Tag Archives: blog8

The Revolutionary Model of the Solar System

We all know Galileo Galilei championed the heliocentric model of the universe that Copernicus first proposed, but his reasoning behind … More Continue reading

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12 Billion Miles Away and On Your TV

Ever wondered how a probe called Voyager managed to make it 12 billion miles away from this pale blue dot? … More Continue reading

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Space Piglets

I almost fell out of my seat when I flipped the page in Cosmic Perspective and saw the crunched, grumpy looking face of the tardigrade. It had to be an artist representation, I thought, for nothing (on this planet) could really look like that. I was, obviously, completely wrong. Not only are these tiny animals … More Space Piglets Continue reading

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Hexagon Jet Stream

If hurricane on Earth doesn’t sound horrendous enough for you, imagine the hurricane on planet Saturn! Located on 78 degree North, Saturn’s hexagonal hurricane took its place on the ten most fascinating astronomical facts. The sides of the hexagon length about 13,000km each, which is longer than the diameter of our planet Earth! Scary, isn’t… Continue reading Hexagon Jet Stream Continue reading

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Living the fast life: Kepler-70b

The Kepler spacecraft (which was feared lost earlier this week) has discovered a veritable treasure trove of exoplanets over its seven year mission. Some of these planets may even be habitable. Kepler-70b is decidedly not one of them. Kepler-70b is the closer of two terrestrial planets to KOI-55, a subdwarf star which was once a red giant. […] Continue reading

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The Largest Structure in the Universe

Through our studies of the solar system this semester, we have focused particularly on the scale of the universe. Throughout the cosmos, there are countless structures that are far more massive than any we perceive. Our galaxy is held together by gravity, forming a cluster. We can also observe clusters being held together by gravity […] Continue reading

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Speaking of Big Craters…

The Chicxulub crater is a crater buried underneath the Yucatan Peninsula which is suspected to be the location of the impact of the meteor which wiped out the dinosaurs. The crater is more than 180km in diameter and 20km in depth. Estimates place the size of the impacting meteor to be at least 10km in […] Continue reading

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Speaking of Big Craters…

The Chicxulub crater is a crater buried underneath the Yucatan Peninsula which is suspected to be the location of the impact of the meteor which wiped out the dinosaurs. The crater is more than 180km in diameter and 20km in depth. Estimates place the size of the impacting meteor to be at least 10km in […] Continue reading

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The Crab Nebula

When a star dies, it goes supernova and shoots everything that it was once made of across space. The explosion that formed the Crab Nebula was first documented by the Chinese in 1054 AD. Though, you didn’t need to be an astronomer to recognize the explosion or its resulting nebula. The Crab Nebula was visible for […] Continue reading

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To Infinity and Beyond! (Maybe)

NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope is how we have found many exoplanets and have hoped to find more, however, the universe may have other plans… Continue reading

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