Tag Archives: solarsystem

Blog 03 – Forming the Solar System

The current idea of the solar system’s formation is the nebular theory, which states that it occurs in a five-stage process. First, there is the shock of a gas cloud called a supernova which causes the cloud to collapse. Next, gravity causes the heating, flattening, and spinning. It changed the shape and temperature of the […] Continue reading

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Would humans survive without Jupiter?

“Our solar system is a cosmic dance of planets, moving together in perfect harmony.”-Unknown At the beginning of this course I understood that the solar system had planets and other objects, such as asteroids and comets, but I believed that they all acted independently of each other, with the exception of gravity. In other words, […] Continue reading

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Potential for Life on Europa

“Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.”-Arthur C. Clarke In order for their to be the possibility of life, there needs to be liquid water. That is why life is so successful here on Earth; we have an abundance of liquid water in the […] Continue reading

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Differences Between the Oort Cloud and Kuiper Belt

There are as many comets in the sky as fishes in the ocean. -Johannes Kepler Going into this class I knew that comets came from the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud, however, I never put much thought into why comets are in these two areas. For some context, comets are considered “dirty snowballs” because […] Continue reading

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Solar Flares and their Effect on Earth

~”All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them”~ Galileo Galilei In 1610, Galileo Galilei discovered sunspots on the sun in our solar system, showing that space was imperfect. However, little was known about these sun spots until the late 19th century. Astronomical researchers discovered that the sunspots […] Continue reading

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The Cataclysmic Creation of Earth’s Moon

~”We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard” ~ John F. Kennedy Earth’s moon is a vital factor for life on our planet, and it plays a major role for tides and tilt. However, the origin of our […] Continue reading

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comets

The terms ‘asteroid’ and ‘comet’ are often used interchangeably, but in reality there are important differences between the two! The primary difference is in their composition; asteroids are rocky because they formed in the inner Solar System, and comets are more icy because they formed beyond the frost line! Comets are visible every few years […] Continue reading

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Born from the Stars

It may be hard to believe, but in all technicality, everything in the solar system, including humans, are born from star dust. Let’s start at the beginning, at the big bang. The matter released from the big bang made up the first generation of stars, only containing the elements hydrogen and helium. Eventually, when the …

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