Category Archives: SolarSystem

The Peculiar Dwarf Planet: Haumea

Posted on April 7, 2018 by jonsastroblog

Haumea is a recently discovered dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt that has some very unique features. The first thing many people notice is that Haumea is shaped more like a football than a sphere. This is due to the fact that Haumea spins around its axis roughly every four hours. This extreme rotation causes … Continue reading The Peculiar Dwarf Planet: Haumea → Continue reading →

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The Peculiar Dwarf Planet: Haumea

Posted on April 7, 2018 by jonsastroblog

Haumea is a recently discovered dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt that has some very unique features. The first thing many people notice is that Haumea is shaped more like a football than a sphere. This is due to the fact that Haumea spins around its axis roughly every four hours. This extreme rotation causes … Continue reading The Peculiar Dwarf Planet: Haumea → Continue reading →

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The Potential (and the Potential Challenges) of Life on Europa

Posted on March 26, 2018 by laurenegish

When discussing the potential of finding life in our solar system, people are inclined to think of discovering large and complex life forms such as humans on another planet. Surprisingly, if we are to find life in our solar system outside of Earth, it will most likely be in the form of microorganisms within another … Continue reading The Potential (and the Potential Challenges) of Life on Europa → Continue reading →

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The Potential (and the Potential Challenges) of Life on Europa

Posted on March 26, 2018 by laurenegish

When discussing the potential of finding life in our solar system, people are inclined to think of discovering large and complex life forms such as humans on another planet. Surprisingly, if we are to find life in our solar system outside of Earth, it will most likely be in the form of microorganisms within another … Continue reading The Potential (and the Potential Challenges) of Life on Europa → Continue reading →

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Sunspots

Posted on March 18, 2018 by haleytopper04

Sunspots are areas of the sun that appear dark because they are cooler than their surroundings and are used as an indicator of solar activity. They are formed because material at the solar equator moves significantly faster than the materials at the poles, causing the magnetic field lines to become warped. If the magnetic field … Continue reading Sunspots Continue reading →

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Voyager 1

Posted on March 18, 2018 by yadavdhruv

Voyager 1 is currently the farthest spacecraft we have ever sent out. It was launched in 1977 and is currently 141 AU or 13 billion miles away from Earth right now. It is traveling at 38,000 mph but has not even travel a full light day yet. The original purpose of the Voyager missions was … Continue reading Voyager 1 → Continue reading →

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Martian Dust Devils

Posted on March 18, 2018 by laurenegish

  Martian dust devils are much like tornadoes on Earth. Both storms form the same way, but what distinguishes these dust devils from the tornadoes on Earth is that they are much bigger ( 1-2 km across and 8-10 km wide!) and the fact that dust devils occur much more frequently on Mars than tornadoes … Continue reading Martian Dust Devils → Continue reading →

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Martian Dust Devils

Posted on March 18, 2018 by laurenegish

  Martian dust devils are much like tornadoes on Earth. Both storms form the same way, but what distinguishes these dust devils from the tornadoes on Earth is that they are much bigger ( 1-2 km across and 8-10 km wide!) and the fact that dust devils occur much more frequently on Mars than tornadoes … Continue reading Martian Dust Devils → Continue reading →

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The Death of the Sun

Posted on March 17, 2018 by Caroline Henning

Unfortunately, our Solar System will not exist forever–our Sun’s lifespan is indeed finite. Sunlike stars stay on the main sequence for approximately 10 billions years. In other words, this is about how long the Sun will shine. The Sun is about 4.6 billion years old, so we may expect about 5.4 billion more years of … Continue reading The Death of the Sun → Continue reading →

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Where Did All of Mars’ Water Go?

Posted on March 17, 2018 by Katie

It is currently known that Mars has only a fraction of the atmosphere that Earth has. This could be due to a number reasons ranging from its further distance away from the Earth and its smaller size in comparison to Earth and Venus, however, all terrestrial worlds had something that could have resembled an atmosphere … Continue reading Where Did All of Mars’ Water Go? Continue reading →

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