Category Archives: Science

It’s a Great, Big Universe…

Posted on April 29, 2024 by obisesoa

The thing about space is, it’s big. There’s always something new being discovered even in the solar system; ancient astronomers used to think Venus was a star, and now we’re discovering actual stars that even have their own solar systems. More exceptions are being discovered to rules that our own system led us to think […] Continue reading →

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Black Holes

Posted on April 29, 2024 by Ethan Jones

Black holes have always been one of the most fascinating things about our universe. I’m sure everyone remembers how the internet went insane when this photo was released. Black holes are everywhere in popular media like movies and video games. The concept that something so massive exists and nothing can ever escape from it astonishes […] Continue reading →

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The Ultimate Thrillseekers

Posted on April 29, 2024 by obisesoa

Extremophiles, as their names insinuate, are capable of withstanding extreme conditions that would kill any other organism. The tardigrade, informally known as the “water bear”, is the most well known of these and can comfortably reside in ludicrous environments despite barely being any bigger than a millimeter. So how does this pertain to astronomy? Well, […] Continue reading →

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Fermi Paradox

Posted on April 29, 2024 by Ethan Jones

Paradoxes are always interesting to contemplate, and the Fermi paradox is no different. First proposed by Enrico Fermi (above) the Fermi paradox in a nutshell is if the scale and probability of our universe favors intelligent life developing elsewhere, then why have we not found any evidence of that life. This paradox sparked Frank Drake […] Continue reading →

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Visualizing Exoplanet s

Posted on April 27, 2024 by Angela Harris

The subject of my blog 5 post was the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system. While learning about this system of extrasolar planets, I was fascinated by the  illustrations of exoplanets that can’t be photographed by telescopes. Tim Pyle and Robert Hurt are two artists who create renderings of exoplanets by using data about an exoplanet’s size, mass, […] Continue reading →

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NASA’s Astrobiology Program

Posted on April 27, 2024 by Angela Harris

Astrobiologists at NASA use data from many NASA missions to study the possibility of life on other worlds. Here are a few ways they use data from other missions to support the NASA Astrobiology Program:  Chandra X-ray Observatory   The Chandra X-ray Observatory is a telescope that detects emission from extremely hot regions of space (exploded […] Continue reading →

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The End of the Universe

Posted on April 26, 2024 by Owen Purcell

One of the more morbid questions that astronomers have debated over the last few decades has been the possibility of the end of the universe. With the widespread acceptance of a model of the universe that is in some way finite, there are questions about how the state of that universe could change over time. […] Continue reading →

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Historical Astronomers in Context— Galileo

Posted on April 26, 2024 by Seth Creech

Picture of Galileo Galileo (February 15, 1564 – January 8, 1642) made major strides in the argument for heliocentrism, observing sunspots and the phases of Venus, two pieces of information that seemed to point to the imperfection of the celestial world and that the Sun was the gravitational center of the Solar System about which […] Continue reading →

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How do we Reconcile With the Fermi Paradox?

Posted on April 25, 2024 by Justin Kim

The Fermi Paradox questions the discrepancy between the vastness of the universe and the apparent lack of intelligent life. This paradox has been discussed at length with many experts and as all paradoxes go, there is no clear conclusion. However, there does appear to be strong rebuttals to the paradox. One rebuttal that I find […] Continue reading →

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Blog 7 – Drake Equation “Haters”

Posted on April 25, 2024 by James Bamshad

Frank Drake in front of his “Drake Equation” I had a great time learning about and using the Drake Equation during our class period. However, after doing more research, I found many people who are heavily against the Drake Equation. In this blog post, I will review some of their main arguments. First, on “Y […] Continue reading →

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