Tag Archives: blog8

Another Step Toward the Stars

Unless you missed it somehow, you’ll know that today Elon Musk’s company Space X successfully landed a reusable rocket on a drone ship in the ocean. This rocket returned from space immediately after detaching from the supply ship headed toward the International Space Station. This is an important feat since it means so much less […] Continue reading

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Another Step Toward the Stars

Unless you missed it somehow, you’ll know that today Elon Musk’s company Space X successfully landed a reusable rocket on a drone ship in the ocean. This rocket returned from space immediately after detaching from the supply ship headed toward the International Space Station. This is an important feat since it means so much less …

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Mars One Timeline

Next year, the astronauts of Mars One are expected to begin their decade-long training before the first set of four astronauts departs for Mars in 2026. I decided to investigate a bit further into the details of the plan outlined for Mars One as a whole between now and then…. 2017: Training begins! Hopefully the […] Continue reading

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Rouge Planet- The Lost Ones

Unbound to any parent star, lacking both a  sunrise and sunset, and  wandering the galaxy freely, Rouge planets are believed to outnumber the stars in our galaxy 100,000 to 1.  Yes for every star there is 100,000 rogue planets that were forcefully ejected out of its parents star’s grace by a larger and more needy sibling […] Continue reading

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Where did all the dinosaurs go?

I think one of the more fascinating topics in Earth’s past is the mystery of the dinosaurs. They were here 65 million years ago (for a shockingly long time—if you remember, they were here for almost a week in the “calendar” of the universe!) and then suddenly disappeared. So, what happened to them? It is […] Continue reading

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So Extra…

Extrasolar planets are very important to our study of the universe. The idea that there are planets that orbit other stars the way we orbit the Sun changes our entire perspective of how the universe operates. There are many challenges with detecting extrasolar planets, but once they are found they can provide us with a … Continue reading “So Extra…” Continue reading

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The Mystery of “Hot Jupiters”

Over the last decade, astronomers have discovered thousands of exoplanets, many of which have gone against our current understanding of planet formation. Most of these exoplanets orbit very close to their star, as these are the easiest to discover since they block out more light from their respective stars than planets orbiting farther out do. […] Continue reading

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Global Astronomy Month!

Wow! April is quite the month. The sun is shining, finals are approaching, and it is Global Astronomy Month (GAM)! Prior to this class, I didn’t know April was GAM. However, today I was trying to decide what to write my blog about, and I stumbled upon an article about GAM. From my research, I’ve […] Continue reading

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What is the Fermi Paradox?

The Fermi Paradox, first proposed by physicist Enrico Fermi, addresses the question, “where is all the intelligent life in the universe?” It might seem that the answer to this is obvious; life is incredibly rare. But let’s just run a few numbers anyway. The low-end estimate of how many stars are in just in our […] Continue reading

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A New Set of Eyes in Space

Or perhaps a new set of mirrors would be more accurate. Today, a scientist and an engineer from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) visited Vanderbilt and gave a talk about what they hope to discover using the telescope and the sheer feats of engineering that made the telescope a reality. The JWST in an … Continue reading A New Set of Eyes in Space Continue reading

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