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Category Archives: Outreach
The Golden Record
Aboard Voyager 1 and 2 there sits a golden record. This golden record contains anything NASA thinks is important to understanding humanity. The record contains both photos and images. The golden record fascinates me so much because of what they chose to put on it. First, they needed a way to communicate how to play […] Continue reading
Blog 8—A fictional explanation to the Fermi paradox
As we learned from our class, there are several possible explanations to the Fermi paradox. One of them is that the aliens are hiding from us. For this blog, I would like to share a fictional theory in the novel “The Three-Body Problem.” In this book, the author expands the idea that aliens are hidingContinue reading “Blog 8—A fictional explanation to the Fermi paradox” Continue reading
Are We The Only Ones In Our Galaxy?
Humans often wonder if we are the only ones out here. This seems a reasonable thing to ponder considering the numerous number of stars and planets in our galaxy and in the entire universe. Our natural interest in outer civilization similar to that of humankind is part of the reason why topics such as aliensContinue reading “Are We The Only Ones In Our Galaxy?” Continue reading
Tides and the Limits of Human Understanding
This story begins where so many great ones do (including the unnecessarily long URL of my blog) – by making fun of Bill O’Reilly: Like many people. Bill can’t grasp how the tides operate. And, in his defense, the explanation isn’t exactly obvious to the layperson. As the moon orbits Earth, its gravitational influence produces … Continue reading Tides and the Limits of Human Understanding → Continue reading
The Expanding Universality of the Cosmic Perspective is Fundamental to Human Prosperity
To call back to the late Carl Sagan, the study of astronomy is a humbling experience. The vast scale of the Universe is beyond true understanding relative to the human experience. Yet it is through the study of this incomprehensible immensity that one develops a regard for the significance an ever growing cosmic perspective affords … Continue reading The Expanding Universality of the Cosmic Perspective is Fundamental to Human Prosperity → Continue reading
Gravitational Singularity
Gravitational Singularity, or spacetime singularity, is a point with infinitely small size and infinitely big density, gravitational force and time curvature. At that point, no physicals laws we know right now can be applied. According to the big bang theory, our universe is expanded from a universe singularity. According to current theory, when an object … Continue reading Gravitational Singularity → Continue reading
The Dark Forest Theory
If you are interested in aliens and Fermi paradox, there is a must-read novel “The three-body problem”. The novel was written by a Chinese writer Liu Cixin, and in the novel Liu introduced a theory called “The Dark Forest Theory”. The theory has two axioms. The first one is that “survival” is the first need … Continue reading The Dark Forest Theory → Continue reading
How to Become an Astronaut
It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No it’s… the end of the semester? Well, I guess you heard it here first. This is going to be the last blog of the semester. I’ll even let you choose the topic since it’s the last time we’ll be together. I’ll give you three choices: How […] Continue reading
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Tagged astro2110, blog8, space, Uncategorized
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To Serve Man
Twilight Zone, one of the favorite t.v. series growing up. My favorite episode, the one that really stuck with me, was “To Serve Man”. In this episode, Aliens come to Earth with seemingly peaceful and helpful intentions. They just want to help and serve man. Plot twist: they were serving man alright… for dinner. This […] Continue reading
The Space I Take Up: How Much of it Will I Get to Know?
Space. There is quite a bit of it. In the room I live in, there is 264 sq ft of it. On Earth, there is 196.9 million sq miles of it. But in space, it is seemingly infinite, or at least so it seems. With the Hubble constant still undetermined, and the shape of the… Continue Reading → Continue reading