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Category Archives: Jovians
Lack of Cratering: Io and Europa
During class, we have discussed magnetospheres, tectonics, geological activity, and their relation to the cores of the “Big Five”: Earth, Venus, Mercury, the Moon, and Mars. Specifically the moon has very obvious cratering across its entire surface, and its craters remain intact for billions of years. This is due to it not having an atmosphere […] Continue reading
Posted in Jovians, Moons
Tagged astro2110, blog3, Galileanmoons
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Identifying Jupiter and Mars
Last night, I was looking up at the night sky while walking to dinner. I noticed a few constellations, as well as two brighter points of light that I was pretty sure were Mars and Jupiter. Normally, I can identify them, but for some reason Mars didn’t look as red to me as it normally […] Continue reading
Posted in Class, Jovians, Observables, Sun, Terrestrials
Tagged astro2110, blog1, jupiter, Mars, motion, Solar System
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What I’ve learned
Walking into astronomy class in late January, I was not even sure if I would be able to name the eight planets in our solar system. It is safe to say that I’ve learned a lot. I think the most important thing I learned is how big our universe really is and how everything explains […] Continue reading
Posted in Class, Jovians, Terrestrials
Tagged astro2110, blog8, Solar System
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Jupiter’s Great Red Spot
Growing up, I grew to recognize Jupiter’s distinctive birthmark, but I never attempted to understand it. I figured their were clever astronomers out there who knew what was going on and I’d end up absorbing what they know from a TED talk at 1.5x speed. After looking into it though, it turns out the Great […] Continue reading
Posted in Jovians
Tagged astro2110, blog5, jupiter, Uncategorized
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Hot Jupiters: Migration and Orbital Changes
Hot Jupiters are gas giants that have orbital periods that are very close to their stars; often less than 10 days. Usually this means they are less than 0.1AU away from their stars which is one tenth the distance between earth and the sun. While scientists originally did not think giant planets could exist this […] Continue reading
Posted in Exoplanets, Jovians
Tagged astro2110, blog5, HotJupiter
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Enceladus: Alien Life in Our Own Solar System?
Enceladus is an icy moon of Saturn, and is fairly small (or medium-sized, for a moon) with a diameter of about 500 km. For reference, the Moon has a diameter of about 3,475 km. Despite its size, however, Enceladus has been rated as among the most probable sources of life in our own solar system […] Continue reading
Findings of The Cassini Spacecraft
On October 15th, 1997, the rocket carrying the Cassini Spacecraft and its Huygens probe took off from Cape Canaveral. It was sent to the outer solar system to study Saturn, as well as its moons. The Huygens probe was deployed to one of these moons, Titan, recording images and data. In 2017, after running out […] Continue reading
The Different Atmospheres in our Solar System
An atmosphere consists of the gases surrounding a planet. Atmospheres are created by volcanism (outgassing of volcanoes involves eruptions that take gasses from the earth’s interior and put them into the atmosphere), evaporation (of compounds such as water), and life (outgassing of carbon dioxide and oxygen). Life is an interesting component of an atmosphere as […] Continue reading
Posted in Class, Jovians, Terrestrials
Tagged astro2110, Atmosphere, blog3, Solar System
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solar system superlatives: Saturn
Welcome back to solar system superlatives! Last time, we learned about Mars and the breathtaking enormity of Olympus Mons, the largest mountain in our solar system. Now, let’s take a look at my personal favorite of the giants: Saturn. Needless to say, Saturn wins the prize of “coolest rings in the solar system.” Just takeContinue reading “solar system superlatives: Saturn” Continue reading
Saturn’s Hexagon
Scientists at Harvard are trying to learn more about Saturn’s hexagonal storm on its north pole. While storms on Earth tend to be round or spiral in shape, this feature on Saturn is distinctly a hexagon, and we don’t fully know why! As of now, Harvard has created computer simulations that have indicated how polygonalContinue reading “Saturn’s Hexagon” Continue reading