Tag Archives: astro201

The “Mars One” Project has 200,000 Applicants

Posted on March 13, 2014 by waldentb

Over 200,000 people have applied for a one way trip to Mars to live out their lives. Does this say …

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ESO Spots Largest Hypergiant Star

Posted on March 13, 2014 by waldentb

The European Southern Observatory has found a very large star and it is now one of the ten largest stars …

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Volcanoes on Venus

Posted on March 12, 2014 by hollyreichert

Venus is around the same size as Earth, and therefore has a similar interior makeup.  Earth has volcanoes and they are still erupting today.  On Venus, there are signs of volcanoes but a space probe has never seen a volcano erupt on the surface.  By measuring infrared levels on the surface, we can tell that […] Continue reading →

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Our Most Famous Dwarf Planet

Posted on March 12, 2014 by hollyreichert

Pluto was discovered on February 18, 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh.  However, decades earlier, Percival Lowell first thought that there may be another planet by Neptune and Uranus.  He died before he could find the planet and it wasn’t until years later that the search was set up again to find the planet.  The name Pluto […] Continue reading →

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Biggest Solar Flare of 2014

Posted on March 12, 2014 by philipapelles

In late February, the Sun let of the largest solar flare of the new year. Classified as a X4.9 solar flare, it was one of the strongest not only of this year but also in recent years. The flare was released with a huge coronal mass ejection ejecting clouds of electrons and atoms. X-class solar… Continue reading →

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Nontraditional Planets

Posted on March 12, 2014 by juliamac17

We’re learning about the formation of solar systems, however this is something we can’t observe since it happens over such a long period of time. And so to remedy our curiosity we have come up with models.These hypotheses in order to stand have to explain the various phenomena in the solar system while leaving room […] Continue reading →

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Is There Anybody Out There?

Posted on March 11, 2014 by jblubin

We have always asked the question, “Are we alone in the Universe?” Until now we firmly do not have an answer. But there is a little dreamer kid in all of us, including scientists. Which is why when NASA announced  it would be sending a probe to deep space, they decided to include a message … Continue reading Is There Anybody Out There? → Continue reading →

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Potentially Habitable Planets

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Chad F

Over the past few decades, we have discovered a number of planets outside of our solar system.  The majority of these planets are giants, but a certain few have some Earth-like characteristics.  For these Earth-like planets there is a ranking system to determine how similar they are to Earth.  In the image above, the top […] Continue reading →

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The Sun is Not On Fire

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Chad F

In the video above, it may seem that the sun is a boiling ball of fire.  Fires provide us light and heat similar to our sun, so it makes sense that people would think that the sun actually is a ball of fire.  However, fire requires a chemical to be burned.  The sun is made up […] Continue reading →

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Planet Earth in the Splash Zone

Posted on March 11, 2014 by jblubin

We often take for granted our Earthly paradise; with its warm temperatures and comforting blue skies, it’s easy to overlook the uniqueness that is Earth. This is even especially true when we consider the vast amount of liquid water on our planet. Water itself is not all that special, it can be found all over … Continue reading Planet Earth in the Splash Zone → Continue reading →

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