Category Archives: Moons

Dragonfly: Quadcopter on Titan

After the recent rocket launch in preparation for the Artemis mission, I decided to look into the other space exploration projects currently underway. One that stuck out to me is the Dragonfly mission. After the landing of Huygens, a space probe sent from Cassini, in 2005, astronomers have desired a more advanced exploration of Titan. […] Continue reading

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Scientists Dream of Complex Life on Europa

Images from BBC Article on Europan Life and CNET Article on Proposed NASA Rover The search for extraterrestrial life is often focused upon deep space with distances the human mind can barely comprehend. However, evidence has been building that complex life could be present in our cosmological backyard on the icy moon of Europa. The […] Continue reading

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Ganymede, Aurorae, and the Potential for Life Outside of Earth

Artist’s conception of Ganymede and Jupiter. Image by NASA Although by visible light and upon first glance Ganymede might seem like an unassuming satellite, further inspection and deeper exploration demonstrates that this view is both tired and untrue. Simply by size alone, Ganymede is a headliner. As the largest moon in our solar system, it […] Continue reading

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What is up with Io?

Today I wanted to talk about one of the most fascinating moons in the Solar System, Io is one of the four Galilean moons that orbits Jupiter, which are each large enough to be counted as planets or dwarf planets if they orbited the Sun. Io is covered in snow, and yet is by far […] Continue reading

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Callisto, The Ugly Duckling

When it comes to Jupiter’s Galilean moons, Callisto is the odd one out. Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar System, Io is the most volcanically active world in the Solar System, Europa has incredible, potentially life-bearing subsurface liquid oceans, and Callisto… looks as dead as Mercury. It does not take part in the […] Continue reading

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Water Beads on the Moon

After analyzing Moon samples taken over two years ago, scientists have discovered glass beads of water on the surface of the Moon. The Chinese probe, Chang’e 5, took soil samples from the lunar surface as part of China’s first sample-return mission. These glass beads are thought to be across the entire surface of the Moon […] Continue reading

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Titan

Titan is Saturn’s largest moon and the second largest moon in the solar system behind Ganymede. It is shrouded in a thick, yellow atmosphere and has standing bodies of liquid on its surface. It is the only place besides Earth(that we know of) that has an atmospheric cycle of precipitation and evaporation. One day on […] Continue reading

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The (Possible) Oceans of Europa

Among all of Earth’s unique aspects and characteristics, the presence of water may be the most significant. Water is necessary to life as we know it; from humans ourselves down to microscopic organisms, all living things need water to survive. It is no wonder, then, that life in the Solar System is exclusive to Earth; […] Continue reading

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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

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Blog Post 2 – What was Stonehenge really for?

Most people have seen pictures or heard of Stonehenge, an ancient monument on the Salisbury Plain in England. Personally, while I had seen references to Stonehenge in the media, I never actually knew what it was for, or what people thought it was for. It has been difficult for historians to find a definitive answer, […] Continue reading

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