Category Archives: Observables

things we can see from Earth using our eyeballs or telescopes

Jupiter’s volcanic moon: Io

Posted on April 5, 2015 by bryancm1

Io sports a surface temperature well below zero (around -130 degrees C). This is heavily contrasted by the fact that Io is also the most volcanically active body in our solar system. It is known to have over 400 currently active volcanoes. If you weren’t yet convinced about the effects of tidal heating, think about […] Continue reading →

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Mercurial Art

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Marissa LePore

“It appears that Mercury may well be a painted planet,” said Prof Peter Schultz, a co-author from Brown University. Mercury’s dull surface has long been a point of perplexion in the field of planetary geology. Scientists have thought that there must be a mystery darkening agent contributing to the planet’s low reflectance. A new study has given […] Continue reading →

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Venus: A Resemblance to Classical Images of Hell

Posted on March 16, 2015 by jamej00

Hot potato hot potato! It all boils down to the greenhouse effect!  Yes, the greenhouse effect goes beyond causing global warming here on Earth.  It is, in fact, necessary for life on Earth; without it, the planet would be far colder than it is today.  Certain gases present in both Venus’s and Earth’s atmosphere essentially act like… Continue reading →

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Mysterious Plumes in Martian Atmosphere

Posted on March 12, 2015 by robbyks

In 2012, two strange cloud-like plumes were observed over Mars, and astronomers are still trying to solve the mystery of what caused this in Mars’ atmosphere. The two plumes were observed a month apart, one lasting ten days and the other lasting eleven days. The clouds were seen at a high altitude of 200-250 km […] Continue reading →

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Northern Lights

Posted on March 11, 2015 by Marissa LePore

Auroras happen when charged particles from the magnetosphere travel to the Earth’s atmosphere and collide with its atoms and molecules, emitting the moving lights.But, the collisions of the charged particles do more than produce this incredible vision. Two operators of the American Telegraph Line between Boston and Maine held a conversation without battery power for two […] Continue reading →

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Serious About Ceres

Posted on March 11, 2015 by Marissa LePore

NASA’s Dawn started orbiting the dwarf planet Ceres last Friday, making it the first spacecraft to ever orbit a dwarf planet. After a seven and a half year, 3.1 billion mile journey, Dawn reached the small, icy protoplanet that orbits the Sun in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Ceres has been a bit […] Continue reading →

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Tidal Changes from a Beach Stand

Posted on February 12, 2015 by dillonkoval

I worked for two years renting out beach umbrellas and chairs at Assateague State Park for two summers in high school. I would walk out to the beach and set up my little stand next to a fence used to protect the dunes from wandering beach-goers. Assateague has a very large sandbar and some days […] Continue reading →

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Project Blue Book

Posted on February 6, 2015 by Marissa LePore

Conspiracists, rejoice. After two decades of filing Freedom of Information Act requests for any information the US government has on UFOs and other weird sightings, the efforts of proclaimed UFO enthusiast John Greenwald have been fruitful. Last month the files were released and Greenwald posted the 130,000 pages of declassified material on his website, The Black […] Continue reading →

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Shadow Bands!

Posted on January 24, 2015 by christophermfitzgerald

If you’re like me, you have probably never heard of Shadow Bands. Shadow bands are a phenomenon that accompany total solar eclipses and occur just before and after totality, appearing as lines of alternating lines of dark and light moving … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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The Observable Universe

Posted on January 24, 2015 by abbeyrstephens

It is extremely difficult for humans to wrap our minds around how big the universe is. Even when we think we can maybe understand it, the more we discover and learn, the more mysterious and seemingly larger it becomes. One of the things about the size of the universe that our book mentions that really […] Continue reading →

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