Tag Archives: Solar System

Asteroid, meteor, meteoroid, meteorite

Posted on April 16, 2022 by joubertklopper

These four terms are often misunderstood and the objects/occurrences they represent are thought of to be similar when in reality that is not the case. I am here to put these false assumptions about these misunderstood terms to rest. Looking at the definitions. An asteroid is a rock in space orbiting the sun, a meteoroid […] Continue reading →

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Pluto: dwarfPLANET

Posted on April 16, 2022 by joubertklopper

Growing up with Pluto being known as the ninth planet, I’m interested in Pluto, its uniqueness and why it was revoked of the prestigious planetary title. The discovery of other planetary objects in the outer solar system today known as dwarf planets made the switch of Pluto’s classification from a planet to a dwarf planet. […] Continue reading →

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Ceres

Posted on April 12, 2022 by Emily Bertram

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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The Oort Cloud

Posted on April 11, 2022 by Lindsey

The Oort cloud is located in the most distant part of our solar system. It is so far away that it is thought to be multiples times farther from the Sun than the outermost parts of the Kuiper Belt. One thing that makes the Oort Cloud unique is that the objects within it do not […] 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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Amateur Astronomer Discovers Jupiter’s 80th Moon

Posted on April 7, 2022 by gcomartin

Amateur Astronomer Kai Ly used images from the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope taken in 2003 to identify a previously undiscovered Satellite orbiting Jupiter, the first planetary moon discovered by an amateur astronomer. The telescope used was the 3.6 meter Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope located on Mauna Kea. Ly used an image captured in February 2003 to identify a set […] Continue reading →

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Cryovolcanoes on Pluto

Posted on April 6, 2022 by gcomartin

A recent discovery published by Nature Communications has revealed a series of ice volcanoes on the surface of Pluto. The images which lead to this discovery were captured by Nasa’s New Horizons in 2015, but it was only recently that scientists were able to identify specific peaks that they now believe are ice volcanoes, known […] Continue reading →

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Why Does The Moon Look Like It Does?

Posted on March 22, 2022 by McKenzieKing

In my previous blog post, I discussed the Giant Impact Hypothesis and how the Moon is thought to have been created. Now I want to talk about how the Moon came to look like it does. Just like every other…

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Cool Parts of the Atmosphere of Venus

Posted on March 22, 2022 by Charles Littleton

Composition of Venus’ Atmosphere 96.5% Carbon Dioxide 3.5% Nitrogen Venus lacks a magnetic field. Its ionosphere separates it from outer space and the sun’s wind. 4 Billion Years Ago it is assumed that the atmosphere of Venus was a lot like earth’s atmosphere. There could have been liquid water. The area 50-65 km above 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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