Tag Archives: blog7

Stop! In the Name of…

Posted on April 10, 2016 by impossibleensign

Gravity? What causes Hot Jupiters to not be eaten by their parent stars? Continue reading →

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Extrasolar planets

Posted on April 10, 2016 by siyuan2016

image source In the class, we learn about the astrometric technique, Doppler technique and direct imaging used to detect extrasolar planets. And in this blog, I’d like to introduce some other planet-hunting strategies that have proved to be applicable. The first method is called gravitational microlensing. A gravitational microlensing occurs only when two stars are […] Continue reading →

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Extrasolar planets

Posted on April 10, 2016 by siyuan2016

image source In the class, we learn about the astrometric technique, Doppler technique and direct imaging used to detect extrasolar planets. And in this blog, I’d like to introduce some other planet-hunting strategies that have proved to be applicable. The first method is called gravitational microlensing. A gravitational microlensing occurs only when two stars are […] Continue reading →

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Halley’s Comet

Posted on April 10, 2016 by martisnv

Halley’s Comet is visible from Earth every 75-76 years. It is the only known short-period comet (a comet that has an orbital period of less than 200 years) that is visible to the naked eye. Halley most recently visited the inner parts … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Pluto – A Dwarf Planet

Posted on April 10, 2016 by podolakvandysolarsystem

Pluto is a Dwarf planet in the ring of objects beyond Neptune called the Kuiper Belt. Similar to other objects in the Kuiper Belt, Pluto is composed of rock and ice. Its orbital period is 248 Earth years, and has an inclined orbital path compared to all the planets whose paths lie in the ecliptic […] Continue reading →

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Creation of the Kuiper Belt

Posted on April 9, 2016 by OscarBen

Recently in class we’ve been talking about the outer portion of our Solar System. Beyond Neptune lies the Kuiper Belt, the disc-shaped region that begins at about 30 AUs and ends around 55 AUs. The Kuiper Belt is home to hundreds of thousands of icy bodies, an estimated trillion or more comets, and Pluto, according to… More Creation of the Kuiper Belt Continue reading →

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Volcanic Io

Posted on April 9, 2016 by lindseynestor

Volcanoes are one of the coolest geographical features of Earth (in my opinion), but volcanoes outside of our world are even cooler. Jupiter’s moon Io is the most volcanically active world in our solar system – in other words, it is FULL of volcanic awesome-ness. Io’s volcanic activity produces HUGE volcanic plumes. To give some […] Continue reading →

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A Dance to Remember

Posted on April 8, 2016 by Ahmed A

Twice now our class has been introduced to the Kepler Orrery IV model, and both times the question of why our solar system seems to be such an oddball has crossed my mind. Based on the Kepler Orrery IV model, planets much larger than Earth should  be orbiting closer than the orbit of Mercury. So […] Continue reading →

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A better understanding of our Universe… and maybe aliens

Posted on April 8, 2016 by philhawkins221

captain’s blog, Stardate 69734.8 In class, we’ve been talking a lot about extrasolar planets, that is, planets that have too many suns. But actually, extrasolar planets, or exoplanets are planets that exist outside our Solar System. Exoplanets are fascinating to learn about because, as much as I love our Solar System, it’s good to get away from […] Continue reading →

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“Hot” Jupiters

Posted on April 7, 2016 by sarabkeller

Last unit, we learned about the formation of our own solar system, in which small, rocky planets formed close to the Sun, and large, gas giants formed far from the Sun (past the frost line). This is due to the fact that during planetary formation, the area closest to the Sun was extremely hot, and […] Continue reading →

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