Tag Archives: blog5

The Probability of Life “Out There”

Posted on March 16, 2014 by paanvaannd

  Is there other intelligent life in the universe? Mathematically speaking, there’s almost got to be some. In fact, it would be quite surprising to find out that there aren’t other intelligent life forms, let alone simple life. Life as we know it can exist in a plethora of places and environments on Earth itself, … Continue reading The Probability of Life “Out There” → Continue reading →

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Goodness Gracious, Great Balls of Fire

Posted on March 16, 2014 by colepospisil

The Sun is often referred to as a great big ball of burning gas, perhaps most famously by Pumbaa in Disney’s The Lion King. This is actually a misconception because the hydrogen in the Sun does not burn, but rather emits energy through the process of nuclear fusion. If the Sun was really burning, then […] Continue reading →

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Why is there water on the Earth?

Posted on March 16, 2014 by eschellhase

By the current model of solar system formation, the solar system formed according to what materials condense at which distances. Near the center of the solar system nothing could condense because it was so hot. It was also very dense there, and this was where the sun formed. Farther out from the center, rocky and […] Continue reading →

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The Prodigious Sun

Posted on March 16, 2014 by thegarrettnondorf

Is the Sun an efficient producer of energy via nuclear fusion? While humanity may be years away from commercializing nuclear fusion power, the Sun has been doing it for a while now (and for free!). The Sun is the most efficient generator of nuclear power in our solar system. Inside the Sun, nuclear reactions are … Continue reading The Prodigious Sun → Continue reading →

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Antimatter Spacecraft

Posted on March 15, 2014 by gradytlynch

Despite the incredible distance to neighboring stars, there are scientists working on spacecraft that can theoretically take us to these distant worlds. One of the most interesting spacecraft concepts for the future is an Antimatter Spacecraft. The fundamentals of this design are outlined in HowStuffWorks’ article, “How Antimatter Spacecraft Will Work”. The article first gives […] Continue reading →

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Solar Flares

Posted on March 14, 2014 by mariah0407

Learning about solar flares in class has been one of the most interesting things to me.  I think it is amazing how unpredictable they are and how they can affect of Earth.  It is fascinating to me to think about how a solar flare can wipe out our electronic systems.  Our book explains that the […] Continue reading →

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ESO Spots Largest Hypergiant Star

Posted on March 13, 2014 by waldentb

The European Southern Observatory has found a very large star and it is now one of the ten largest stars …

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Our Most Famous Dwarf Planet

Posted on March 12, 2014 by hollyreichert

Pluto was discovered on February 18, 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh.  However, decades earlier, Percival Lowell first thought that there may be another planet by Neptune and Uranus.  He died before he could find the planet and it wasn’t until years later that the search was set up again to find the planet.  The name Pluto […] Continue reading →

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Biggest Solar Flare of 2014

Posted on March 12, 2014 by philipapelles

In late February, the Sun let of the largest solar flare of the new year. Classified as a X4.9 solar flare, it was one of the strongest not only of this year but also in recent years. The flare was released with a huge coronal mass ejection ejecting clouds of electrons and atoms. X-class solar… Continue reading →

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Nontraditional Planets

Posted on March 12, 2014 by juliamac17

We’re learning about the formation of solar systems, however this is something we can’t observe since it happens over such a long period of time. And so to remedy our curiosity we have come up with models.These hypotheses in order to stand have to explain the various phenomena in the solar system while leaving room […] Continue reading →

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