Tag Archives: Solar System

Strange Light Found on Dwarf Planet Ceres?

Posted on January 23, 2015 by agiantchicken

Scientists claim to have spotted a strange bright light or object recently on the surface of Ceres, a dwarf planet and the largest object lying within the Asteroid Belt of our solar system. The following picture was taken of the planet as NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft flew in toward the object on January 13th. What is […] Continue reading →

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Planets bigger than Earth beyond Pluto?

Posted on January 17, 2015 by agiantchicken

Could it be possible that planets larger than the size of Earth lie beyond Pluto? According to researchers, the behavior of far-out celestial bodies far from the sun (such as Sedna and Pluto), seems to suggest so.  Such bodies, called “extreme trans-Neptunian objects” (or ETNO’s), should generally have an orbital distance of roughly 150 AU and […] Continue reading →

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Astrobiology and Cinema: The Europa Report

Posted on April 28, 2014 by forestcsharp

  Just last year, a film was released that questioned the viability of life on Jupiter’s moon Europa. Barring too many spoilers, the crew and their ship face several non-biological roadblocks on their quest for life in a film whose … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Looking Forward

Posted on April 27, 2014 by Chad F

This class has taught me to never doubt human innovation.  Man has been looking to the stars since the beginning and the milestones we have made over the centuries are astounding.  Ancient peoples figured out orbital speeds and distances of the planets by just observing the night sky, and nowadays, we have traversed open space […] Continue reading →

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The Solar System: An Overview

Posted on April 20, 2014 by hollyreichert

This year I learned details about the Solar System that I did not even know existed.  Before astronomy this year, I did not know about the Kuiper Belt.  I thought we only had the Asteroid Belt.  I knew that comets and asteroids were different– but I was not sure what the difference was.  Now I […] Continue reading →

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White Holes

Posted on April 9, 2014 by blakestar2k14

A white hole is a hypothetical region space time which cannot be entered from the outside.” The idea of a white hole is essentially that is the opposite of a black hole. A “worm hole” is the connection from black hole that consumes all matter around it, and send its through a warp in space […] Continue reading →

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Pluto’s moons

Posted on April 9, 2014 by blakestar2k14

There has been much debate on the status of Pluto’s classification. It is now believed to be a “dwarf planet”. One reason that people are challenging this is because of its existence of moons and a moon system. This picture from NASA shows the layout of Pluto and its surrounding bodies .  Source There are […] Continue reading →

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Rosetta’s Trajectory

Posted on April 9, 2014 by karapetros

This photo found on NASA’s Solar Exploration page diagrams the trajectory for the European Space Agency’s mission Rosetta’s exploration of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Launched in 2004, Rosetta has since flown-by Earth three times, Mars, and two asteroids, and is scheduled to arrive at the comet later this year.  It’s so how cool scientist are ale … Continue reading Rosetta’s Trajectory → Continue reading →

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“Games without rules have many possible outcomes.” – Andrew Knoll, Harvard

Posted on April 9, 2014 by juliamac17

On a slightly more positive note to my other post about my reservations to the search for extraterrestrial life, NASA has recently confirmed that Saturn’s moon, Enceladus has been hiding a Lake Superior-sized ocean. It was discovered using data gathered by the Cassini spacecraft, and while suspicions have been around for a while, it has […] Continue reading →

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What are we even looking for?

Posted on April 9, 2014 by juliamac17

So recently we’ve been looking at different planets. Some of the planets that we tend to find most interesting are those that we think could possibly support life. But instead of tackling the life question from an excited human standpoint, I’m looking at it in a slightly wary, totally suspicious one. What are we looking for? […] Continue reading →

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