Tag Archives: blog4

Blog #4

Posted on February 16, 2016 by astronomer0110

A topic I’ve always found interesting is the idea of the likelihood of extraterrestrial life in the universe. Many scientists in recent history have noted that there is an extremely high probability of life elsewhere in the universe due to the immense amount of stars and planets that must exist with favorable circumstances for the […] Continue reading →

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Gravity is Working Against Me

Posted on February 16, 2016 by Sofia

  Gravity is arguably the most important aspect of our study of the universe and our solar system. Isaac Newton, famous for his three laws of motion, determined that the force of gravity could be expressed mathematically. This led him to create his universal law of gravitation. His law contains three key statements about the … Continue reading “Gravity is Working Against Me” Continue reading →

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The Martian — Could It Really Happen?

Posted on February 16, 2016 by clharrell

Matt Damon’s critically acclaimed film “The Martian” broke records and set a new standard for space exploration movies. The film was even praised for its scientific accuracy by Neil DeGrasse Tyson. While most of what occurs in the film is theoretically possible, a few things stand out to be implausible. The first question I had when […] Continue reading →

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Gravity Waves and the Graviton

Posted on February 16, 2016 by 2016spaceodyssey

So physicists have recently announced the discovery of Gravitational Waves, but what does that mean for the Graviton?  Similar to how protons and electrons carry electrical charge, it is theorized that the Graviton carries, you guessed it, gravity.  Because it is a subatomic particle it is more of a focus for particle physicists than for […] Continue reading →

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Stonehenge

Posted on February 16, 2016 by Chloe

Stonehenge. Photographer: Howard Ignatius.  Stonehenge of southern England is one of the most famous Neolithic structures and burial grounds in the world. Construction on Stonehenge started in 5,000 BCE and continued for 1,500 years.  Its eerily arranged stones, transported from up to two hundred miles away from the site, are an iconic draw for the […] Continue reading →

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Space Vacation?

Posted on February 16, 2016 by segalastronomyblog

Forget about Florida. Have you ever considered vacationing in space? Thanks to Virgin Galactic, we are getting closer and closer to this possibility. Last year, Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo crashed in the southwest desert, killing a pilot and completely destroying the aircraft. However, Virgin is getting ready to launch a second SpaceShipTwo this month in Mojave, […] Continue reading →

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Shout-out to all the Astronomy Ladies

Posted on February 16, 2016 by Alex Pratte

In a lot of professions today it seems like the ladies are under appreciated, so for my fourth blog I thought it would be nice to give some credit to a couple of smart lady astronomers that paved the way for women in the sciences. As I learned in a really cool BBC article that […] Continue reading →

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Voyager 2 & Planetary Assists

Posted on February 16, 2016 by mattsastronomyblog

When an object is trying to leave a planet, it must reach escape velocity.  The escape velocity is the speed at which the kinetic energy of the moving body is equal to its gravitational potential energy.  The escape velocity from earth is about 25,000 mph.  So when the Voyager 2 left earth, it had to reach […] Continue reading →

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Where is Everybody?

Posted on February 15, 2016 by astr2110geoffren

The Fermi Paradox questions how is it possible that if there are so many planets orbiting so many stars existing in so many solar systems making up so many galaxies composing so many superclusters creating our observable universe, how is it possible that we haven’t seen any other signs of intelligent life? This has many […] Continue reading →

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Blog #4 Spacecraft and “Gold Foil”

Posted on February 15, 2016 by seanmcsolsys

If you’ve ever seen pictures of satellites being prepped in clean rooms, you’ve probably seen the immense amounts of gold foil covering the crafts. You might think the foil’s purpose is to keep the probe clean until launch, or that gold’s conductive and malleable properties aid the function of the vehicle. For space travel, it’s neither. […] Continue reading →

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