Tag Archives: Solar System

Blog 5: Eris

Posted on April 17, 2022 by Charles Littleton

Eris is a trans-Neptunian object and is the second-largest dwarf planet in the solar system. It was discovered in 2005. It is .28 % the mass of Earth. Eris has one large moon, Dsymonia.It is about  96 AU away from the sun. Its orbital period is 559 Years. Its surface has methane ice. This shows […] Continue reading →

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Kepler-16b – The Existence of Tatooine

Posted on April 17, 2022 by jordanekstein

Kepler-16b was discovered when looking for exoplanets using the transit method from the Kepler mission of 2011. While looking at this data two stars were discovered to be in orbiting each other due to the dip in brightness of the system when they eclipsed. What was strange was even when they were not eclipsing each […] Continue reading →

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Jovian Layers

Posted on April 17, 2022 by solarelizabeth

The formation of our solar system helps explain the composition of the Jovian planets. Past the frost line, hydrogen compounds condensed into ices. The four jovian planets started as icy planetismals, but Jupiter and Saturn captured much more hydrogen and helium gas than Uranus and Neptune during solar system formation. This is probably because Jupiter […] Continue reading →

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Blog 6: Planet Nine

Posted on April 17, 2022 by Charles Littleton

Planet Nine is a hypothetical planet on the edge of the solar system. Its gravity would explain the weird orbit of objects beyond Neptune. It is predicted to be 5 times the size of Earth. It is assumed to be about 400- AU The Scientists who created this hypothesis believe that the star formed much […] Continue reading →

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The Artemis Moon Rocket (Post 6)

Posted on April 17, 2022 by ccatanese1

NASA has continued ground tests this week for the Artemis I mega moon rocket. The rocket encountered a hydrogen leak on Thursday so it seems like there is still some improvements that must be made until the rocket is ready to be launched. The Artemis mission manager said that all of the problems that the […] Continue reading →

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Planet 9 (Post 5)

Posted on April 17, 2022 by ccatanese1

The Kuiper Belt is a doughnut shaped group of ice, rock, comets, and dwarf planets, beyond Neptune. There have been discussion recently about whether there is a ninth planet within the Kuiper Belt. These discussions began back in 1846 after the discovery of Neptune, but they became more focused when it was discovered that the […] Continue reading →

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Blog #5: AR Aur b (protoplanet formation caught in action!)

Posted on April 17, 2022 by nadiamcglynn

As we have been able to look farther outside of our neighborhood of the solar system, our understanding of extrasolar planets and the formation of other planetary systems has had to undergo questions and testing to ensure that our hypothesis is reasonable. The surprising orbits of some extrasolar planets has caused some such questioning, such […] Continue reading →

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Enceladus: Alien Life in Our Own Solar System?

Posted on April 17, 2022 by Quint Gfroerer

Enceladus is an icy moon of Saturn, and is fairly small (or medium-sized, for a moon) with a diameter of about 500 km. For reference, the Moon has a diameter of about 3,475 km. Despite its size, however, Enceladus has been rated as among the most probable sources of life in our own solar system […] Continue reading →

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Asteroid Mining

Posted on April 17, 2022 by Johann West

Picture of Asteroid With the current rise of privatized space travel, one industry that may very well likely be popularized within our lifetimes is asteroid mining. However the initial investment cost of getting to a profitable asteroid will be enormous, the payoff of mining and bringing back the metals that these asteroids contain would be …

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Possibility of Life on Europa

Posted on April 16, 2022 by Johann West

Picture from European Space Agency As of now scientists believe there are three requirements for a planet to develop and sustain life. Liquid water, the appropriate chemical elements, and an energy source. Europa has more than enough water, as it is believed that below the roughly 15 miles of solid ice, lies twice as much …

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