Tag Archives: planets

The Imaginary Planet

While the five planets visible to the naked eye have been known for almost all of astronomy’s history, it was not until the discovery of Uranus in 1781 by Sir William Herschel that astronomers began searching for other planets in our Solar System. After Neptune was discovered in 1846, astronomers began turning their telescopes towards […] Continue reading

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Acidophiles, pH, and life on Venus | blog VII

The pH scale is used to gauge the acidity and ranges from 0-14, with lower values being more acidic and higher values being more alkali. 7 is the neutral level between the two. Substances like battery or stomach acids have pHs around 0 or 1; water and blood are around 7, with drain cleaner or […] Continue reading

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Detecting Extrasolar Planets

Extrasolar planets can be difficult to detect because they are tiny, far away, and dim, but the Doppler Method provides an indirect way to find them. This method involves looking for alternating blueshifts and redshifts in the star’s spectrum, which reveal a star’s motion around its center of mass. This motion could reveal the presence […] Continue reading

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Curiosity Rover

The Curiosity Rover is located on Mars. This car-sized explorer, which is owned by NASA, is designed to investigate Mars climate and geology. It was launched on November 26, 2011 and landed on August 6, 2012. It has traveled over 16 miles exploring Mars and taking pictures for astronomers to study.  Its main goal is […] Continue reading

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Ceres

The most famous dwarf planet is Pluto but not many people know about Ceres. Ceres is located between Mars and Jupiter in the asteroid belt. There are many interesting facts surrounding this dwarf planet such as: it was the first asteroid to be discovered in 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi. Piazzi was an Italian astronomer and […] Continue reading

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Composition of Planets within the Solar System

Different elements were occupied in different planets within the solar system. Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars were terrestrial planets made of rocks, which were composed of diverse metal elements including magnesium and aluminum. Specifically, mercury obtained a thin exosphere of oxygen, sodium, hydrogen, helium, and potassium. Venus consisted of an iron core and a carbon-dioxide […] Continue reading

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Which Exoplanet Could Be Planet B?

The transit method has already been used to discover a few thousand exoplanets and continues to discover more through both old observations and current missions. With this method, the brightness levels of stars in other solar systems are measured. When the brightness dims, this is a sign that an extrasolar planet may have passed inContinue reading “Which Exoplanet Could Be Planet B?” Continue reading

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Makemake

Makemake was discovered in 2005 by Michael Brown, Chad Trujillo and David Rabinowitz. Makemake might be the most interesting dwarf planet with its cool name and special facts. Makemake is the second biggest dwarf planet and once it was discovered it led to the demise of the title of planet for Pluto. Because of MakemakeContinue reading “Makemake” Continue reading

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Wanderers of Space

In this post we will talk about the concept of retrograde motion. If you watch the movement of planets, it is actually quite complex. The word planet comes from a greek term meaning “wandering star”. Planets typically move eastward throughout the constellations. When there is apparent retrograde motion the planets are moving westward throughout theContinue reading “Wanderers of Space” Continue reading

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Gravity of a Mysterious Object

Credit: Caltech/R.Hurt (IPAC) We know that there are 8 planets in the Solar System. This is a fact. You would be crazy to think that there is a 9th planet out there orbiting beyond Pluto. After all, if there was a 9th planet, why haven’t we seen it yet? Well, meet Konstantin Batygin, a professorContinue reading “Gravity of a Mysterious Object” Continue reading

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