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Tag Archives: astro201
A Breakthrough in Our Knowledge of the Big Bang
BICEP 2, a telescope located at the South Pole, has detected proof for gravitational waves, which are practically ripples in space-time inferring there was some sort of disturbance or bang that caused the universe to form and expand. Gravitational waves up to this point were just theorized to explain how during the Big Bang the… Continue reading
Posted in Class
Tagged astro201, blog8, gravitationalwaves
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Newly Discovered Dwarf Planet
This month, scientists at the Carnegie Institution for Science discovered a distant dwarf planet. Labeled 2012 VP113, this dwarf planet was seen spinning way past the orbit of Pluto and the Kuiper Belt and is 80 AU away from the sun at its closest point. The Kuiper belt, a region of rocky entities, is between… Continue reading
Edmond Halley: Proving Newton
Newton was the first to provide a mathematical construct to describe the effects of planetary motion around the Sun. But then the question arose, how could we find evidence for the theory? Stepping up to the plate was the prominent astronomer Edmond Halley. Born in the English countryside on November 8, 1656, Halley was a … Continue reading Edmond Halley: Proving Newton → Continue reading
Rings and Diamonds? A Girl’s Best Friend!
On Jupiter and Saturn, scientists have recently discovered that there could be a lot of carbon on the planet. This carbon could be present in the form of diamonds that rain down from the sky. While the diamonds eventually melt and don’t stay around for long, they can be as large as a centimeter […] Continue reading
Halley’s Comet Shooting Through the Sky
In 1705, Edmond Halley noticed records of comets passing by Earth in 1531, 1607, and 1682. While at first they were thought to be three different comets, Halley thought they were all the same one. The comet passes by Earth around every 75 years. It was here last in 1986, and is predicted to come […] Continue reading
Posted in Observables, Science
Tagged astro201, blog7, comet, Halley's Comet, Time
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Any Sufficiently Advanced Technology is Indistinguishable from Awesome: Dyson Sphere!
In honor of Freeman Dyson’s upcoming visit, I thought we could talk about Dyson Spheres. A Dyson Sphere is a structure which surround a solar system and collects all of the energy which is given off by the star. Dyson published this idea in his 1960 paper “Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infared Radiation“. … Continue reading Any Sufficiently Advanced Technology is Indistinguishable from Awesome: Dyson Sphere! → Continue reading
Posted in Aliens, Stars
Tagged astro201, blog6, Cool Ideas, dyson, I hope this is real, technology, Uncategorized
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Dying for Comfort: Mankinds’ Descent into Climate Change
Global Warming can be easily linked to human activities, all one must do is look at a chart of Carbon Dioxide concentration in the atmosphere on any of a number of time scales. Compare this with global temperature change, and it is clear that as CO2 emissions are rising so is global temperature. But … Continue reading Dying for Comfort: Mankinds’ Descent into Climate Change → Continue reading
Posted in Public Policy
Tagged astro201, blog5, globalwarming
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Observing the Night Sky
The website Sky and Telescope is very cool! It shows an easy to understand layout of what planets, stars, etc. you will be viewing in the night sky and where they will be moving throughout the night and week. It also gives you categories of different celestial objects you can try to search for in … Continue reading Observing the Night Sky → Continue reading
Posted in General, Observables, Stars
Tagged astro201, blog2, Observation
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Wait, It’s How Big?
Most people are probably aware that our solar system is REALLY BIG. They probably also know that the Sun is much larger than anything else in the solar system. However, a number on the subject might surprise people: 99.8%. That’s how much of our solar system’s total mass is located in the Sun. All the […] Continue reading
Get Your Act Together, Venus
Our solar system is one of several patterns. Almost all objects orbit in the same direction, certain types of objects inhabit certain regions, and most objects have the same direction of rotation. I emphasize most. It turns out that we have a few planetary rebels in this regard, most striking among them being Venus. Venus […] Continue reading