The use of anti-matter propulsion might be the key to interstellar travel. Anti-matter is basically normal matter that has opposite charges. When matter and anti-matter collide with one another, they annihilate one another and energy is released. Unlike with nuclear fusion, where only 3% of the total mass of the matter is converted into energy, […]
Read more "Anti-Matter Propulsion"Currently, we do not have the technology to travel to even the closest stars. The fastest spacecraft humans have ever built is the Voyager 1, which is currently traveling at roughly 17 km/s. However, even at these speeds it would take the Voyager I nearly 70,000 years to get to the nearest star system, Alpha […]
Read more "Solar Sails"Around 63 light years away form Earth sits the exoplanet HD 189733b. The planet has a mass of 1.13 Jupiter masses and orbits its star closer than Mercury orbits the Sun. Seen from afar, this planet is blue in color and has bands of white haze in its atmosphere that resemble clouds. Though HD 189733b […]
Read more "Exoplanet HD 189733b"The size of the Sun is difficult to comprehend. With a diameter of 865,000 miles, The Sun has the volume of 1.3 million Earths. If we were to place the Earth next to the Sun, we would simply see a tiny spec next to the Sun. However, the Sun is not even close to the […]
Read more "UY Scuti"Though the power of the Sun is quite amazing, the Sun is simply a giant, burning ball of hydrogen. Due to the immense gravity of the Sun, hydrogen particles at the Sun’s core are under enough pressure that they collide with one another despite the force of the positive charges to repel one another. In […]
Read more "Nuclear Fusion: the Energy Source of the Future?"Kelsey Hey guys! It’s been a while. I’d like to direct this blog towards a more broad perspective –at least more broad than: “Why was that chapter relevant to our course?” With our final project ideas in mind, I think it makes sense to look at the application of different tactics by Dr. G in […]
Read more "Pedagogy Seminar- Week 7"The Milky Way and Andromeda are currently hurtling at one another at 110 km/s. In roughly 4 billion years, the galaxies will collide and subsequently form a single, larger galaxy. Though this collision may seem like it will be the end of times, in reality, there is a very small chance that the Solar System […]
Read more "Collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda"The use of gravity assist has been an integral part of space exploration. Gravitational slingshots have been used time and time again to send spacecraft to areas that would be impossible to get to otherwise by providing the spacecraft with increased speed. Accordingly, spacecrafts are able to get places faster and use less fuel. (Voyager […]
Read more "Limitations of Gravitational Slingshots in our Solar System"Johannes Kepler was born on December 27th, 1571 and died on November 15th, 1630. Kepler was important to astronomy primarily because of his development of the laws of planetary motion. In short, these laws state that all planets’ orbits are ellipses, show that a planet’s orbital speed is inversely proportional to its distance from the body it orbits, and give […]
Read more "kepler’s Discoveries in Context"Throughout the first two classes of our seminar, we talked a lot about how Dr. G likes to make students “learn by doing.” I think that this was certainly the case during class on Tuesday. Though we spent the first half of class mostly talking about the test as well as different types of eclipses, […]
Read more "Pedagogy Seminar- Week 3"
Chase's Solar System blog 
You must be logged in to post a comment.