cycle, Cycle 25, having a much smaller numberContinue reading “No sunspots on the Sun?” 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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Aurora Borealis

Posted on March 21, 2021 by Mykayla

Aurora borealis, or the “Northern lights,” as it is often called, is the result of our Earth’s magnetosphere deflecting harmful particles from the Sun from the Earth. They can best be seen from the Arctic Circle (Canada, Iceland, Finland, etc.). Every aurora in the solar system originates from the Sun. Periodically, the Sun has stormsContinue reading “Aurora Borealis” Continue reading →

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Amazing Auroras

Posted on March 21, 2021 by captivatingcomet

Auroras happen when charged particles within solar winds go through Earth’s magnetic field. Solar winds are fast moving, plasma particles discharged by sunspot regions, areas where the Sun’s magnetic fields become tangled and burst. These particles bump into different atomic elements, such as nitrogen and oxygen, to create ions in excited states that release lightContinue reading “Amazing Auroras” Continue reading →

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The Ranking System of Solar Flares

Posted on March 20, 2021 by captivatingcomet

Solar flares are solar storms and explosions that release ultraviolet light, x-rays, energy, and very fast, charged particles. They are categorized into classes based on their strength. The classes ranked from smallest to biggest solar flares are: A, B, C, M, and X. Each class increases 10-fold in energy and has a subscale that goesContinue reading “The Ranking System of Solar Flares” Continue reading →

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