Tag Archives: Solar System

Saturn and its Moons

Posted on April 3, 2017 by Haley's Comet

Saturn lays outside of the asteroid belt among the giant planets. With a total of 53 moons (or 62 pending a few new discoveries),  Saturn is a planet that yields a huge amount of force in the Solar System. The moons orbiting Saturn are all unique and have distinct features. Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, has an atmosphere… Continue reading Saturn and its Moons Continue reading →

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Birth of the Solar System

Posted on April 3, 2017 by vmorehead0

For about 4 billion years, Earth has rather peacefully orbited the Sun along with its seven  fellow planets.  While this may feel how it has always been, this was not the case.  The creation of our planet and Solar System involved intense, powerful forces at work.  The video clip from Stephen Hawking’s Into the Universe series, “Formation of … Continue reading Birth of the Solar System Continue reading →

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Hydrogen, Helium, and Everything Else

Posted on April 3, 2017 by kic27

Learn all of the elements! Continue reading →

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Ida and Dactyl

Posted on April 2, 2017 by Nick Belsten

243 Ida is a 56 km long asteroid orbiting in the main asteroid belt with a number of notable features. Ida is an S-type asteroid, or stony asteroid, and is mostly composed of rock and iron from accretion during early solar system formation. Ida was a subject of study by the Galileo spacecraft in 1993, … Continue reading Ida and Dactyl → Continue reading →

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Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9

Posted on April 2, 2017 by Nick Belsten

In 1994, one year after its discovery, the fragmented remains of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into Jupiter’s upper atmosphere in a sequence of 23 large impacts, each releasing the energy equivalent of 25,000 megatons of TNT, more than one million times as much energy as released by the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Orbital analysis … Continue reading Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 → Continue reading →

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Pluto is a Planet Again!

Posted on April 2, 2017 by brandonandthesolarsystem

April fools! I know I am a day late with this, but I was surprised to find that this was a common thread appearing on my Facebook feed over the weekend. As is common when “news” appears on social media, an “article” was being passed around that seemingly few people even bothered to read. Instead, the headline […] Continue reading →

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Nuclear Fusion Powering Earth

Posted on April 2, 2017 by astr2110tmcm

The core of the Sun is at such extreme temperature and pressure that in that core hydrogen atoms are constantly fusing into helium and giving off massive amounts of energy. The Sun fuses about 4.25 million metric tonnes of hydrogen every second, which provides a power generation of 3.8 x 10^26 watts. By contrast, the […] Continue reading →

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The Terrestrial Worlds

Posted on March 31, 2017 by jakesindelar

The planets of the Solar System dramatically vary from massive gaseous, ringed giants to miniature rocky terrestrials. The celestial bodies are also at such great distances that no map of our Solar System can truly illustrate both the distances and relative sizes to scale. The terrestrial planets are relatively similar in size and composition, but…Read more The Terrestrial Worlds Continue reading →

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Life: A Love Story

Posted on March 28, 2017 by brynnabhall

Sitting in my late-night astronomy lab last night, we watched a computer simulation (based completely on real, observed data) take us out as far into the universe as our understanding has gone. Starting in the Himalayas, Tibet, then Planet Earth, and rapidly, sooner than I thought possible, we were so far out of my realm … More Life: A Love Story Continue reading →

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Naming the Moons

Posted on March 27, 2017 by brynnabhall

For my mother’s 50th birthday, we bought her a star. Though arbitrary, I remember the immense amount of pressure that I felt when I was trying to give the star a name, knowing that (at least in our household) I was participating in the excavation of the final frontier, putting a little mark in my … More Naming the Moons Continue reading →

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