Blog 6: The Solar Eclipse Today

Posted on April 8, 2024 by Seth Creech

This is my picture of the solar eclipse from today. The fact that eclipses even happen is one of the craziest coincidences, as the difference in relative size of the Moon and the Sun is the same percentage-wise, meaning that when the Moon is exactly in front of the Sun, it completely blocks it. There has been significant religious, social, and political change as a result of eclipses and their prediction. This is for two reasons. First, the Sun was significant for agrarian civilizations because of its role in crop development, so it being blocked out seemed to be a negative sign that something was wrong. Second, because total eclipses that are visible very rarely happen multiple times within a single lifetime, meaning that without a concrete written record, civilizations were thrown off and unprepared for eclipses.

The eclipse in Nashville started around 12:45pm, and reached its maximum at 2:03pm. To be honest, it was super underwhelming, as it did not get as dark as I thought it would. I am pretty spoiled, though, as I was in Nashville for the total eclipse in 2017, which got significantly darker and was more visible at partial eclipse, as it was a clear day.

All of today prior to the eclipse, I had been thinking about what it would have been like to have no idea that the eclipse was coming, especially if I did not have any understanding of what eclipses were. While today’s eclipse was underwhelming, I definitely would have been surprised by how dark it got suddenly in the middle of the day, but I would have just assumed that it was about to storm hard given the cloud coverage. Did you see the eclipse? Leave a comment if you did, and if you got any better pictures than the one that I took.

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Blog 5: The Controversy Behind Pluto’s Planethood

Posted on April 8, 2024 by Seth Creech

Pluto orbits our Sun far out past Neptune, and has been the source of controversy as we have learned more about it. The argument centers around whether this celestial object should be defined as a planet or a dwarf planet. This leads to an even bigger question: what separates a dwarf planet from a planet?

Simply put, a celestial object must meet three requirements in order to be considered a planet: it must orbit a star, be massive enough to force itself into a sphere, and must have enough mass to clear out a path on its orbit because of its gravitational pull. Under this definition, Pluto seems to meet the requirements for planet-hood, and from 1930 to 2006, it was acknowledged as the ninth planet in the Solar System. As telescoping technology improved, however, the Kuiper Belt, a collection of smaller objects orbiting past the path of Neptune, was discovered. Along with it, Eris was discovered, and some argued that it met the requirements to be a planet. This sparked debate about the nature of planets, and both Eris and Pluto were put into a new category, the dwarf planet.

The debate still rages as to whether Pluto should be included as a planet. Because the old definition, one that at times included the Sun and Moon, was so broad an unscientific, many thought that any major restriction on planethood based on an attempt to artificially restrict the amount of planets in our Solar System was arbitrary at best. Because Pluto exists in the region of the Kuiper belt, it does not fit the criterion that a planet must clear out objects in its orbit. This does not stop many from believing, however, that Pluto deserves all the recognition given any other planet in our Solar System. What do you think?

Pluto

Sources:

Space

NASA

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The Eclipse Almost Stole My Sight

Posted on April 8, 2024 by The Cosmic Traveler

by Marca

On Monday, April 8, 2024, North America witnessed a solar eclipse, and it almost blinded me. But before I talk about that, what is a solar eclipse?

A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves between the Sun and the Earth, which blocks the Sun totally or partially and casts a shadow on part of the Earth. The cover image shows an example of the Moon completely covering the Sun. Below is a photo of the Sun being partially covered by the Moon (I took that one myself).

by me

To see a total solar eclipse, you have to be in the path of totality. The path of totality is the path the moon’s shadow takes as the Earth rotates. During that path, the Moon completely blocks all light from the Sun.

To safely observe an eclipse, it is advised to wear solar eclipse glasses that follow ISO 12312-2 Requirements. Here they are below:

Unfortunately, all the solar eclipse glasses near me were all sold out. And I mistakenly decided it wouldn’t be too bad if I looked at the Sun for 1 or 2 minutes. After I took my pictures and videos, I started to see black dots appear in my vision and my eyes started to hurt. As soon as that happened, I immediately closed my eyes and turned away from the Sun for a good 3-4 minutes. I thought I permanently damaged my eyes so I can look at the Sun for 2 minutes, but when I opened my eyes again the black dots went away and my eyes were no longer in pain.

If you love your eyes, then please don’t do what I did.

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Blog 5 – Triton!

Posted on April 8, 2024 by Julian Delamaza
Triton and it’s moon Triton (Astronomy Magazine)

Things that break all patterns are often the most interesting objects in our solar system. Neptune’s moon Triton is a prime example of breaking general patterns. It is the only large moon in our solar system that orbits in retrograde, opposite the rotation of Neptune (NASA). Originally I was interested in Triton because of its irregular orbital path. Since it likely was a Kuiper Belt object that got pulled in by Neptune’s gravity, it will eventually crash into the surface of Neptune. 

The interior of Triton is also extremely intriguing as it is likely a core of rock and metals. It is extremely dense, which leads scientists to believe it has more rock inside than the satellite moons of Saturn and Uranus (NASA). The high density of Triton and its unique orbit leads me to wonder what may occur when it eventually collides with Neptune. Will it destroy the planet or will it leave a large crater on the surface of Neptune? 

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Solar Eclipse in Nashville

Posted on April 8, 2024 by Jack Abrams
A picture I took of the eclipse in Nashville at 1:53 PM CST on April 8, 2024.

Around 2 pm today on Apr 8, 2024, I was fortunate enough to see the eclipse reach its peak in Nashville amidst intermittent cloud cover. Although Nashville wasn’t in the path of totality like it was in 2017, it was very close!

For a quick background on solar eclipses, a solar eclipse happens when the Moon passes directly between the Sun and the Earth, and when the Moon completely blocks the sun, it is called a total solar eclipse. A partial eclipse, when the Moon only blocks a part of the Sun, occurred here in Nashville today! Additionally, an annular eclipse is a special type of partial eclipse when the Moon blocks the Sun but leaves a small ring around the edge. 

If you are lucky enough to be in the path of a total solar eclipse, they can last from 10 seconds up to almost 8 minutes. The longest solar eclipse projected will occur on July 16, 2186 and last 7 minutes and 29 seconds! Unfortunately, we probably won’t be around to see that; however, come 2044, the next solar eclipse will be visible from the United States again. 

You may have also heard in the news that NASA is launching sounding rockets and high-altitude planes to conduct research during the eclipse period today. Observing the sun during eclipses can help scientists better understand how solar material flows from the sun and about our ionosphere which can help scientists validate and improve models to predict potential disturbances to our communication systems.

Overall, seeing the eclipse was a fascinating experience and really offered a unique perspective on astronomical events. I hope you all had the chance to see it today too!

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nASA’s OSIRIS-REx Mission

Posted on April 8, 2024 by Angela Harris

The sample return capsule from the OSIRIS-REx mission

OSIRIS-REx was NASA’s mission to collect a sample from the asteroid Bennu. In September 2023, OSIRIS-REx returned to Earth to drop off material from Bennu.  OSIRIS-REx continued on a new mission, OSIRIS-APEX. The objective of the new mission is to study Apophis, which the spacecraft will reach in 2029.

NASA lists 10 reasons why scientists wanted to study Bennu. Here a a few of them:

  1. Bennu has been well preserved in the vacuum of space since the formation of the solar system. Bennu is a great asteroid to study to learn more about Earth’s formation. 
  2. Bennu might have clues about the origin of life! Through studying Bennu through telescopes (Earth and space based), we know that it is a carbon rich asteroid. This means that Bennu is probably rich in organic molecules. It also might have water!
  3. It can help scientists learn more about the Yarkovsky effect. The Yarkovsky effect is a phenomenon that involves sunlight warming one side of an asteroid and then radiating off the asteroid as heat as the asteroid rotates. Since its discovery, Bennu’s orbit has drifted closer to the Sun by about 280 meters per year. The Yarkovsky effect might be to blame for this because the heat energy pushes Bennu towards the Sun. Studying the Yarkovsky effect can help scientists predict the movement of other asteroids. 
    • Scientists estimated that Bennu could pass closer to Earth than the Moon in 2135 and then pass even closer from 2175 to 2195. Scientists in the next century can use data from OSIRIS-REx to come up with ways to deflect any asteroids that could hit Earth!
    • The risk of Bennu hitting Earth is very very low: 1 in 1,750 through the year 2300

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Solar Eclipse

Posted on April 8, 2024 by Tejas Mahesh

Being in Nashville, I saw a partial solar eclipse today. It was unfortunate that it was extremely cloudy. Hence, the solar eclipse showed up once in a couple minutes. The clouds proved to be an excellent source of shades. So much so, that the combination of the thick clouds and the eclipse glasses blocked out any sunlight.

Partial Solar Eclipse. Moon is on its path of leaving the sun’s glare. (It didn’t have shades)
Credits: Me!

As we can see, the clouds were thick and covering the sky. However, it was still gorgeous. The bright crescent shape outlined through the dark contrasts of the moon made for an beautiful image. The image reminds me of the Crab Nebula image as seen through the telescope, but inverted. The surrounding clouds captured the sunlight brilliantly. The real spectacle was my friend who could only see the eclipse for a couple of seconds as he was trying to answer my texts. Eventually, he got to see it for more than 30 seconds. (I had to tell him to look up.)

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bLOG 6: HOW MUCH DOES SIZE MATTER (FOR VOLCANISM and CRYOVOLCANISM)?

Posted on April 8, 2024 by matthewastro

Even some of the smallest world in our solar system exhibit (or have exhibited) evidence of volcanism or cryovolcanism. Asteroids like Vesta, with radii of only several hundred kilometers, displays features that indicate that they once exhibited active volcanism and even separation by differentiation. Although their volcanism lasted for periods that were geologically very brief, it is rather surprising that they actually exhibited any volcanism at all. After all one of the best indicators of a planet’s ability to sustain volcanic activity (over any time period) is its size. When we look at current worlds like Mercury, we narrate their tectonic history as being brief and very temporally distant from the present day. If worlds like Mercury can only sustain a little bit of volcanism, how can worlds that are several times smaller sustain any volcanism at all? How can they exhibit mountains that dwarf Earth’s tallest? How small is too small for volcanism and tectonic activity?

We don’t have a definitive answer yet, unfortunately, due to our inability to directly resolve and study very small objects. We have found moons smaller than Vesta that show past evidence of volcanism or cryovolcanism. Mimas, a moon of Saturn, has provided evidence of past cryovolcanism, despite being less than 400 kilometers in diameter. Miranda, a moon of Uranus, has also exhibited evidence of past geologic activity and possible volcanism. Enceladus, an cryovolcanically active moon of Saturn, is only about 500 kilometers in diameter. There are other worlds that we have observed that are much smaller, but we cannot quite determine their level of geological activity due to current optical limitations.

A colorized image of the young surface of Miranda (also known as Uranus V) captured by NASA’s Voyager 2 mission. Courtesy of zelario12 on Flickr, under the CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED license.

Another problem (besides our compromised ability to study very small objects) that arises when trying to figure out a minimum size for volcanism or cryovolcanism is our lack of precise knowledge of bodies’ past sizes. Mimas may be 400 kilometers in diameter now, but may very well have been larger (or smaller) when it was cryovolcanically active. To be able to empirically determine a minimum size for volcanic or cryovolcanic activity, we would need to be able to estimate planetary radii from billions of years ago with extreme precision, which is extremely difficult.

As our resolving abilities improve and we expand our horizons in physical exploration, we may find new world that are even smaller than those observed currently. Until then our question will have to remain unanswered.

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Water on the Moon?

Posted on April 8, 2024 by liamoneill95
Water found on the poles of the Moon in 1994

We first landed on the moon over 50 years ago, but despite the relative feasibility of going back to the moon, we have only conducted a few missions since then for people to travel to our closest celestial neighbor. Why is that? Going to the moon is incredibly expensive, and there’s always been little reason to go back given its lack of resources that don’t already exist on Earth. This changed in 1994, however, when it was discovered that water ice exists on the poles of the moon. Since then, there has been an increased push to go back to the moon, as this water ice could potentially be harvested and used to produce fuel. This mission, from harvest, to storage, to turning the harvested materials into something we can use, is incredibly expensive. Plans are currently being proposed in order to find out more about this extraterrestrial water and how it can be used, but it is still unclear at this point the extent to which it would be worth it to undergo an expedition of this nature given the costs. You can find more about this here. For me, this idea is intriguing because of the future implications. We are still so early in our quest to discover what exists on the moon and Mars, and perhaps further research will uncover more resources that could assist humanity than we currently are aware of. Given the current state of climate change, perhaps it will be sooner than we think that we will have to venture outside our own planet in order to acquire what we need to survive.

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Earth’s Distant Twin

Posted on April 8, 2024 by liamoneill95
Earth next to Kepler-186F

Kepler-186F is an exoplanet that exhibits strikingly similar characteristics to Earth. The planet is roughly the size of Earth, and is within the “habitable zone” of its red dwarf star, Kepler-186. The habitable zone implies that due to its distance from its star, it’s very possible that the exoplanet could have liquid water on its surface. It is the outermost of 5 similar planets that were discovered roughly a decade ago, which together make up the “Kepler System.” This discovery is absolutely fascinating, for the potential existence of liquid water and other Earth-like qualities means that there is a very good chance that extraterrestrial life exists here. Unfortunately, the planet is over 500 light years away, a distance we have not come remotely close to being able to reach with current technology. While it’s unlikely that we will be able to see what exists on Kepler-186F in our lifetime, it is fun to imagine what could exist on a world like this. Could life exist, or perhaps be much further developed than life as we know it? If you’re curious, you can find out more about the planet here.

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