Category Archives: SolarSystem

Why We Should All Love Earthquakes

Posted on March 15, 2016 by 2016spaceodyssey

Earthquakes are one of the most obvious consequences of Earth’s plate tectonics.  The crust slowly moves along the with the “current” of the mantle as the Earth surface constantly rearranges itself.  Without plate tectonics, it is very possible that life could not have taken a foothold on Earth.  On Mars, which does not have plate […] Continue reading →

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The Sun is still really big and still really hot, in case you forgot

Posted on March 15, 2016 by philhawkins221

captain’s blog, Stardate 69641.9 Spring Break has just ended. And, while I try to reacclimate to school life, my mind naturally drifts back to the days of Spring Break, laying on a beach in Miami without a care in the world. I miss Spring Break. Something I thought about a lot during the week of vacation […] Continue reading →

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Planet 9

Posted on March 15, 2016 by sarabkeller

It was a sad day when the powers that be decided that Pluto was no longer fit to be called a planet. However, this January, in a shocking turn of events, scientists at Caltech may have discovered (or somewhat indirectly presume) the existence of a real ninth planet, an ice giant by the incredibly original […] Continue reading →

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Positivity is Key

Posted on March 15, 2016 by Sofia

Nuclear fusion is the process by which the Sun survives. During fusion, the Sun converts its mass into energy that powers the Sun itself. Fusion is unique to the Sun’s core because in order to occur high densities and temperatures are needed. In the core, there are high densities of positively charges hydrogen nuclei. In … Continue reading “Positivity is Key” Continue reading →

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The Stardust Mission

Posted on March 15, 2016 by Chloe

Missions that deliberately bring back extraterrestrial material to Earth are rare. The NASA Stardust, a probe that launched in  1999, sought to collect dust samples from the comet Wild 2’s tail. Prior to the mission, experts believed that the dust in comets’ tails would be pre-solar particles. Instead, what they found from the particles retrieved […] Continue reading →

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Earth’s Changing Magnetosphere

Posted on March 15, 2016 by solarsystemjoe

One of Earth’s most important features is its Magnetosphere.  This magnetic field that surrounds Earth deflects Solar wind that could slowly widdle away our atmosphere. Without an atmosphere, life would not have been able to develop on Earth.  In addition, if we were to suddenly lose our magnetosphere, then our power grids and other electronics […] Continue reading →

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The Atmosphere of Venus

Posted on March 14, 2016 by sarabkeller

I have always been oddly fascinated by Venus. Not only is it the Roman name for arguably the most interesting (and controversial) Greek Goddess, Aphrodite, but it also has a lot of really fascinating characteristics. The surface of Venus is so hot that robotic probes wouldn’t be able to last for very long on it, […] Continue reading →

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Gravity has waves?

Posted on March 14, 2016 by nedastro2110

Admittedly, I am late on the whole gravitational waves discovery, however I think that this video above is probably the best explanation as to what gravitational waves are and how scientists actually managed to find evidence for the waves. The way that scientists actually discovered the waves fascinated me most in all the of news […] Continue reading →

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Solar Storms

Posted on March 14, 2016 by nedastro2110

Who knew there were actually storms on the surface of the earth? Well, they aren’t the storms that we are used on earth. Actually, they are quite different. Storms on the sun occur when magnetic fields throughout the sun passing through sun spots and prominences spontaneously shift dramatically. The most known of these storms are […] Continue reading →

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The Pock-Marked Sun God

Posted on March 14, 2016 by Michaela Thomas

Sunspots are areas on the Sun that appear darker compared to their surroundings because they are cooler than the areas around them. This does not mean that the spots are actually cold, but relative to the 5800K temperature of the rest of the Sun, sunspots are much cooler at 4000K. Magnetic fields prevent the hotter […] Continue reading →

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