Tag Archives: astro2110

Lightspeed Travel

The Nine Planets To many, the speed of light is an obscure thing – only really used in theory, a factor in equations, c. And that’s totally fair. It’s very relevant in study and in theory but how often are you able to see the speed of light. Sure you flip the switch and you […] Continue reading

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What Americans Think of Space

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA’s Crew-5 Dragon spacecraft In 2023, the Pew Research Center surveyed over 10,000 American adults to understand Americans’ views of space issues.  Here are a few of Pew’s findings :  Pew also asked respondents how they would rate priorities for NASA’s space efforts. The survey listed the nine priorities […] Continue reading

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NASA’s MAVEN mission

The MAVEN spacecraft NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution spacecraft (MAVEN) is studying Mars’s atmosphere. MAVEN was launched in November 2013 and arrived and arrived at Mars in September 2014. The MAVEN mission is helping scientists learn about how Mars loses its atmosphere and how/when the planet lost its water.  MAVEN is an orbiter spacecraft […] Continue reading

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Blog 4: Interstellar Travel?

Whether you’re an astronomer, scientist, or in a completely unrelated field, the idea of interstellar travel probably intrigues you in some way. Why wouldn’t it? The universe is so grand and diverse that venturing outside of our solar system would likely yield fascinating results. There is only one problem: feasibility. With our current technologies, we […] Continue reading

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Blog 3: Lander probes

Landing of Mars Perseverance Rover The lander probe is a fascinating feat of human engineering. These probes are designed to do a multitude of tasks in order to properly carry out their mission. Let’s work our way backwards. Lander probes, once on the surface of the targeted celestial body, are designed to gather a multitude […] Continue reading

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THE SUN

OK K.O.! To put it simply, the Sun is fascinating. A simple symbol that all children put in the upper corner of their drawings is actually so much more. The Sun is what holds together our Solar System. Standing at a whopping size with a diameter of 865,000 miles (over 100 times bigger than that […] Continue reading

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Blog 4: All Things Venus!

Venus is the second planet from the sun, as well as the second of the Terrestrial planets, meaning it is high density, low radius, and low radius compared to the Jovian planets. Some quick facts about Venus include the following: As described above, Venus’s atmosphere is incredibly thick, which makes circulation efficient in transporting heat […] Continue reading

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Black Holes Emitting Light?

Take a look at this picture of a black hole Photo by: Space.com This is actually called a quasar. A quasar is a supermassive black hole that is actively pulling in surrounding material due to its massive gravitational force. A black hole is an entity where the force of gravity is so intense that not […] Continue reading

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From collapse to solar system

Once upon a time, there was a huge interstellar cloud of cold, low-density gas called the solar nebula. This solar nebula came about from billions of years of galactic recycling, and consists of about 98% hydrogen and helium and 2% other random elements. The solar nebula collapsed under its own gravity, and BOOM! the Sun […] Continue reading

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Blog 3: Nuclear Fusion

The sun is the greatest, most massive, hottest thing in our world. But how does it even work?? I’m gonna be totally honest, I’m not a big science guy so I’ve never really had the change to answer this question. But Chapter 14 gives us an in depth explanation of how the sun functions through […] Continue reading

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