Tag Archives: blog4

Starship: The Future of Space Travel?

Starship. There is a good chance you may have heard of Elon Musk’s space company SpaceX and the immense progress they have made in the rocket industry, completely obliterating the competition when it comes to number of launches per year. But have you heard of SpaceX’s newest triumph with their rocket, Starship? Starship is the […] Continue reading

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The James Webb Space Telescope: A New Window on the Universe

JWST The James Webb Space Telescope is a telescope made to look deep into space. It is the largest telescope in space ever built. The telescope was launched into space during 2021. Due to its infrared strength it can see distant objects that light telescopes can’t. JWST was able to study the formations of galaxies […] Continue reading

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To Date Ancient Rocks and Artifacts

How do scientists know how old Earth and its rocks are? Modern humans have existed for “only” about 200,000 years, and modern science has existed for only a few hundred years (heck, how do we even know how long we as a species have existed?). So, how do scientists today know how old rocks are? […] Continue reading

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Why Two Types of Planets?

FIGURE 8.5 from The Cosmic Perspective (taken from Quizlet) When looking at a diagram of our solar system, one likely notices that there are two visually distinct categories of planets. The smaller, rocky planets—Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars—are known as the terrestrial (Earth-like) planets, and the larger, more gaseous planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—are known […] Continue reading

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Blog #4 – Pluto: Is it a planet?

Pluto is most known for its famous debate: Is it a planet or not? As of 2006, Pluto is known as Dwarf Planet. A Dwarf Planet is a celestial body that orbits the Sun just like a regular planet; however a dwarf planet lacks a clear orbital path, sharing it with other objects. Pluto’s size […] Continue reading

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Radioactivity is all around us

We have learned about radioactivity in class, and we hear about it in the news, but many do not have direct experience with radiation. It is a scary word that elicits a lot of fear in most; for example, concerns about safety have stopped nuclear power from gaining dominance despite otherwise being a superior source […] Continue reading

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The Moons of Saturn

In total, Saturn has a total of 146 moons! The most out of any planet in our solar system. These moons vary significantly in terms of terrain and position around Saturn. Some hold huge oceans and some are rocky worlds that seem to be out of Star Wars. There’s also a few moons that are […] Continue reading

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The Asteroid Belt

Asteroids are a really interesting part of the solar system, but is strangely absent from most models of the solar system. So what exactly is the Asteroid Belt? Diagram of The Asteroid Belt The Asteroid Belt is a ring of asteroids between Mars and Jupiter and is made up of millions of them. They vary […] Continue reading

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The Potential for Nuclear Fusion on Earth

Stars like the Sun have been powering themselves through the use of nuclear fusion for billions of years, and the Sun is expected to be powered for billions more before it runs out of its source of hydrogen fuel through the proton-proton chain. As outlined on my previous blog post, one second of energy created […] Continue reading

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Blog 04 – Proxima b

The closest star system to Earth is Alpha Centauri, a three-star system. A planet, Proxima b, approximately 1.3 times the mass of ours orbits off the smallest star, Proxima Centauri. This planet orbits its star even closer than Mercury does the Sun and only takes 11 days to complete a single one! Despite this, Proxima […] Continue reading

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