Tag Archives: Moon

Happy New Year!

Posted on January 22, 2023 by Trevor Pillow

Today marks the start of a new lunar year! There are several key differences between a solar new year and a lunar new year. The most common calendar system in the West, the Gregorian calendar, is based on the Earth’s orbit around the sun. Every New Year, the Earth is more or less in the […] Continue reading →

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Tidal Locking

Posted on January 22, 2023 by aaronxu041009

Earth’s Moon is in a synchronous orbit, meaning that people on Earth can only see the near side of the Moon. But what keeps the Moon locked in this synchronous orbit? The answer is tidal locking. Early in the history of the Solar System, a Mars-sized object collided with prehistoric Earth, and the debris from […] Continue reading →

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The Upcoming Total Solar Eclipse

Posted on January 20, 2023 by sydneyastr2110

One year, two months, and eighteen days: this is the time from the writing of this blog until a total solar eclipse will occur in North America. I’ll save you from doing the math, the date of this solar eclipse is April 8, 2024. The sky along the path of totality will become dark for […] Continue reading →

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Updates on a few cool things we talked about in our first class

Posted on January 11, 2023 by drgrundstrom

People seeing an astroid hit the Moon! This is an article from a pretty cool (and legit) astronomer – Dr. Phil Plait. An asteroid impacted the moon during the lunar eclipse! Europa’s colorful cracks maybe tholins but totally maybe aren’t! I liked this article by a non-scientist – it’s well-written and researched (and they make […] Continue reading →

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The Artemis Moon Rocket (Post 6)

Posted on April 17, 2022 by ccatanese1

NASA has continued ground tests this week for the Artemis I mega moon rocket. The rocket encountered a hydrogen leak on Thursday so it seems like there is still some improvements that must be made until the rocket is ready to be launched. The Artemis mission manager said that all of the problems that the […] Continue reading →

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Life Among the Rings

Posted on April 7, 2022 by isaiandrade01

Perhaps one of the best chances of finding life on another world in our solar system, one of Saturn’s moons, Enceladus, is a world of great interest. Although considerably smaller than our own Moon, Enceladus is a small world composed of a top layer of ice, which is on average 20 km thick across the […] Continue reading →

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What was Theia?

Posted on March 22, 2022 by Charles Littleton

Theia was about the size of Mars. It orbited with Earth.  It crashed into the Earth and the debris helped create the moon. The core of Theia combined with the core of Earth. Scientists disagree on this and some believe that it formed into multiple moons. It is hypothesized to have orbited in the L4 […] Continue reading →

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The moon’s origin

Posted on March 21, 2022 by joubertklopper

Earth’s moon is unique for several reasons. Earth’s moon relevant to its planet’s size, Earth is the largest in our solar system and that fact has drawn my curiosity to the subject of the moon’s origins and what makes it so unique. It is speculated that the moon originated when another terrestrial planet, Theia crashed […] Continue reading →

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Theories of Moon Formation

Posted on March 19, 2022 by evang914

In class we discussed one potential theory of the moon’s formation that is the favorite within the scientific community: the giant impact hypothesis. The theory states that a Mars-sized body (Theia) crashed into the Earth ejecting pieces of a young Earth’s rocky crust into space. Gravity from the remainder of Theia’s core drew these particlesContinue reading “Theories of Moon Formation” Continue reading →

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What makes the Tides happen?

Posted on February 17, 2022 by Johann West

This blog will be referencing information sourced from the Tides: Crash Course Astronomy #8 video. We know that mass has gravity, and more mass had more gravity. This raises the question, why does the moon have a greater impact on the Earth’s tides than the Sun, even though the Sun has such a greater gravitational …

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