This is my blog for my astronomy class about the solar system. While there aren’t any black holes in our galaxy, I used to be obsessed with them back in elementary school.
Here is a hyperlink to a website that kind of freaked me out when I was younger called This Person Does Not Exist.
photo by Josh Rehders
My name is Matthew, and I’m a student at Vanderbilt University. I love singing, and you can find a video of a Barbershop Harmony Performance I was in at the hyperlink below at 19:42.
Barbershop Performance
Hello, my name is Alek! This picture of a piano represents my primary major here at Vanderbilt (as I am a piano major at Blair). Looking forward to a great semester!
Hi! My name is Mercedes. I am a transfer student new to Vanderbilt. I love to travel and explore. This picture is from when I lived in the PNW. My father is in the military (I personally do not recommend that path, but feel free to investigate your options here). His job has given me the opportunity to explore much of the United States.
I have little to no experience in astronomy, or with a telescope, but I am happy to begin learning!
Photo by my brother in
Yelm, Washington.
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Hello, my name is Leo Silva and I’m a senior here at Vanderbilt. I major in H&OD and minor in Astronomy (completely unrelated). For many years now I have loved the puzzling nature of learning about space, especially when it comes to pioneering studies of topics that could bring forth answers to some of our most complex problems. As an astronomy geek, I love telescope stargazing and astrophotography– neither of which I actually properly know how to do. Nonetheless, since the Moon is extremely easy to spot, I have attached a picture I took of the moon through my telescope a few days ago using a 25mm lens. Note that clouds are obstructing the view, making the top half of the Moon (in the image) appear differently. On a clear night, the Full Moon becomes much more visible, allowing the observer to hone in on the specific visible features of the surface. This NASA webpage gives a bunch of additional insight on how, when, and what to observe (on) the Moon. Using a smaller lens (10mm, for example) would allow you to zoom-in even closer and much more easily make out the features of the Moon.
Picture taken on an Orion SpaceProbe 130ST Equatorial f/5 Newtonian Reflecting Telescope
If you’re in my 2024 Solar System class, please put a comment here showing that you’ve found my blog and that you’re following it. Please include your first name. Note that you MUST be logged in to your own WordPress blog when commenting or else you’re doing it wrong!
Also make sure you have bookmarked the big class blog aggregator: Astro2110 – The Solar System. From there, you can follow everyone or specific classmates if you like (when I post them).
(Feature image is a NIRCam image of Jupiter from a Webb Space Telescope Press Release)
This will be my final blog for this course. I just want to say that I learned so much, and I am grateful for what I learned. My eyes have been opened up, and I learned so much information that I never knew. My favorite part of this course was the actual observing of celestial bodies. It was my first time seeing Jupiter that day, and I was just in awe that we are in the same solar system as that gaseous beauty. This course really taught just how small and insignificant we appear to be compared to the universe. I am just a tiny human on a tiny world moving through the vacuum of space. But we are all tiny humans on a tiny world moving through the vacuum of space, so I guess that makes us somewhat special.
by me
Here is the picture of Jupiter I took on my phone. Hopefully I can purchase a telescope to get a better looking picture, and maybe even look at the other planets.
by Science News
So what is a water bear and how is it immortal?
Water bears, also known as Tardigrades, are eight-legged micro animals that can survive extreme conditions. Their size is typically 0.05mm-1.2mm. Water bears can survive in space, radioactive environments, near volcanoes, and even at the bottom of the ocean. Animals that can survive in such harsh conditions are known as extremophiles. But how is it possible for an animal so small to take on so much from nature? Some researchers speculate it is because of a special protein they produce called Dsup, short for damage suppressor. How it works is it binds to DNA and shields it from forms of oxygen that are reactive. When this happens, it prevents DNA damage from x-rays and ultraviolet radiation. There are other animals that can also survive such extreme conditions, but water bears have been known to be the toughest of them all.
We should be grateful for our place in exploration.
Sometimes I get sad, and mope around upset that I was born at the wrong time. The phrase goes something like “born too late to explore the Earth, too early to explore the stars.” And it is so easy to get caught up in it. But then, I stop to think. And, honestly, the amount of amazing things in our lives, just in regards to space exploration and learning about the universe, are almost overwhelming. It is essentially a coincidence that we have solar eclipses. There will exist a time on Earth in which the moon will no longer be large enough in the sky to block out the sun. And while we aren’t around late enough to explore the stars, we have witnessesed the first rockets landing back on Earth after launch – and the best telescope technology ever – and the first picture of a black hole – and the first detection of gravitational waves – and the first discovery of exoplanets. We need to be grateful. We are exploring so much, it’s easy to miss. How amazing!
