Tag Archives: blog5

Europa

Europa is one of Jupiter’s Galilean moons, however, it is much more than that. Scientists believe that out of everywhere in our solar system, Europa is the most likely place to have life besides on Earth! Scientists are pretty confident that under Europa’s ice water surface is an ocean that may have twice as much […] Continue reading

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Caroline Herschel

Many are familiar with William Herschel, the man accredited with discovering Uranus, but lesser known is his sister: Caroline Herschel. Born March 16, 1750, Caroline Herschel was the first female professional astronomer. Growing up, Caroline’s mother did not support Caroline’s pursuit of an education. As a result, Caroline largely relied on her brother to learnContinue reading “Caroline Herschel” Continue reading

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The Death of Cassini

The Cassini Spacecraft was designed to explore Saturn and its many rings and moons. It launched from Earth in 1997, beginning its 7-year journey to the outer solar system. Upon arrival, it released the Huygens Probe – the first object of our own creation to land in the outer solar system. This probe landed onContinue reading “The Death of Cassini” Continue reading

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Meteorites

Meteorites are fascinating. As we learned in class, a meteor is a flash of light caused by a particle of dust or rock entering Earth’s atmosphere at a high speed. But, a meteorite is a meteor that survives its drop through the atmosphere and reaches Earth’s surface. In terms of discovering meteorites, there is aContinue reading “Meteorites” Continue reading

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Becoming One with Saturn

On September 17, 2017, NASA’s Cassini’s spacecraft exhausted its fuel supply. This marked the end of a 20 yearlong space exploration and 13 yearlong orbit around The planet Saturn. The Cassini Mission was monumental in more ways than one. It was the first spacecraft to orbit Saturn, first to land in the outer solar system, […] Continue reading

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The Great Red Spot

Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. In my opinion it is also one of the most interesting. One of the interesting features on Jupiter is its Great Red Spot. The Great Red Spot is a churning, red hurricane that is twice the size of Earth. It was first discovered in 1831, soContinue reading “The Great Red Spot” Continue reading

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An Important Musician In Astronomy

Many will remember William Herschel as the one who found planet Uranus. This founding was shocking and revolutionary. After all, Uranus was the first star found by humans for a long time. Nevertheless, there are many more interesting things one can say about William Herschel. For one, he did not train to be an astronomer.Continue reading “An Important Musician In Astronomy” Continue reading

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Comets: where do they come from?

A comet is made of a nucleus (inner core), coma (cloudy envelope around the nucleus), and then a tail. Where exactly do these beautiful, fast-moving cosmic snowballs come from? Scientists are able to trace comets that we see in the inner solar system by retracing their orbits. Through this, scientists believe that comets come fromContinue reading “Comets: where do they come from?” Continue reading

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How Big Can a Planet Get?

Jupiter is big. Not only is it the biggest planet in our solar system, but it is large enough to fit all the other planets in the solar system inside of it. However, Jupiter is not as dense as Earth, and even though it can fit about 1,300 Earths inside of it, it is approximatelyContinue reading “How Big Can a Planet Get?” Continue reading

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Life on Europa?

When considering the likeliest hosts for extraterrestrial life in our very own system, Europa surely is near the top of possible candidates. One of Jupiter’s 79 (!) moons, it possesses the smoothest surface of any celestial body in the solar system. Because of this and imaging from probes, scientists have hypothesized that Europa has aContinue reading “Life on Europa?” Continue reading

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