Category Archives: Science

Blog 7: Extremophiles of Yellowstone

I will soon be embarking on a family trip to Yellowstone, my first visit to this National Park. Yellowstone is geological hotspot and is home to a plethora of thermal features, including hot springs, geysers, and the massive volcano itself. The hot waters may seem incapable of housing life, but they are home to an … Continue reading Blog 7: Extremophiles of Yellowstone Continue reading

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Primordial Stars and Dark Matter

A little over a month ago, astronomers in Western Australia detected the signals of stars that formed within the earliest epoch of the Universe. This discovery marks the detection of the oldest signals ever to be received, and with it, evidence for the presence of dark matter at a time when the lights of the … Continue reading Primordial Stars and Dark Matter Continue reading

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Europa: A Jovian Lunar Oasis?

Discovered in 1610 by the renowned astronomer, engineer, and philosopher Galileo Galilei, the Jovian orbiter Europa may again serve to revolutionize humanity’s cosmic perspective. Initially evidence that Earth was not the absolute center of motion in the Universe, Europa, among the discovery of the other Galilean moons, advanced the credibility of the heliocentric model through … Continue reading Europa: A Jovian Lunar Oasis? Continue reading

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Io

The Voyager program was first to photograph Io, when it deployed its two high-resolution imaging probes (Voyager I and Voyager 2) on September 5 and August 20, 1977 to investigate the Galilean moon.  Io, one of Jupiter’s four Galilean moon, is a fascinating celestial object.  In fact, Io is the most volcanically active world in our Solar System.  Io’s surface is … Continue reading Io Continue reading

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Io

The Voyager program was first to photograph Io, when it deployed its two high-resolution imaging probes (Voyager I and Voyager 2) on September 5 and August 20, 1977 to investigate the Galilean moon.  Io, one of Jupiter’s four Galilean moon, is a fascinating celestial object.  In fact, Io is the most volcanically active world in our Solar System.  Io’s surface is … Continue reading Io Continue reading

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Jupiter As Never Seen Before

Juno, NASA’s space probe orbiting Jupiter, has just completed it’s fourth flyby of the jovial planet. In doing so, it sent back surprising images which revealed new features of Jupiter. Specifically, the images changed scientist’s previous perception of the planet’s interior composition and structure, as well as its weather patterns. In studying massive cyclone’s captured […] Continue reading

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Comets

Comets get the “dirty snowball” nickname from their composition: they are a little bit of rocky dust, a good amount of chunks of ice, and a pinch of more complex compounds.  Spectra analysis reveals the presence of hydrogen compounds within comets, and the existence of hydrogen compounds like water and the presence of carbon dioxide … Continue reading Comets Continue reading

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Comets

Comets get the “dirty snowball” nickname from their composition: they are a little bit of rocky dust, a good amount of chunks of ice, and a pinch of more complex compounds.  Spectra analysis reveals the presence of hydrogen compounds within comets, and the existence of hydrogen compounds like water and the presence of carbon dioxide … Continue reading Comets Continue reading

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Planet X: The Real 9th Planet?

With Pluto’s demotion to a “dwarf planet,” the solar system was left with 8 planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. It now seems that the number 8 may not survive for long, as researchers are now searching for a 9th planet that they think exists in the far-away outer solar system. […] Continue reading

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Pluto: the Eccentric “Planet”

Most of us have heard of Pluto’s downgrade from the category of planet to “dwarf planet,” but it is less well-known why it was demoted. One of the main reasons had nothing to do with size and everything to do with Pluto’s strange orbit. Instead of orbiting with the sun roughly at the center of […] Continue reading

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