Tag Archives: Solar System

And It All Leads Up To The Now

Posted on April 21, 2013 by wherrysg

This semester we have studied everything from the creation of the universe to black holes to microscopic bacteria living on the bottom of the ocean floor. The range of topics covered in this class has helped round my view of the beginnings of time up until now and clarified many common misconceptions ranging from tides […] Continue reading →

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A Changing Vision

Posted on April 19, 2013 by a2megal

In the news recently (back at the end of March), astronomers began to hypothesize (running simulations and doing extensive calculations) about what would happen if Comet 2013 A1 were to hit mars. Right now, this 1 to 3 km in diameter (the nucleus size) comet has a roughly 1 in 2000 chance of impacting Mars. […] Continue reading →

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Protoplanet Publicity

Posted on April 10, 2013 by burnspress

Scientists have located what they believe to be the first direct observation of a planet forming in its stellar womb of gas and dust. Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope, Sascha Quanz and an international team of scientists has been studying the young star HD 100546 and its surrounding gas. They were surprised when they spotted […] Continue reading →

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Social Astronomy!

Posted on April 10, 2013 by sharpew

I am always interested in new ways that information, ideas and stories can be shared or exchanged online. I love all forms of social media including blogs, tumblr, twitter, google plus, you name it. It always helps me learn a new concept if I have a variety of ways to interact with the subject, like […] Continue reading →

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Kepler 2.0 Looks for Earth 2.0

Posted on April 10, 2013 by sharpew

Within the last week, a new break through has been made in the search for extrasolar planets, or planets orbiting another star other than our Sun. As we’ve know, other stars, or other distant suns, hold the possibility of other solar systems. Ideally, these solar systems may contain another Earth-like planet, which could possibly lead […] Continue reading →

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A Comet Heads For Mars

Posted on April 10, 2013 by jacksonlangham

NASA has discovered that there is “small but non-negligible” chance that Comet 2013 A1 will strike Mars in October of 2014. The comet is between 1 to 3 kilometers in […] Continue reading →

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Drawing Closer to Discovering the Mysteries of Pluto

Posted on April 10, 2013 by AlanL

Right now Pluto is a very mysterious planet. No man-made object has flown by it and so there is not a lot of information on its global geology or chemical composition on the surface. In 2 years however, New Horizons will finally reach the dwarf planet and retrieve valuable data that astronomers have seeked for […] Continue reading →

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The Planet Formerly Known as Pluto

Posted on April 10, 2013 by marknshirleyvu

I remember that growing up, I was always told that there were 9 planets in our Solar System. I always found Pluto very interesting, and even more so now that it has been demoted from its planet status.  This article provides many entertaining facts about the famous dwarf planet, a few of which I found extremely […] Continue reading →

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Comets

Posted on April 10, 2013 by jhughes216

Near Earth Experience The snowballs of the universe, comets are amazing bodies of ice and rock orbiting a star from a great distance. In our own solar system, these balls of ice mostly inhabit an area known as the Oort Cloud. This outer region surrounds our solar system from all different directions. Because the cloud […] Continue reading →

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100,000 Stars

Posted on April 9, 2013 by kevinm387

Above is a video of an awesome website, 100,000 Stars. This website is an interactive, 3D map of the closest 100,000 stars to us. The video gives a little taste, but I encourage everyone to go to the site and explore for yourselves. Zooming in on our Solar System, you encounter the Oort Cloud first, […] Continue reading →

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