Category Archives: SolarSystem

Blog 5 – Triton!

Things that break all patterns are often the most interesting objects in our solar system. Neptune’s moon Triton is a prime example of breaking general patterns. It is the only large moon in our solar system that orbits in retrograde, opposite the rotation of Neptune (NASA). Originally I was interested in Triton because of its […] Continue reading

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Solar Eclipse in Nashville

Around 2 pm today on Apr 8, 2024, I was fortunate enough to see the eclipse reach its peak in Nashville amidst intermittent cloud cover. Although Nashville wasn’t in the path of totality like it was in 2017, it was very close! For a quick background on solar eclipses, a solar eclipse happens when the […] Continue reading

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Blog 5: Pluto

When someone mentions Pluto, most people’s minds instantly go to the “Is Pluto a planet debate”. In fact, all I knew about Pluto before reading these chapters was that it was too small to be a planet. If you asked me to picture Pluto, I would have said something akin to our moon – rocky, […] Continue reading

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Europa

Alien life could very well be found in our own Solar System, and Europe is a prime candidate! Being one of Jupiter’s moons, Europe is one of the coolest moons of the giant planets in our solar system. It is about 90% the size of our Moon, with an equatorial diameter of 1,940 miles. However, […] Continue reading

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The Differences Between our Jovian Planets – Blog #6 – Cameron Klein

As I read through section 11.1 in our textbook, I realized that I did not comprehend as much as I would have liked about the differences between our Jovian planets. Therefore, I feel as though doing more research about them and writing this blog post will serve as an amazing study tool! This blog post […] Continue reading

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Comets – Blog Post #5 – Cameron Klein

After learning briefly about asteroids and comets during previous units, I became intrigued by them. I had known a little bit about comets and where they are located within our solar system, but as I was reading about this in our textbook, I realized just how much more there was to learn. Comets are extremely […] Continue reading

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Blog 5: Pluto and its Largest Moon

Pluto, situated 40 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun, orbits the Sun every 248 years. Its path stands out due to its highly elliptical shape and inclination relative to the ecliptic plane, distinguishing it from the other planets. Pluto is orbited by five moons, with Charon being the largest and most notable. Charon orbits Pluto […] Continue reading

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Pluto – Common Misconceptions

Image Source Pluto has long been a very mysterious planets to both scientists and the general population. Because of this, many misconceptions have risen throughout the years. In this blog post, I will cover a few of the most popular myths, both scientific and fun. 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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Titan’s Tremendous Atmosphere and its Striking Similarity to Earth

One of the most fascinating things that I have learned from this unit was the diversity that are the jovian moons. Originally, I believed moons to be rocky, non geologically active objects that orbited planets. Although this is the case for some moons, especially the smaller ones, some moons hold very unique characteristics, such as […] Continue reading

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