Category Archives: Instruments

includes telescopes and space probes

First Super-Earth Exoplanet with Atmosphere Discovered

Posted on April 27, 2017 by njelinek425

Earlier this month, scientists discovered the existence of an atmosphere on an exoplanet much like Earth, making this the first Earth-like exoplanet with atmosphere to have been detected aside from earth itself. The planet is named GJ 1132b, located in the constellation Vela as a planet of the low-mass star GJ 1132. The planet is […] Continue reading →

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Europa Clipper

Posted on April 24, 2017 by pkunetz97

In the not too distant future, NASA will be sending a probe to one of Jupiter’s moons. I’m sure you can guess from the title of this blog post that the probe will be sent to Europa. Recently, NASA announced the name of this mission: Europa Clipper. It is named after clippers, swift ships that […] Continue reading →

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12 Billion Miles Away and On Your TV

Posted on April 23, 2017 by Natalie

Ever wondered how a probe called Voyager managed to make it 12 billion miles away from this pale blue dot? … More Continue reading →

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Blog #5

Posted on April 4, 2017 by niharikadar

An Overview of the New Horizons Mission The Kuiper Belt is a very fascinating region of our solar system consisting largely of icy bodies and comets. Thus, there is a lot of really interesting research aiming to better understand the Belt itself and the objects that call it home. One NASA initiative in this regard is … Continue reading Blog #5 Continue reading →

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Blog #4

Posted on April 4, 2017 by niharikadar

Image of SAGE III Climate change is an oft-mentioned topic in a diverse range of conversations including those within the scientific community and increasingly in the political sphere as well. Despite a lot of ongoing talk about climate change, I think that many ordinary citizens, including myself, don’t have a good grasp of the science … Continue reading Blog #4 Continue reading →

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Rosetta and Philae

Posted on April 3, 2017 by Natalie

In March of 2004, two friends went ont he adventure of a lifetime. These two friends were the Rosetta space … More Continue reading →

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The Voyager Golden Record

Posted on March 29, 2017 by pkunetz97

  The Voyager Golden Record was a disc of sounds and images included with both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, both designed to study Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 2 went on to study Uranus and Neptune, and is the only spacecraft to have visited them. However, these spacecraft are still gathering and emitting data even […] Continue reading →

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Blog 2: Celestial Navigation

Posted on February 15, 2017 by mchastr2110

Even though astronomers use scales such as arcseconds and arcminutes to measure certain distances between stars, the main tool of celestial navigation, the sextant, is only able to measure arcminutes. The sextant uses reflection in order to find the angle of celestial objects. Traditionally, the sextant has two mirrors. The horizon mirror is stationary and … Continue reading Blog 2: Celestial Navigation Continue reading →

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Rogue Radio Burst Leads to Discovery of Billion-Year-Old Galaxy

Posted on February 14, 2017 by njelinek425

The detection of fast radio bursts, one of the universe’s most mysterious and rare occurrences, took place in early January of this year when signals from a dwarf galaxy over 2.5 billion light years away were first recorded. Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are an incredibly rare phenomenon usually occurring in a millisecond or so, each […] Continue reading →

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The Invention of the Telescope

Posted on February 14, 2017 by pkunetz97

Galileo was the first astronomer to use a telescope to observe the moon, the phases of Venus, and the largest four moons of Jupiter. In fact, Galileo was the first astronomer to use a telescope for anything because he was the dude who invented it. He first heard about a dutch inventor who put curved […] Continue reading →

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