Tag Archives: blog1

The Speed of Light: Can We Go Faster?

Posted on January 19, 2020 by alexsolarsystem

The speed of light in a vacuum is around 300,000,000 meters per second (for those more accustomed to freedom units, that’s 186,282 miles per second). Thanks to Albert Einstein and many other prominent scientists, we believe that only massless particles like photons are able to achieve this speed. This implies that it’s theoretically impossible forContinue reading “The Speed of Light: Can We Go Faster?” Continue reading →

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The Cosmic Calendar

Posted on January 19, 2020 by emily

What is the Cosmic Calendar? Carl Sagan, a famous astronomer, promoted this idea of the cosmic calendar, that essentially is a tool used to help people visualize and understand how far apart events in the Universe are. Sagan has chronologically arranged the hallmark events of the Universe’s 13.8 billion year life span into just aContinue reading “The Cosmic Calendar” Continue reading →

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And We’re Off, To the Past

Posted on January 19, 2020 by Jonah

Growing up, I fantasized time travel and if it would ever be possible. I watched cartoons and movies that made time travel seem so real. Of course, I got a little older and realized physical time travel would be a thing of the distant future, if it ever comes to fruition. I let the fantasyContinue reading “And We’re Off, To the Past” Continue reading →

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At the Edge of Knowledge

Posted on January 19, 2020 by 2xchampions

Light is definitely the single most important measure for scientists to study our universe. Since universe first became transparent 380,000 years after the Big Bang, thanks to its incredible properties, light has enabled humans to learn a great deal about universe as far as 45 billion light-year away from earth. Therefore, it is crazy toContinue reading “At the Edge of Knowledge” Continue reading →

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Feeling Dizzy Yet? 💫

Posted on January 16, 2020 by vsli

This isn’t your everyday Milky Way time lapse video. This video, captured by Eric Brummel, is sky-stabilized with the Earth in view to show our planet’s daily rotations. It’s amazing, isn’t it? We don’t think about it often during our daily lives, but every single second, we’re moving vast distances across space. Your glass on … Continue reading Feeling Dizzy Yet? 💫 Continue reading →

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Earth’s Movements 101

Posted on January 14, 2020 by isaiahlwatson

We’re all just stardust. Literally… — Me. The motion of the Earth can be a complex concept to wrap your mind around. Why? Because Earth isn’t only moving in one way. Let’s start with the most simple and easy-to-understand of Earth’s motions- rotation. Earth is spinning constantly on its axis. In fact, it is spinningContinue reading “Earth’s Movements 101” Continue reading →

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An Introduction

Posted on January 13, 2020 by williamjturner

This post is intended to introduce readers to the blog and its author, Jesse Turner. My name is Jesse Turner and I am a senior at Vanderbilt University. I am originally from Nashville, TN, and my hometown links directly to my choice of image below. As a native Tennessean, my favorite football team is theContinue reading “An Introduction” Continue reading →

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Galactic jet lag

Posted on January 22, 2019 by peytonbrown4560

In class, we discussed the implications and mechanics of light travel time. A major takeaway was the concept that because of the incredibly fast yet undeniably limited speed of light we are able to see VERY distant objects as they were VERY long ago. If you are like me, you might try to see what … Continue reading Galactic jet lag Continue reading →

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Using Stellarium for observing

Posted on January 22, 2019 by justinrstevens

“Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope.” – Stellarium webpage   Stellarium is an amazing bit of software to use for help with astronomical observing.  It is free 🙂 and you can…

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Some Context…

Posted on January 22, 2019 by IanO12

I thought to start out the semester, I would look back and provide a little context for myself and everyone else as to how we as humans used to do astronomy. I learned some of the basics of the history of astronomy in a class called the Scientific Revolution. We discussed some of the big […] Continue reading →

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