Category Archives: SolarSystem

Blog Post 3: What will happen when our Sun dies???

Just as all things have a beginning, all things have an end. Unfortunately this applies to our Sun as well. As a kid, I used to think that the Sun was basically just like a lamp light in the sky. When a lamp runs out of batteries, all you have to do to make it […] Continue reading

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There’s A Comet Coming Our Way!?!

As discussed in the textbook, most comets are not visible within Earth because they rarely pass through the inner solar system. Alternatively, they orbit the Sun within the Kuiper belt and Oort Cloud. Previously my knowledge of comet’s was bound to Halley’s comet, which is arguably one of the most famous of the comets to […] Continue reading

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Determining Saturn’s Rotation Speed

Throughout the 1900s, planetary rotation speeds was generally measured in one of two ways: observing the frequency of which fixed features on planets’ surfaces appear, or observing the patterns of the magnetic field, which change periodically when the magnetic field isn’t aligned with the planet’s axis of rotation. For example, both Earth and Jupiter have […] Continue reading

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A Climate in Crisis

For this post, I’d like to increase my understanding of global warming because the book introduced to me the major process behind it. First off, I’d like to acknowledge that the climate crisis truly is one of the most difficult things we have globe have faced. We began on this Earth as a species tossed […] Continue reading

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We Come in Peace! (If you can Find Us)

It’s a common theme for me within this class to fixate on the possibility of life beyond Earth, and I’m glad to do that once again with today’s blog post. I want to respond to the book’s claim that life on Mars is an “extraordinary claim”. While it’s true the bold assertion like the one […] Continue reading

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Blog #4: Nuclear Fusion

Nuclear fusion is the process that drives star light formation and prevents the force of gravity of the star from collapsing into itself. In a nuclear fusion reaction, two smaller nuclei, typically hydrogen isotopes, bond together to form a helium atom while immense amounts of energy are released. The fusion between smaller atoms continues to […] Continue reading

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Blog #3 Formation of the Solar System

The formation of the Solar System is truly a testament to our good fortune of life being possible on a planet located in the “Goldilocks Zone” near the Sun. The initial conditions allowed for not only Earth to be composed of rocky elements such as carbon but for the Earth to be protected from flying […] Continue reading

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Earth and Us

I’ve always wondered how rare it is for Earth to exist and support life on it, and now I know that out of the billions of solar systems, Earth is the only planet we know of to support life on it currently. Earth had to be at just the right distance from the Sun for […] Continue reading

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Chelyabinsk event

On the morning of February 15, 2013, an undetected meteor the size of a six-story building exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia. At 20 meters long, it reached speeds of 60,000 km/h before detonating with the force of a 500-kiloton nuclear bomb. Witnesses saw a flash brighter than the Sun before hearing a delayed […] Continue reading

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Olympus Mons

Currently the largest known volcano in the Solar System, Olympus Mons stands at a remarkable 25 km high, which is almost 3 times the height of Mount Everest, and is wide as Arizona. Compared to the largest active volcano on Earth, Mauna Loa, Olympus Mons is 100 times larger in volume, a seemingly odd feat […] Continue reading

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