Tag Archives: planets

Nashville’s “Snow Moon”

Posted on February 9, 2020 by jackfumagalli

On the evening of Saturday February 9th, the Nashville area saw an abnormally large moon known as a super-moon. This was also a special moon because it was also known as the “snow moon.” The “snow moon” is a full or new moon of astronomical and cultural significance around the globe. The super-moon phenomenon occursContinue reading “Nashville’s “Snow Moon”” Continue reading →

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Star Atlas

Posted on January 19, 2020 by jackfumagalli

This picture is a screenshot of the night sky view on January 19th, 2020 over Nashville through the lens of Star Atlas. Star Atlas is a website that allows anyone across the world to see the names and locations of various stars and planets they might see in the sky. In addition to a nightContinue reading “Star Atlas” Continue reading →

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Jovian Planets

Posted on March 12, 2019 by michaelfung1661

Jovian planets always interested me. The term “Jovian” is naturally everyone’s first guess – derived from the Latin root, Iovis, or Jovis. It’s a 3rd declension, genitive singular noun, so any classics nerds should know that it very specifically translates to OF Jupiter. I don’t know, I just find it interesting that an entire class … Continue reading Jovian Planets → Continue reading →

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Awesome Planetary Formation Videos

Posted on February 27, 2019 by drgrundstrom

I’d love to show you a whole bunch of videos that show planetary formation! Some showcase certain parts of formation better than others but they all are pretty awesome. Beginning of Solar System formation (from gas cloud to disk) from ESA (0:39) Why is the Solar System Flat? from Minute Physics (3:12) Planetary Formation – […] Continue reading →

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Grasping the Scale of the Solar System (with help from Josh Worth)

Posted on January 20, 2019 by jpeilbert

Have you ever wondered just how big the Solar System is? One helpful website to answer that question is Josh Worth’s “If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel” site. This beautiful website allows you to scroll through the Solar System, to-scale, as if the Moon were only 1 pixel (that is, teeny-tiny and barely visible … Continue reading Grasping the Scale of the Solar System (with help from Josh Worth) → Continue reading →

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Final Post (Reflection)

Posted on May 1, 2018 by alcottastr2110

The Observable Universe (Thus Far) I learned quite a bit this semester and it definitely changes the way in which I look at the universe. Coming into the course I could name the planets of our Solar System and that is about it, so I basically had no previous astronomical knowledge. For the most part … Continue reading Final Post (Reflection) → Continue reading →

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Extrasolar Planets and the Search for Life

Posted on April 9, 2018 by alcottastr2110

Kepler 22-b Extrasolar planets are planets that orbit a star other than our own. Being in another star system, these worlds are very hard to observe since they are so far away and the light they produce pales in comparison to that of the stars they orbit. Because of this, although their existence had already … Continue reading Extrasolar Planets and the Search for Life → Continue reading →

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The Peculiar Dwarf Planet: Haumea

Posted on April 7, 2018 by jonsastroblog

Haumea is a recently discovered dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt that has some very unique features. The first thing many people notice is that Haumea is shaped more like a football than a sphere. This is due to the fact that Haumea spins around its axis roughly every four hours. This extreme rotation causes … Continue reading The Peculiar Dwarf Planet: Haumea → Continue reading →

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Pluto Reclassified as Planet

Posted on April 2, 2018 by kyleweil

    History was made on Sunday, April 1, 2018, as the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has decided to reclassify Pluto as a planet. Pluto, discovered in 1930 as the ninth planet of the solar system, is a tiny world smaller than Earth’s moon. Pluto was stripped of its planetary status in 2006 and demoted […] Continue reading →

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We Are Not Alone. (Probably)

Posted on March 12, 2018 by kyleweil

    Life: one of the most unique, hard to find things in the universe. We have so much life on Earth, but it’s often something we take for granted. In the 200,000 years humans have existed on Earth, we have not found any evidence of life outside of our planet. Considering how vast and […] Continue reading →

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