Tag Archives: astro201

DETECTING OXYGEN!

According to a New Scientist article from FEBRUARY 19TH, 2013, a new telescope in Chile might be able to detect oxygen on exoplanets (planets outside our solar system). This means that it would be able to detect alien life!! According to the article, our currently developed telescopes can identify the different elements of exoplanet’s atmospheres by studying the substances that absorb […] Continue reading

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Happy 540th Birthday Copernicus!

Today, February 19, happens to be Nicolaus Copernicus’s 540th birthday. Google honored him by making their icon a heliocentric model. I thought it was fitting to talk a little about his accomplishments. One of the most interesting facts about Copernicus was that he completed all of his observations with his naked eye. Copernicus was one […] Continue reading

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Who Needs Telescopes When You Have Dry-Cleaning Fluid?

Image Source For Raymond Davis Jr, this was a legitimate question that he proposed to the science community in the 1960s with his Homestake Experiment. This experiment was Davis’s quest to learn about neutrinos–a neutral subatomic particle with an almost-zero mass and that also rarely reacts with normal matter. According to this article, Davis’s research […] Continue reading

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A Young Black Hole?

As viewed from Earth, most black holes are about 17,000 to 21,000 years old. Recently, however, NASA scientists discovered what may be an infant black hole (pictured below). This black hole is only about 1,000 years old as seen from Earth and is located 26,000 light years away. It is left over from the supernova […] Continue reading

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A Young Black Hole?

As viewed from Earth, most black holes are about 17,000 to 21,000 years old. Recently, however, NASA scientists discovered what may be an infant black hole (pictured below). This black hole is only about 1,000 years old as seen from Earth and is located 26,000 light years away. It is left over from the supernova […] Continue reading

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Aliens Don’t Exist! Or Do they….

Image Source I’m sure at some point we have all considered the possibility of life on other planets. What would they look like? How would they communicate? How advanced or primitive would they be compared to us? And most importantly, where/what would they call home? Like many kids, I was one whose view of aliens […] Continue reading

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Galileo: A Man with No Last Name

I have always wondered why we always refer to Galileo by his first name. We don’t have Johannes’ laws of planetary motion or Albert’s theory of relativity, but Galileo Galilei is just Galileo. I remember learning in elementary school that people are referred to by their last names as a sign of respect. Certainly, the […] Continue reading

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A very ‘pINTERESTING’ blog post

After reading about all the various forms of social media, apps, etc that involve astronomy, I wanted to write about another really awesome incorporation of astronomy into our online resources.. Pintrest! I use Pintrest to gather, sort and categorize a wide variety of ideas, including DIY crafts, style, recipes  home decor, fitness tips, etc. For anyone […] Continue reading

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The Mystery of Saturn’s Moonlets

Research done by Loughborough University physicists has recently led to new a understanding  of the formation of moonlets (small natural satellites) in Saturn’s F Ring. Previously, it was believed that strong tidal forces from Saturn and its other rings and moons would keep the moonlets from clumping. They’ve now discovered the moon Prometheus has a […] Continue reading

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The Doppler Effect

The Doppler effect is pretty amazing, in part because it both contradicts what one would naturally think and yet still makes perfect sense when you take the time to think about how we visualize the world. I say this because if you had never heard of the Doppler effect before, you would probably call me […] Continue reading

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