Tag Archives: Solar System

Gravity Waves

Posted on March 11, 2019 by Jonathan Roberts

Venus is the unfortunate victim of a runaway greenhouse effect. Not only does this make the planet uninhabitable, it also causes a tremendous degree of difficulty in observing the planet’s surface. However, there are many interesting things to gain from Venus by just looking at the atmosphere, including a massive gravity wave. Gravity waves in … Continue reading Gravity Waves → Continue reading →

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Blog 3: Auroras in the Southern United States

Posted on March 10, 2019 by Katie

On November 20, 2003 Auroras were seen in the southern United States. This is not a normal occurrence as is likely obvious to most of you. Auroras, or the Northern Lights, are caused by charged particles from the sun spiraling around the earth’s magnetic field and hitting the atmosphere. The magnetic field lines of the … Continue reading Blog 3: Auroras in the Southern United States → Continue reading →

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Songs of Space

Posted on March 9, 2019 by epiphany9

Recently I’ve been collecting space-themed songs (for a McTyeire Hall event called the Galaxy Gala!), and then I thought of something I’ve heard of before: sounds coming from space! Because space is a vacuum, sound waves cannot travel through it. However, many objects within the Solar System do emit radio waves, and NASA scientists have […] Continue reading →

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NASA’s Mars 2020 Mission

Posted on March 9, 2019 by kylebward

In 2020, sometime from July 17th to August 5th during the rover’s launch window, NASA will send a rover to Mars to try to answer a question being asked for over a century: was there life on Mars? The objective of the Mars 2020 Mission is to search for signs of previous microbial life as … Continue reading NASA’s Mars 2020 Mission → Continue reading →

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Is There Life on Mars?

Posted on March 8, 2019 by epiphany9

Mars, our red-tinted planetary neighbor, has long attracted human curiosity. Due to its unusual color, it was named after the Roman god of war. Although it is so much smaller than our planet (only about half Earth’s diameter and one-tenth its mass), it shares certain Earth-like features, particularly volcanoes and a great canyon. These structures, […] Continue reading →

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The Star-Crossed Fates of Phobos and Deimos

Posted on March 5, 2019 by chiefkeith7

The planet Mars was named after Mars, who to the Romans was the God of War. Its two moons, Phobos and Deimos, carry the names of the Greek Gods of fear (from which we get phobia) and terror, respectively. However, despite the naming scheme that seems to be inspired by Death Metal, Phobos and Deimos … Continue reading The Star-Crossed Fates of Phobos and Deimos → Continue reading →

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Venera, or the Soviets’ many attempts to reach Venus

Posted on March 5, 2019 by chiefkeith7

Despite being the sister planet of Earth, Venus is far from hospitable. Very far. Its atmospheric pressure at the surface is 92 times that of Earth’s, has an average surface temperature of 863 degrees Fahrenheit, and at higher latitudes sulphuric acid rains onto the surface. So what better force could there be to attempt to … Continue reading Venera, or the Soviets’ many attempts to reach Venus → Continue reading →

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Moving in Circles: Apparent Retrograde Motion

Posted on February 12, 2019 by Sam Bianco

Over a single night, the planets behave much like the stars; they appear to rise in the east and set in the west. However, over the course of many nights, one will recognize that the movement of planets among the stars is quite intricate. The speeds and brightnesses of the planets fluctuate significantly, and while … Continue reading Moving in Circles: Apparent Retrograde Motion → Continue reading →

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Blog 2: When is the Best Time to Surf?

Posted on February 10, 2019 by kylebward

When’s the right time grab your surfboard and hit the beach? High tides cause closeouts, which blocks a surfer’s path, and low tides cause slow-rolling waves, which are low frequency and high amplitude waves. Ideally, you want to surf during mid tide conditions. But first, what causes these changes in tide? Tides are caused by … Continue reading Blog 2: When is the Best Time to Surf? → Continue reading →

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Our Earth, the Spinning Top?

Posted on January 21, 2019 by Sam Bianco

What if I told you that in a couple thousand years from now, your Zodiac sign would no longer be your Zodiac sign? It may be devastating to devout followers of astrology, but the relative positions of the Zodiac constellations are changing very, very slowly, at least from our viewpoint. This is due to a … Continue reading Our Earth, the Spinning Top? → Continue reading →

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