Tag Archives: Class

Would humans survive without Jupiter?

Posted on April 28, 2024 by katie shapiro

“Our solar system is a cosmic dance of planets, moving together in perfect harmony.”-Unknown At the beginning of this course I understood that the solar system had planets and other objects, such as asteroids and comets, but I believed that they all acted independently of each other, with the exception of gravity. In other words, […] Continue reading →

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Potential for Life on Europa

Posted on April 28, 2024 by katie shapiro

“Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.”-Arthur C. Clarke In order for their to be the possibility of life, there needs to be liquid water. That is why life is so successful here on Earth; we have an abundance of liquid water in the […] Continue reading →

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Differences Between the Oort Cloud and Kuiper Belt

Posted on April 5, 2024 by katie shapiro

There are as many comets in the sky as fishes in the ocean. -Johannes Kepler Going into this class I knew that comets came from the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud, however, I never put much thought into why comets are in these two areas. For some context, comets are considered “dirty snowballs” because […] Continue reading →

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Titan’s Tremendous Atmosphere and its Striking Similarity to Earth

Posted on April 5, 2024 by katie shapiro

One of the most fascinating things that I have learned from this unit was the diversity that are the jovian moons. Originally, I believed moons to be rocky, non geologically active objects that orbited planets. Although this is the case for some moons, especially the smaller ones, some moons hold very unique characteristics, such as […] Continue reading →

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Solar Flares and their Effect on Earth

Posted on February 29, 2024 by katie shapiro

~”All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them”~ Galileo Galilei In 1610, Galileo Galilei discovered sunspots on the sun in our solar system, showing that space was imperfect. However, little was known about these sun spots until the late 19th century. Astronomical researchers discovered that the sunspots […] Continue reading →

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The Cataclysmic Creation of Earth’s Moon

Posted on February 29, 2024 by katie shapiro

~”We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard” ~ John F. Kennedy Earth’s moon is a vital factor for life on our planet, and it plays a major role for tides and tilt. However, the origin of our […] Continue reading →

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Escape Velocity and Space Exploration

Posted on February 9, 2024 by katie shapiro

In our generation, space exploration has been an extremely valuable way to learn more about our solar system and our galaxy, the Milky Way. It is astounding that humans have been able to set foot on the moon, and that astronomical research centers have sent probes to a variety of astronomical objects within our galaxy, […] Continue reading →

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some final thoughts

Posted on April 27, 2023 by Emma Williams

When I started this class, I didn’t expect to find so many connections between astronomy and they other subjects I’m interested in! I am majoring in philosophy and political science, subjects that I believed to be totally independent from the physics and history of our universe. Thankfully, I was very wrong! I still am shocked […] Continue reading →

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the fermi paradox

Posted on April 27, 2023 by Emma Williams

Sir Arthur C. Clarke, a British science fiction author, said that “two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying”. And he was exactly right! The more that we learn about and explore the universe, the more we learn about the possibility of life out there, […] Continue reading →

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aurorae

Posted on April 7, 2023 by Emma Williams

The shimmering curtains of color that make up the Northern Lights are incredibly fascinating. For many (myself included), it is a life goal to get to witness this phenomenon in person. The name Aurora Borealis has its roots in classical mythology. Famous astronomer Galileo Galilei combined the Roman goddess of the dawn, Aurora, with the […] Continue reading →

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