Tag Archives: astro2110

The Ultimate Thrillseekers

Extremophiles, as their names insinuate, are capable of withstanding extreme conditions that would kill any other organism. The tardigrade, informally known as the “water bear”, is the most well known of these and can comfortably reside in ludicrous environments despite barely being any bigger than a millimeter. So how does this pertain to astronomy? Well, […] Continue reading

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Fermi Paradox

Paradoxes are always interesting to contemplate, and the Fermi paradox is no different. First proposed by Enrico Fermi (above) the Fermi paradox in a nutshell is if the scale and probability of our universe favors intelligent life developing elsewhere, then why have we not found any evidence of that life. This paradox sparked Frank Drake […] Continue reading

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Drake vs Seager Equation

The Drake Equation is The Seager Equation is Dr. Drake formulated his equation a century ago (in 1951) whereas Seager formulated hers approximately a decade (the interview was taken in 2013). As we can see, there are wild differences between the two equations. Seager’s equation only deals with all the stars that we’ve observed, which […] Continue reading

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Project Orion

Due to the vast distance between stellar systems, a spacecraft traveling beyond our Solar System and into a different star system must reach speeds close to the speed of the light. Project Orion was a theoretical design from the late 1950s and early 1960s that proposed using nuclear explosions for propulsion. The basic idea was […] Continue reading

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Would humans survive without Jupiter?

“Our solar system is a cosmic dance of planets, moving together in perfect harmony.”-Unknown At the beginning of this course I understood that the solar system had planets and other objects, such as asteroids and comets, but I believed that they all acted independently of each other, with the exception of gravity. In other words, […] Continue reading

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Potential for Life on Europa

“Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.”-Arthur C. Clarke In order for their to be the possibility of life, there needs to be liquid water. That is why life is so successful here on Earth; we have an abundance of liquid water in the […] Continue reading

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Blog 8 – Culmination

Throughout this class, I have learned so much about astronomy and the universe that we are just a minuscule part of. Everything from how we detect far-away planets through spectroscopy to estimating how big of a crater a meteorite may make has led me to become more curious about Astronomy. My favorite part of it […] Continue reading

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Blog Post 8 – How Tyson Saved Astronomy

Atlanta Magazine By pure coincidence, in 1958, Neil Degrasse Tyson was born into a small family in the Bronx the same exact week that NASA was founded. At the time, nobody, not even Tyson himself, had any idea the impact he would have on NASA’s field of study. At 9 years old, Tyson made his […] Continue reading

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Blog Post 7 – Extremophiles

News Medical Life Sciences In the most unsought after pockets of our planet, in places once believed to be impossible to sustain life, exist organisms that not only can survive in these places but thrive under these conditions as well. These impressive organisms are known as extremophiles. The existence of extremophiles challenges everything that we […] Continue reading

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Blog 7 – Extremeophiles on Mars?!

Unfortunately, life on other planets has not yet been found but astronomers and astrobiologists are constantly working to find any signs of it in our solar system and beyond. One of the most investigated worlds is our neighbor, Mars. While evidence has not yet been found, there have been discoveries that lead some to believe […] Continue reading

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