Category Archives: Physics

Consequences of breaking the speed limit

Posted on January 25, 2016 by OscarBen

The effects of aberration and the Doppler Effect. Source: Comic Vine During one of the first class sessions, we were given a minute or so to write down what would happen if the speed of light was only 100 mph. I’d never really thought about this before, so I struggled to get anything more than “The… More Consequences of breaking the speed limit Continue reading →

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Cosmic Calendar: The Month of January

Posted on January 24, 2016 by andyastronomer

After studying the Cosmic Calendar, very little appears to have happened in “the first month of the universe.” Aside from the Big Bang in January and the formation of the Milky Way in March, most of the action begins in September, reaching a climax in December. Of course, the notion that little happened in the […] Continue reading →

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The Cosmic Web

Posted on April 24, 2015 by jamej00

Source: abovetopsecret.com This photo, based on our current models of the observable universe, shows our cosmos on the grandest scale that we can imagine.   Each dot is a cluster of galaxies, rich with stars and (probably) planets.  Every law of the universe has teamed up to produce this image: the laws of gravity, astrochemistry,… Continue reading →

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Astronomy in “The Big Bang Theory” and “Interstellar”

Posted on April 22, 2015 by jclyncmp

I originally came into Astronomy 201 just wanted to fulfill my last hours as a second-semester senior at Vanderbilt University with a subject I was interested in. Now that the course is coming its conclusion, the class has evolved into…

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Why I did not like the movie “Interstellar”

Posted on April 6, 2015 by farhannshabab

When Cristopher Nolan’s Interstellar hit the theaters in November 2014, I decided to wait for reviews from my friends. My friends, most of whom were pursuing Electrical Engineering and Physics majors, had this to say about the movie after they watched it: “Meh, too many logic holes”. So I skipped the movie; but over the […] Continue reading →

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Martian Aurora?

Posted on April 6, 2015 by revanth111

Source: National Geographic NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft has recently detected a strange aurora in the lower atmosphere of Mars. Dubbed “Christmas lights” by scientists, the mysterious phenomenon occurred for five days in December, following a solar electron storm. On Earth, auroras are formed when these particles slam into atmospheric atoms, but on Mars, the lack of […] Continue reading →

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Nuclear Fission or Fusion?

Posted on March 16, 2015 by christophermfitzgerald

Fusion involves the combination of nuclei between two atoms and fission is the process of splitting the nuclei of atoms. When looking at the release of energy from nuclear fission versus nuclear fusion there is a clear winner: Nuclear Fusion. Through … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Where did we come from?

Posted on March 16, 2015 by jamej00

Formation of the Solar System In only the recent history of astronomy, we’ve began to understand that our solar system is in fact no different than other star systems in the universe.  We now understand that stars in fact all form from a collapsing cloud called a nebula, which is composed mostly of hydrogen and… Continue reading →

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A Star In a Box

Posted on March 10, 2015 by pgolemanska

A solution to our energy problems? A star in a box. Taking the process of fusion that powers stars and recreate it on Earth can be the road to large quantities of energy with very little pollution and radioactive waste. One of the most efficient ways to generate energy nowadays is a fission reactor, but […] Continue reading →

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An Ode to Gravity

Posted on February 22, 2015 by matthewrbirnbaum

Oh, gravity.  You have kept me grounded my whole life.  Where ever I have traveled you have kept my feet on the ground and my head out of the clouds.  I can not see you but feel your presence in all aspects of life.  While some look to defy your laws, I look to embrace […] Continue reading →

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