astr2110
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Are we there yet??🚀
In my entire life, I have never traveled outside of the country. Most people on Earth have never traveled off of Earth. And none of us have ever traveled outside of our Solar System! We know that travel to the Moon is possible, but is it possible to visit worlds in other planetary systems? Is… Continue reading
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Some things never change…
Asteroids are rocky leftover pieces from the planetary formation era that never ended up becoming planets. They orbit our Sun out in the asteroid belt, but they are too small and weirdly shaped (thanks to impacts!) to be classified as planets. To give a sense of the size range of asteroids, the largest asteroid, Ceres,… Continue reading
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Put a ring on it!! 🪐
When I think of rings, the first planet that comes to mind is Saturn. Saturn has the most impressive rings out of all the Jovian planets in our solar system. (In fact, Saturn’s rings are so prominent that I sometimes forget that other Jovian planets also have rings!!) First, let’s talk about the properties of… Continue reading
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☆Born to shine, forced to fuse☆
Stars, like us, have an exciting life journey. Stars are born when gas and dust in cold molecular clouds collapse from gravity. Just like our solar system, the formation of a star involves the gas cloud spinning, heating, and flattening until the star is formed. Something I thought was cool was that stars tend to… 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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The Universe Isn’t Kepler-centric!
Johannes Kepler made three of the most influential discoveries to the field of astronomy, also known as Kepler’s Laws. Kepler was born on December 27, 1571 (a true Capricorn!), and died on November 15, 1630. In case you forgot: Kepler’s 1st Law: planet orbits are elliptical (not necessarily perfect circles!) and the Sun is at… Continue reading
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It’s not a phase, Mom! ⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆
One thing I love about the nighttime is getting to see the different phases of the Moon in different times of its cycle. The Moon cycle consists of 8 phases as you can see in the picture below, and lasts 29.5 days, which is around one month! In this period, we see the Moon go from… Continue reading
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Abbie’s intro post!
Hi! I’m Abbie and I am taking ASTR2110!! I took ASTR1010 and ASTR1010L in my freshman year, and I absolutely loved learning more about stars, planets, the universe, as well as getting to observe during lab. I am so excited to learn more! Here is a hyperlink to Vanderbilt’s website. Continue reading
Abbie's Astronomy Adventures!! 