Tag Archives: blog8

Neutrinos and Other Strange Things in Space

Posted on April 9, 2013 by mirandaskunz

An article on SPACE.com lists the “Top 10 Strangest Things in Space” including antimatter, exoplanets, quasars, and many others. I thought this list gave a very interesting overview (and cool pictures) of these more cutting-edge areas of astronomical research. It also explained why the existence of these things are significant. For example, galactic cannibalism may […] Continue reading →

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A Big Snack

Posted on April 9, 2013 by a2megal

The physics major in me has always been incredibly interested in black holes. We haven’t spoken about them much in this course, but there are likely black holes at the center of each galaxy, and thus studying black holes can tell us a lot about galaxies in other parts of the universe. For the first […] Continue reading →

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The toughest animal on the planet

Posted on April 9, 2013 by fathomingthestars

Most creatures require a specific set of conditions to survive: a certain amount of oxygen, temperature, pressure, food, etc.  However, some animals can live in conditions so extreme they kill almost everything else.  These animals are called, fittingly, extremophiles.  One extremophile is the tardigrade, more commonly called water bears or moss piglets. In general, tardigrades […] Continue reading →

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100,000 Stars

Posted on April 9, 2013 by kevinm387

Above is a video of an awesome website, 100,000 Stars. This website is an interactive, 3D map of the closest 100,000 stars to us. The video gives a little taste, but I encourage everyone to go to the site and explore for yourselves. Zooming in on our Solar System, you encounter the Oort Cloud first, […] Continue reading →

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Chemical Activity on Titan

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Will K

  Scientists at NASA now believe that Saturn’s moon Titan is much more chemically active than we previously thought. According to Astronomy Magazine, the found that the “complex organic chemistry that could eventually lead to the building blocks of life extends lower in the atmosphere than previously thought.” This is activity in the lower atmosphere […] Continue reading →

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The Galilean Moons of Jupiter

Posted on April 9, 2013 by staunesm

With the constant discovery of more and more objects in space, it is difficult to keep track of the planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and exosolar planets that we already know and love.  Therefore I am using this blog as an … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Creating Life

Posted on April 9, 2013 by charlesbcochran

You might think this is Earth, but this is something much more intriguing……… Many years from now, humanity will be threatened by a plethora of factors that will cause the inevitable. Humans will have to seek refuge somewhere other than … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Final Maven Instrument for Mars

Posted on April 8, 2013 by indianwm

The instrument above will be fitted on Mars Atmosphere and Volotile and Evolution spacecraft, or MAVEN. This instrument is a spectrometer for neutral gas and ion mass which will test the upper atmosphere of Mars. This instrument is important so we can understand the changes that have occurred within the upper atmosphere and analyze the […] Continue reading →

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Green Peas Shed Light On Universe Beginnings

Posted on April 7, 2013 by wherrysg

Image Source In 2007, astronomers made a discovery of what they called the Green Pea galaxies. These galaxies are those that are undergoing high rates of star formation and help us understand reionization–which is an extremely important process in the development of our universe. Reionization by definition is “the process that reionized matter in the […] Continue reading →

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Saturn’s Rings

Posted on April 7, 2013 by hannahladendorf13

     I think I speak for a lot of people (or maybe I don’t) but I honestly thought Saturn’s rings were legit rings, made up of a solid material that didn’t break and rotated around Saturn.   It is amazing … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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