Category Archives: SolarSystem

Exploring Climate Change in Google Earth

The video below is an introduction to a series of videos that utilize Google Earth to inform viewers of problems involving climate change and global warming. The “tours” can be downloaded here. These tours are very informative and allow the user to pause them to explore the Google Earth content on their own. I think […] Continue reading

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The Sound of the Solar System!!

Recently I have started a new habit before bed, I try to watch one TED talk a night. I’ve really enjoyed this experience, and I have learned a lot about things I otherwise would never come across. I really love the variation in the talks, and it reminds me how much knowledge is out there! A few […] Continue reading

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Life On Titan?

We may not have to look very far from our solar system for habitable worlds that can sustain life. We already know that Mars had conditions suitable for life in its early years and there is a possibility that Venus might have been the same way. But scientists are now excited about the possibility that […] Continue reading

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Venus

Venus is a unique planet among the terrestrial worlds and possesses  many features that make it an interesting planet to study.  Often called a sister planet of Earth because of the two planet’s similar sizes and compositions, Venus is, in some ways, a very different planet from Earth.  To start, Venus is completely inhospitable to life, with […] Continue reading

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The Little Solar System that Could

Pluto may no longer be a planet, but it sure is proving to be one of the most interesting objects in our solar system.  We’ve kicked it out of the planet club, but Pluto seems to have plenty of friends of its own, with scientists thinking the little dwarf planet could have 10 more moons […] Continue reading

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Everyday is SUNday

The Sun is the single most important object in our solar system. It makes up over 99% of the mass of the solar system, exerts gravitational force over the whole […] Continue reading

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By Chance…

I set out without a real direction for this blog post. (I suppose that makes sense since some of the more interesting discoveries you can come across on the web pop up when you jump from page-to-page.) During my search for a new and interesting article on some aspect of astronomy, I came across a […] Continue reading

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Near-Earth Objects: Experiences and Implications

Meteor trail over Eastern Russia. On February 15, 2013, two very significant astronomical events occurred unusually close to us; the highly publicized meteor explosion over a Russian city overshadowed the close approach of a much larger asteroid orbiting Earth.  The contrast between these two events is what struck me as most interesting and informative about […] Continue reading

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Using Paintballs to Deflect Asteroids

As you probably know on Friday February 15th there were two meteors heading Earth’s way. One of which crashed in Russia injuring over 1,000 people and the other missed Earth by 17,000 miles. The one that hit Russia was only 1.5 the size of a school bus while the other was 3 times that. Obviously […] Continue reading

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The whole asteroid thing!

There have been some pretty amazing things going on with asteroids the past couple of days, namely the passing of Asteroid 2012 DA14 and the Russian Meteor Event.   But they were completely unrelated!  Here is an excellent infographic for you (click to make bigger): We weren’t going to be seeing that little 50-foot asteroid […] Continue reading

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