Category Archives: Universe

Hubble’s Law and a Window to the Past

Hubble’s Law is one of the most fundamental observations in cosmology – that objects far off in space are almost … More Continue reading

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Milkomeda

A collision is coming. Andromeda, our spiraled galaxy neighbor, and the Milky Way will collide in  4 billion years. This process will result in the two galaxies interacting for 1-2 billion years as they rearrange the orbits of stars and planets before finally merging into an elliptical galaxy. The movements of the galaxies toward each other… Continue reading Milkomeda Continue reading

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Blog 1: We Are All So Small!

Space is such a fascinating thing. There is just so much out there beyond our planet: so much we know about and even more we don’t know about! Growing up in school, we all learned about the solar system. As a result, we concluded that maybe our world isn’t the center of the universe like we may have … Continue reading “Blog 1: We Are All So Small!” Continue reading

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The Speed of Light

Growing up I had frequently heard the phrase “Faster than the speed of light” but until now, I had no idea what that truly meant. Prior to this class, all I knew was that faster than the speed of light meant FAST, and that all human travel was slow in comparison. In fact, according to… Continue reading The Speed of Light Continue reading

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Death by Black Hole

Unfortunately, astronomers and physicists are pretty sure you can’t just go through a black hole and pop out the other side – you will, in fact, die. The real question is, how exactly will you die? Continue reading

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Blog 1- The Cosmic Calendar

The Cosmic Calendar is an interesting way to conceptualize the history of the universe.  The Cosmic Calendar was invented by astronomer Carl Sagan (source), and condenses the chronology of the universe into a single year.  The Big Bang occurs on January 1st, and current history is at the very end of December 31st.  I think that… Continue reading

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The Power of the Powers of Ten

The Powers of Ten is a 1977 short film that puts the immensity (and smallness) of the universe into perspective by zooming out from a couple’s picnic in Michigan at a distance of 1 meter to a vast view of galaxy clusters at a distance of 10^24 meters. By watching this journey from small to […] Continue reading

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Powers of Ten–Our Big Universe

In 1977, Charles and Ray Eames produced a documentary about the scale of the universe.  This documentary, Powers of Ten: A Film Dealing with the Relative Size of Things in the Universe and the Effect of Adding Another Zero, compared the relative sizes of people, locations, planets, and galaxies in our universe.  The film achieved this comparison by … Continue reading Powers of Ten–Our Big Universe Continue reading

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The Zodiacal Constellations

What are the origins of the zodiac and why are the signs different now? Continue reading

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The Scale of the Universe

When I first watched the YouTube video titled “The Known Universe by AMNH”, I was blown away by the sheer … More Continue reading

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