The thing about space is, it’s big. There’s always something new being discovered even in the solar system; ancient astronomers used to think Venus was a star, and now we’re discovering actual stars that even have their own solar systems. More exceptions are being discovered to rules that our own system led us to think were concrete, such as jovian planets that lay abnormally close to their suns. So many questions have been answered, from how planets are formed to where necessities like water originated from, but there’s always more to see, be it other galaxies or strange planet compositions or even other lifeforms…
Tag: astro2110
-
Extremophiles, as their names insinuate, are capable of withstanding extreme conditions that would kill any other organism. The tardigrade, informally known as the “water bear”, is the most well known of these and can comfortably reside in ludicrous environments despite barely being any bigger than a millimeter. So how does this pertain to astronomy? Well, their durability extends to it even being able to survive the vacuum of space for years on end, causing the definition of life to be readjusted to show that the only necessary things for life are a source of nutrients, energy, and water, with air merely being an option for some beings.
-
Lucky Shot!
An eclipse occurs whenever a celestial body passes in front of or behind another in a way that whoever is on the surface can notice such an obstruction. Lunar eclipses occur on average twice a year when the moon moves into the Earth’s shadow during the full moon phase, which happens to be the only phase that occurs exclusively at night. Solar eclipses are far rarer, due to the moon being far smaller than the body it obscures or the body obscuring it, and occur exclusively during new moons, meaning it is not positioned in a way that the sun can reflect light to us.
-
Triton stands out amongst most moons. Usually a moon is made of the leftovers from when the solar system was being formed, ideally becoming large enough to force itself into a spherical shape. More ambitious moons are made directly from planet material cast off in an accident. Triton sticks out; it is theorized to have been thrown out of its original orbit in the kuiper belt. The high inclination it cycles Neptune’s equator is largely unique to it, and it orbits in the opposite direction Neptune spins. As a side effect to its origins, Triton was once far more geologically active than most moons of its size. This can be attributed to the once elliptical orbit Triton had, which affected the tidal forces on it, and the faster rotation it surely used to have.
-
Aside from being named after Jupiter’s progenitors rather than his offspring or contemporaries, Uranus has the obvious distinction from having its axis be almost horizontal, meaning it rotates on its side like a wheel rather than like a top, possibly due to a drastic collision it suffered while forming that it never bothered to correct.
This unique movement pattern comes with some interesting climate patterns. The poles only experience one day per Uranian year, meaning there’s 42 Earth years of consecutive light followed by 42 years of darkness. Seasons on Uranus essentially mean whether or not you get sunlight at all.
-
Telescopes laid the foundation for everything we know about space, but they can only get you so far. If you don’t particularly feel like removing the planet’s entire atmosphere to get a better view, spacecrafts do a pretty good job of getting a closer look.
Flyby spacecraft are the simplest and least expensive; they can be light as long as they can withstand the trip to space. The lack of air friction up there also saves on fuel. Flybies, as the name implies, move past planets and transmit images of them back to Earth, essentially serving as a long range cameras and spectrographs. Orbiters are more specialized, being built to stay in a celestial body’s orbit, in turn allowing a more sustained stream of data. Landers and probes go the extra mile and land on the celestial bodies, allowing for an even closer look. Probably the most elaborate type of data retrieval spacecraft is the type that literally retrieves data and bring it back to Earth: sample return crafts, which have already been used to collect comet dust and are aiming for Mars next.
-
We all hopefully know what gravity is by now and the age-old story of Newton and the apple tree, but what less of us may know is what causes shifts in gravity, how it changes even on Earth, and how things choose to reciprocate it.
While it is true that size is the defining factor of a celestial body’s personal field of gravity, distance is another important detail. After all, the sun is the center of our solar system, but not everything directly rotates it; moons go around planets while meteors unlucky enough to get too close to a planet end up on its surface. Even a single planet can experience subtly different gravity forces on different hemispheres provided its big enough because one side is closer to the sun. Given that everything in space is constantly in motion, there’s some pretty interesting phenomena out there.
Of course, gravity is also a two-way street. The moon pulls on Earth just as it pulls the moon, but the former’s lighter mass minimizes the effect so that it is only immediately apparent on fluids such as water, hence tides. Don’t think this is a moon-exclusive thing, either. The sun and even Venus can affect the tides as well, just nowhere near as much since they’re so far away.
-
To some, the zodiac is just something that determines your horoscope when you open your newspaper, but of course that would be astrology.
In actuality, the zodiac is the group of constellations that serve as the direct backdrop to the sun’s yearlong light show (meaning it’s Scorpius and Capricornus, not Scorpio and Capricorn). Of course, since the sun completely drowns out any surrounding competitors for screentime and the constellation active at the time disappears with the sun at night, your chances of actually seeing your sign during your special month are slim.
The thirteenth sign most people don’t know about would be the Snake Charmer, Ophiuchus. It’s settled right between Scorpius and Sagittarius and vaguely resembles a snake in a pot. Most horoscopes tend to remove it from the lineup, mostly since ancient civilizations still followed the current “twelve month calendar” thing and deemed it easier to just round it down to a more even number.
Or, considering we’re talking about horoscopes here, perhaps they were just superstitious.
-
Galileo Galilei (2/15/1564-1/8/1642) is best remembered for researching and popularizing the idea of a heliocentric solar system, rather than the geocentric one widely accepted as truth. Galilei also worked to disprove the idea that the stars as seen in the sky do not change positions and was the first create topological maps of mountains and craters on the moon, which was formerly assumed to be smooth and translucent.
The time around which Galilei did much of his research was a time of political and religious unrest all over Europe. The Thirty Years’ War began in May 23, 1618 from tensions caused by the Roman Empire, and as the name implies, Europe had to deal with that for a very long time until its end in October 23, 1648, by which point Galilei himself was dead. December 16 of 1631, a mere two years prior to when Galilei was tried for heresy, saw the eruption of Vesuvius and the death of thousands as a result.
Of course, human interference on a more individual level hindered Galilei’s efforts as well, as Pope Urban VIII (4/5/1568-7/29/1644) was the Pope who oversaw Galilei’s condemnation and imprisonment. Urban’s reign, regardless of Galilei’s influence was one of expansion by force and mission reformation, meaning that teachings that may contradict with what he is attempting to enforce may threaten the state.
Learning of the religious conflicts occurring during Galilei’s lifetime adds a new layer of depth to why he fought such an uphill battle to get his theories instated as facts. Tensions were already high at the moment, and world-changing revelations seemed like a massive threat to the already fragile status quo. Not helping matters was the then-recent catastrophic natural disaster that could very easily be read as divine intervention or even a preemptive punishment.