Tag Archives: blog4

Hearing the Universe

One of the most groundbreaking theories in astronomy has just been proven with the announcement last week that gravitational waves have been detected. Einstein had predicted these waves in 1916 in his theory of general relativity, and they were only just found today using lasers, which Einstein also laid the foundation for one year later in 1917. These […] Continue reading

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Planet IX

I have been fascinated by the possibility of a new ninth planet ever since I heard about it, so I thought I would use this blog to share some information on it. First, the discovery of it came, in many ways, from Pluto itself. Once astronomers discovered that there were other objects like Pluto (Kuiper […] Continue reading

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The Gravity Slingshot

Recently we discussed a maneuver called the gravity assist. NASA uses this technique frequently, most notably with the Voyager probe during flybys of Jupiter and Saturn. In simplest terms, a gravity assist changes a spacecraft’s velocity by going through a … Continue reading Continue reading

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Zero Gravity on Earth

OK Go, a band famous for their awesome music videos, just released the music video for their newest song. And the whole thing was filmed in zero gravity! However, the music video wasn’t filmed in space and the band wasn’t in orbit. So how did they achieve this feat? There are types of planes called … Continue reading Zero Gravity on Earth Continue reading

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The Sun and the Missing Neutrinos

First of all, what is a neutrino?  It’s an elementary particle, like an electron or a photon, but it hardly interacts with matter.  In fact, billions of neutrinos pass through you every second, but you don’t feel them.  This characteristic makes them hard to detect.  It’s no wonder that, in recent history, scientists thought some […] Continue reading

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What Happens in Space…

Unlike Vegas, the effects of your space trip come back to Earth with you. Continue reading

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What’s the deal with black holes?

(Artist’s depiction of a black hole “stealing” mass from a nearby star) What are black holes? Black holes are supermassive cosmic objects. They can be very large or as small as an atom. These atom-sized black holes are so massive that, if on Earth, they could have the same mass as a large mountain. Super […] Continue reading

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Growing up on the Moon

We talked a bit in class on Tuesday about what would happen to someone’s body if he were to spend too long in space. His bones would start deteriorating, his muscles would get weaker, and his body would produce less blood as he adjusts to zero G. I was reminded while we were talking about […] Continue reading

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Dark Matter

In honor of the pre-release of a song I wrote called “Dark Matter,” I wanted to do a post on the subject that inspired my song. The above picture is of the merging galaxy cluster Abell 520. This galaxy cluster formed from the collision of many massive galaxy clusters. The image shows dark matter, hot […] Continue reading

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Dark Matter

In honor of the pre-release of a song I wrote called “Dark Matter,” I wanted to do a post on the subject that inspired my song. The above picture is of the merging galaxy cluster Abell 520. This galaxy cluster formed from the collision of many massive galaxy clusters. The image shows dark matter, hot …

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