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Tag Archives: astronomy
Powered and Unpowered Gravity Assists
The farthest planets in the solar system are so distant, it is infeasible to reach them using only rockets. The delta-v, or change in velocity, required to propel a spacecraft to a gas giant like Saturn is far too impractical for today’s rockets to achieve. The main problem is that a spacecraft needs tons of […] Continue reading
The Slingshot Maneuver
For any of you who have seen the movie adaption of, “A Wrinkle In Time” may remember the scene where two of the protagonists hide in a tree stump in order to be thrown over a wall. Meg, one of these protagonists, has parents who work in quantum theory, so she has picked up knowledge […] Continue reading
Historical Astronomers in Context: Kepler
Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer who was born on December 27 1571 and died 15th of November 1630. During Kepler’s lifetime, one major event was the Bohemian Revolt in 1618, kickstarted by the Third Defenestration of Prague, which launched the Holy Roman Empire into chaos and began the thirty years war. This war caused […] Continue reading
Scale and Travel Times
At this very moment, the Voyager 1 spacecraft is hurtling through space at about 61,500 km/h each and every hour, carrying it ever further from our Solar system which it left 18 years ago. But despite this staggering speed, it would still take Voyager more than 75,000 years to reach the nearest star, Alpha Centauri. […] Continue reading
We Were the Closest To the Moon than We Have Ever Been
As a child, I spent a considerable time looking at the Moon, and at one point, I may have even believed it was my friend. From the backseat of many late-night car rides, it “followed me”. In fact, during this period, my mornings consisted of watching Bear in the Big Blue House and the character […] Continue reading
Happy New Year!
Today marks the start of a new lunar year! There are several key differences between a solar new year and a lunar new year. The most common calendar system in the West, the Gregorian calendar, is based on the Earth’s orbit around the sun. Every New Year, the Earth is more or less in the […] Continue reading
“The Fault in Our Stars”
One of my favorite topics in science since I took AP Chemistry has been the concept of entropy. (So much so that I’ve adopted it as my internet pseudonym to allude to my tendency to catalyze social controversy wherever I go.) Entropy was the first abstract concept that I encountered; we didn’t have a perfect […] Continue reading
Welcome to “This isn’t Zenon”
Hi everyone! My name is Kayla and I would like to issue a warm welcome to my blog “This Isn’t Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century”. I am excited to share my thoughts and perspectives this semester. For those wondering, yes, the title of my blog is inspired by the movie, Zenon: Girl of the […] Continue reading
Posted in Class
Tagged astro2110, astronomy, Vanderbilt
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My newfound view of Astronomy and our Solar System
Throughout this semester, I have learned so many new and fascinating things about our solar system and astronomy as a whole. Whether it be learning more about the fathers of Astronomy such as Copernicus or Galileo or mind-boggling concepts such as gravity, I now understand that I have only scratched the surface of understanding the […] Continue reading
How the Moons Got Their Names
I think one of the most interesting things about the moons of our Solar System is their names. We have named planets after the Greek Roman gods, and most of their moons after characters from myths that relate to those…
Posted in Moons
Tagged astro2110, astronomy, blog6, Solar System
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