Tag Archives: astro201

Is Anybody Out There?

Posted on April 27, 2015 by michellelei

While eating lunch with some colleagues in 1950, Enrico Fermi made an innocent yet profound comment about life in the universe. As a well-known physicist, Fermi knew that the universe was old enough to possibly have other life present, especially within the Milky Way. If this was the case, there was an obvious question –… Continue reading Is Anybody Out There? Continue reading →

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Faster-than-light Travel

Posted on April 27, 2015 by robbyks

Many different propulsion methods have been proposed for interstellar travel. One of the most intriguing is hypothetical faster-than-light travel. Most sci-fi movies contain this in some form, whether it be the Millennium Falcon traveling through hyperspace or the Endurance traveling through a wormhole in Interstellar. A few different methods have been postulated for faster-than-light travel. […] Continue reading →

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Hubble Telescope’s 25th Birthday

Posted on April 26, 2015 by pgolemanska

On April 24th, 2015, Hubble celebrated its 25th anniversary. It celebrated its birthday by taking some amazing images of some giant star clusters. The image above is one of Westerlund 2 which is a giant cluster of stars and dust – a breeding area for new stars. The dust pillars are the main areas where […] Continue reading →

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Voyager 2

Posted on April 26, 2015 by pgolemanska

Today Voyager 1 was on Earth just 38 years and now it’s more than 130 AU away. It is venturing into deep space and exploring areas of the Universe that we have never seen before. On September 12, 2013, the spacecraft left the Solar System. The spacecraft is unique and fascinating in many ways. We […] Continue reading →

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My Cosmic Perspective

Posted on April 26, 2015 by oliviasn

Coming into this course, I was already very interested in astronomy. I have always loved looking at the stars, and I had my first formal experiences with astronomy in Astronomy 102: Stars and Galaxies and Astronomy Lab last semester. Thus, I was extremely excited to continue my study of astronomy. I have remained intrigued about […] Continue reading →

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The Golden Record

Posted on April 25, 2015 by oliviasn

Regardless of whether or not life beyond Earth actually does exist, it is fascinating to consider how extraterrestrial life might view Earth and Earthlings. Most of the time, people tend to focus on how humans on Earth would respond to aliens, should they come into contact, However, during lecture the other day, I was intrigued […] Continue reading →

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The Cosmic Web

Posted on April 24, 2015 by jamej00

Source: abovetopsecret.com This photo, based on our current models of the observable universe, shows our cosmos on the grandest scale that we can imagine.   Each dot is a cluster of galaxies, rich with stars and (probably) planets.  Every law of the universe has teamed up to produce this image: the laws of gravity, astrochemistry,… Continue reading →

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Earth’s Cousin

Posted on April 23, 2015 by jamej00

Source: slate.com This picture is an artist’s depiction of what the rocky planet Kepler-186f might look like.  On April 17, 2014 astronomer’s announced that they had found this planet using the transit method, making it the first confirmed earth-size exoplanet in the habitable zone!  There is no data yet on whether or not Kepler-186f has… Continue reading →

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Doctor Who is not COMPLETELY fictional

Posted on April 23, 2015 by karenagrebenc

Image from wikipedia.com This article covers arguably one of my favorite topics to swoon over-Doctor Who.  I will be completely honest in saying that my intense interest in studying the solar system and beyond came pretty much single-handedly from watching Doctor Who (and maybe a teensy bit by my mom making me watch old Star […] Continue reading →

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Some pretty extreme(“ophiles”)

Posted on April 23, 2015 by karenagrebenc

Image from wikipedia.com That above picture is of a water bear, one of multiple really cool extremophiles discussed in this article.  The article makes a really cool comment about how we are lucky that water bears, and the same probably holds true for other extremophiles as well, are so small.  Otherwise, it is likely that […] Continue reading →

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