Tag Archives: blog5

Coronal Mass Ejections and You

Posted on March 13, 2016 by astr2110geoffren

A coronal mass ejection (CME) is a massive outburst of Sun matter interweaved with magnetic field lines. This Sun matter basically consists of superheated particles accelerated at millions of miles per hour. This ejection isn’t self-contained, a lot of this stuff just goes shooting into space. This wouldn’t be so bad in of itself, except […] Continue reading →

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Climate Change

Posted on March 12, 2016 by Michaela Thomas

Climate change is unfortunately vastly overlooked as a serious threat to our species today. NASA itself has a detailed list on its website devoted to the current evidence of climate change. The list includes the following phenomena: Sea level rise Global temperature rise Warming oceans Shrinking ice sheets Declining Arctic sea ice Glacial retreat Extreme …

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Climate Change – A Political Battle

Posted on March 11, 2016 by martisnv

The Earth’s climate has undergone changes throughout its 4.5 billion year history. Most of these climate changes can be attributed to small variations in Earth’s orbit that affect the amount of solar energy that the planet receives. Recently, the Earth … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Nuclear Fusion: Our Potential Savior?

Posted on March 10, 2016 by paxtonastronomy

Nuclear fusion is what powers main sequence stars to shine so brightly and for so long. In the most basic sense, nuclear fusion is the process in which 2+ atomic nuclei crash together. When this occurs with nuclei of lower masses, energy is released. However, the process isn’t as simple as it sounds. An extreme […] Continue reading →

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Plate Tectonics on Mars?

Posted on March 10, 2016 by Chloe

Active tectonic activity, as opposed to past and currently extinct activity, was thought to be limited to Earth among the terrestrial worlds. Tectonic plates on Earth cause activity such as earthquakes and volcanoes as well as mountain-building as they move atop the asthenosphere and recycle geological materials. However, UCLA scientist An Yin discovered evidence of plate […] Continue reading →

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Olympus Mons

Posted on March 9, 2016 by alecsolarsystem

Mars is the home of the largest volcano in the Solar System: Olympus Mons. It stands 22km above the surface of Mars, and is it so wide it takes up an incredible 300,000 square kilometers of land. In comparison, Mt. Everest is only 8.8km tall, and Olympus Mons is approximately the size of Italy. As seen in […] Continue reading →

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Radioactivity and Practicality

Posted on March 8, 2016 by HB

Radioactivity has several negative associations: cancer, the atomic bomb, Chernobyl, etc. However, there are several practical uses for radioactivity across multiple disciplines. Agriculture: – Fertilizers are labeled with isotopes of nitrogen and phosphorous in order to figure out how much of the nutrients the plants take up and how much is lost to the environment … Continue reading Radioactivity and Practicality → Continue reading →

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Space: The Final Frontier…

Posted on March 8, 2016 by impossibleensign

These are the voyages of the space probe New Horizons . Its continuing mission: to explore strange dwarf planets, to seek out new objects and new data sets, to boldly go where no probe has gone before… Continue reading →

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Space: The Final Frontier…

Posted on March 8, 2016 by impossibleensign

These are the voyages of the space probe New Horizons . Its continuing mission: to explore strange dwarf planets, to seek out new objects and new data sets, to boldly go where no probe has gone before… Continue reading →

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Tennessee Tectonics

Posted on March 3, 2016 by hallesolar

Although Tennessee is in the middle of North America, we are still affected by tectonic activity. There are earthquakes in this region from time to time, thanks to the New Madrid Fault. This Tectonophysics article helps us understand why there are earthquakes in Tennessee. North America began to rift, or break apart, in the Late […] Continue reading →

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