Tag Archives: astro2110

Blog Post #3

The solar system began to form from a giant molecular cloud of gas and dust particles about 4.6 billion years ago. This cloud most likely experienced a shock wave from a nearby supernova, which could have made it collapse under its own gravity. It then began to spin and flatten into a disk shape due […] Continue reading

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Blog 3- The Sun and its Core!

As I was growing up, I never truly understood what the sun exactly was. I had understood that it emitted light and eventually I learned that it was basically a big ball of really really REALLY hot gasses. However I never understood the intricacies behind the Sun’s structure. The most interesting part of the sun’s […] Continue reading

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Understanding Auroras: The Physics of Earth’s Magnetic Light Shows

The Northern Lights The northern lights, or aurora borealis, is a display of natural light that occurs in the Earth’s sky. What you might not know is that there is another light show on Earth called aurora australis, which occurs in the southern hemisphere. So, what causes these natural and captivating lights? Solar winds are […] Continue reading

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Blog 3: Fusion

We hear it all the time: Fusion is the future; it’s how the sun creates energy. But, how does it work? At its core, fusion generates energy by converting four hydrogen atoms (protons) into 1 helium atom with two neutrons (Helium-4 ). On the surface, it is hard to see how any energy is created […] Continue reading

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Geology of Mars

Mars has a fascinating geology that is very comparable to Earth in many ways and also shows its very dynamic history. A well known geological feature on Mars is Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system, which stands at a height of approximately 16 miles and spans 374 miles in diameter. To compare, […] Continue reading

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Natural Ozone Formation

In the history of life on Earth, ozone has played an incredibly important role. For much of the early history of life, the atmosphere contained little oxygen, slowly being replaced by carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. It wasn’t until a critical mass of this CO2 was replaced that animal life could venture onto land. This is […] Continue reading

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The Role of Radioactive Decay in Earth’s Internal Heat

Image: Cross Section of Earth As we have learned, the cause of seasons is the directness of sunlight a particular region of the Earth receives. What you may not know is that the sun is not the only source that heats up the Earth. The Earth actually internally generates its own heat through radioactive decay. […] Continue reading

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Asteroid Mining

As we know, the Earth’s resources are finite. There are only so many materials and metals that we can extract from Earth before it runs out. To help combat this problem, a new solution was envisioned, asteroid mining. What asteroid mining would do is collect precious metals from asteroids near Earth. Some of these include […] Continue reading

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Why Stars?

Throughout history, many civilizations have been fascinated by the stars in the night sky. But the question is why. Why have many civilizations been fascinated by stars? What makes the night sky so attractive to humans? Why did they ascribe meaning to tiny dots that shone brightly, and seemed so far away? I present the […] Continue reading

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Nuclear Fusion

We know that the Sun is extremely hot. Its surface temperature is 5,500 K. Temperature is a measurement of energy. So, we know that the Sun possesses huge amounts of energy. Where does that energy come from? How does the Sun create that much energy? Through a process called nuclear fusion, the Sun manages to […] Continue reading

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