Leap 🐸 Year

Posted on February 5, 2021 by brynicdew

I can’t be the only one that questioned why we would get an extra day and the Olympics every four years when I was younger. While this isn’t the time to discuss the Olympic schedule, this did provide me with a chance to discover the real reason February 29th pops up every four years. As Dr. G informed us in class, the Earth’s revolution actually takes 365. 2422 days, called a tropical year. However, if we ignore the extra few 0.24 days, our calendar would be extremely out of whack after thousands of years. To work around this, a common year (365 days) would be observed normally, and every fourth year an extra day slides into February, creating the leap year. Something else I find very interesting is that exceptions exist for leap years to account for it being an extra 0.2422 day instead of a perfect 0.25. Leap years will not occur in years ending in “00” that are not divisible by 4, so 1700, 1800, and 1900 all ended up as common years.

Image result for leap day picture
https://c.tadst.com/gfx/900×506/tropical-year-illustration.png?1

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“He’s Such an Ophiuchus”: The Forgotten 13th Zodiac Sign

Posted on February 5, 2021 by wendyyb

In 2016, NASA shared this image of the zodiac constellations. Within this picture, we see the twelve signs commonly talked about in astrology, but we also see the presence of a less-discussed zodiac member: Ophiuchus.

Image result for ophiuchus constellation
An image of the constellation, Ophiuchus, the serpent-bearer. Source: Pinterest

According to CNN, Ophiuchus is one of the 13 members of the Babylonian zodiac. However, 13 zodiac signs did not fit conveniently into their 12-month calendar, thus, they decided to scrap Ophiuchus. Additionally, Babylonians continued to cut corners by altering the lengths of the remaining 12 zodiac signs and assigning them all equal lengths within the calendar year. This, combined with the fact that we no longer see stars in the same position as the Babylonians did (due to the Earth’s precession), means that the astrological sign you were born with, is likely not the one that the sun was actually in when you were born. Particularly, those born between “November 29 [and] December 17” (Bustle) would have Ophiuchus as their sign. Despite astrology being a pseudoscience, it’s still fun to analyze how your birthdate can impact your personality traits. This Bustle article speculates that an Ophiuchus would fall somewhere in between signs the precede and follow it: Scorpio and Sagittarius. This means that Ophiuchuses are passionate, desirable, and lucky, but prone to jealousy and a bad temper.

Does your birthday make you an Ophiuchus? And if so, do you feel like the personality traits hold true? Do you think astrology holds any truth at all? Comment below & let me know (:

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Ephemerides: An Astronomer’s Excel

Posted on February 5, 2021 by mwdobson3
Almanach Perpetuum of Spanish Astronomer Abraao ben Samuel Zacuto (from Wikipedia)

From the first time I observed lunar eclipses to now understanding how they occur, I have always wondered how astronomers are able to predict every piece of information about them years in advance. Also, in the bigger picture, I did not know how astronomers knew where the planets and stars were in our Solar System and galaxy… I needed answers! In approximately 4th century B.C. (Britannica), early astronomers created tables that mapped the trajectory of celestial bodies in our sky. These tables are called ephemerides (plural of ephemeris), and they have developed over time from handwritten tables of information to massive databases that are constantly being calculated with modern super computers and algorithms. Surprisingly, one of the first uses of a modern computer was to calculate these trajectories! Above is an image of one of the early ephemerides created in 1496 called the Almanach Perpetuum. Created by Spanish astronomer Abraão ben Samuel Zacuto, the table was one of the first uses of the printing press in Portugal. Ultimately, ephemerides are an extremely awesome set of tables that map out the stars in our solar system to help us know where celestial bodies are, in turn enabling astronomers to accurately predict every detail about future (and past) lunar eclipses!

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The Speed of Light: Blasting Towards the Weighted Scales

Posted on February 5, 2021 by kjackson1456

Light travels at a speed of about 300,000 kilometers per second. At this speed, you could literally travel the circumference of the Earth 7 times in ONE second! The libra constellation is located approximately 40,000 light years away from earth. A light year is the distance traveled by light in a year (which is about 95,000,000,000,000 km). If we were to travel at the speed of light, it would take us about 40,000 years to reach Libra from earth. Safe to say we won’t be seeing those weighted scales anytime soon. Light moves incredibly fast, but the universe is also INCREDIBLY huge. There are even some phenomena that occurred millions of years ago, but we cannot see them because the light has not had enough time to reach us. Fortunately, we have this cool pic (sourced below) to view for the time being.

All stars in the Libra Constellation.

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Ancient Interpretation of Solar Eclipses

Posted on February 5, 2021 by captivatingcomet

In ancient Iraq, it was believed that a solar eclipse meant something awful was going to happen to the king or ruler. Ancient Mesopotamian astronomers could accurately determine when an eclipse would occur. When a solar eclipse was projected to happen, the court and priests would prepare for this event by planting a substitute king to replace the real king. The substitute king was given the title of king and wore the real king’s clothes. He was also provided with a queen and earned royal status through various rituals. The real king would then go into hiding. Once the solar eclipse was gone and it was deemed safe, the substitute king and queen were killed, and the real king retook his position.

After learning about this interpretation, I was feeling pretty sympathetic for the substitute king and queen. However, I am glad that astronomers discovered that a solar eclipse actually happens when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, so another ritual like this is not necessary.

2017 Total Solar Eclipse (taken from Britannica)

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How big the Universe is, and What it is Full of

Posted on February 4, 2021 by dayanel123

Almost daily I complain about how far the walk is from Sutherland House to Poke Bros. I think to myself “agh this campus is so big.” Big, of course, is relative to how long my strides are, and in reality the 1.6 miles I am away from Poke Bros is nothing. Right now the observable universe is estimated to be about 93 billion light-years in diameter, and much longer walk than Sutherland to Poke Bros. With so much space you might wonder what it’s all full of. Here are some quick estimates on what scientists believe is out there: 1 trillion comets (ish), 700 quintillion planets (this is way more than I thought I don’t even know how many 0s that is there must be aliens on at least 1 of these), and estimated two trillion galaxies which each can contain 100s of billions of stars. Also, fun fact, three whole earths fit into that red spot on Jupiter. Now for some reason the walk to Poke Bros doesn’t seem so long after all! : )

The Observable Universe

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The Earth, the Moon, and the Space In Between

Posted on February 4, 2021 by brianknapp

Since space seems so far away to most of us humans, we can forget how truly massive the emptiness of space is. Space really is appropriately named, because so much of it is just that – empty space, nothing there. For example, let’s look at the distance between the Earth and the Moon. While the Moon is usually pictured relatively close to Earth, it’s actually much further away. In fact, all of the planets in our solar system could fit in between the Earth and the Moon, with a little room to spare. Note that this is considering the average distance between the Earth and the Moon – sometimes there is more space, sometimes less. Here’s an infographic from a Reddit user.

From Reddit

A Universe Today article checks this infographic’s accuracy by using the numbers NASA has on their website, and it checks out. Although the infographic shows a bit more space than there actually is, there’s still nearly 4400 km left to spare – which is enough to fit Pluto! So the *eight* other planets can fit between us and the footprints of the Apollo 11 crew, which is pretty wild. If there’s that much space between us and the Moon, our closest neighbor, imagine how vast the distance is between us and literally anything else in space.

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An App to See the Stars

Posted on February 4, 2021 by gracelearnsspace
From App Store

Have you ever looked up at the sky and wondered what constellation you were looking at? There are many tools out there to help you figure it out! One of them is SkyView Lite, an app offered on the Apple Store that identifies constellations for you and is free to download. Simply open the app and aim your phone camera at the sky, and it will show the outline of the constellation the camera is pointed at. You can even do it during the day when stars aren’t visible to the human eye or use the search feature to see another part of the sky. No wifi is required to use it, so SkyView Lite gives access to the constellations wherever you are. Has anyone used SkyView Lite or any other constellation observing app? SkyView’s Website

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Christopher Columbus and The Blood Moon

Posted on February 4, 2021 by joeangella13
Columbus gazing upon the “Blood Moon” as the Jamaicans rush to give him and his crew food out of fear.

Credit: Google Images

“In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” We all have heard of this popular rhyme in order to help us remember the voyage in which Christopher Columbus took on his journey to the New Americas. However, some fail to realize in history that Columbus very well may have never returned from this voyage had it not been for one of the most magical phenomenas that can occur in astronomy: The Blood Moon. A “blood moon” occurs when a total lunar eclipse takes place, causing the white appearance of the moon to turn into a bloody red color due to the Moon residing in Earth’s shadow and the light from Earth’s sunrises and sunsets falling upon the surface of the moon (Space). But how did all of this save Columbus? Well, in 1504 Columbus, in his exploration of the new world, Columbus was stranded on the island of Jamaica. At first the two cultures coincided peacefully but after Columbus “murdered and robbed” a few of the local Jamaicans, the Jamaican people were understandably not too eager to give Columbus and his crew the food they needed to survive. On the brink of starvation, Columbus utilized his knowledge from the almanac that foreshadowed a blood moon in the near future to threaten the Jamaican people that if he and his crew did not receive food that God would become angry and turn the Moon red. Needless to say, when this phenomenon did come true the Jamaicans quickly rushed to feed the crew members and ultimately lead to astronomy saving Christopher Columbus’ life! Did you know about this story? Comment down below any reactions you have!

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Speed of Light Discussion

Posted on February 4, 2021 by lorenzchen14

Physics behind Solar Sails, by Robert Miller

I actually find the speed of light and the implications behind this physical constraint pretty interesting. Particularly, if light takes time to travel, everything we see is technically in the past. As covered in the lecture, the sunlight that we see is 8 minutes old. But if we use this concept for everything we see, for example a mug on a table, the mug belongs fractionally in the past. If light takes time to travel the distance between your eyes and the mug, then the mug you see must marginally be from the past. (this is not to mention the small amount of time it takes for your brain to process the stimulus). Even though this time difference is a technicality and makes no measurable difference to our lives, I think it is a pretty cool concept to think about and makes me think a little different about reality. 

I also wanted to talk about the possibility of reaching close to the speed of light. It seems like the best method we have so far is with solar sails. These sails make the Voyager look relatively slow, as they can reach 10% of the speed of light at nearly 18,600 miles a second. While solar sails still can’t compare to the speed of light, 1/10th the speed is impressive in itself and takes galactic travel out of science fiction. If Alpha Centauri is ‘only’ 4.4 light years away, we could reach it in 44 years with solar sails, which makes it doable. 1/10th the speed of light is even more impressive considering the short time humans and science have been around. I imagine our technological advances in another 1000 years could get speeds even closer to the speed of light. 

 I wanted to end the blog with a hypothetical I have been thinking about. If we were somehow able to accelerate a spaceship to marginally slower than the speed of light (off by 1 nanometer/hour), could you run or throw a ball in the same direction the spaceship is traveling? I’m guessing you wouldn’t be able to because it would violate the laws of physics by exceeding “c”, but I think it’s intriguing how you can throw a ball backwards, but not forwards. 

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