Author: Thomas Shelton
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Blog Post 8 – How Tyson Saved Astronomy
Atlanta Magazine By pure coincidence, in 1958, Neil Degrasse Tyson was born into a small family in the Bronx the same exact week that NASA was founded. At the time, nobody, not even Tyson himself, had any idea the impact he would have on NASA’s field of study. At 9 years old, Tyson made his…
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Blog Post 7 – Extremophiles
News Medical Life Sciences In the most unsought after pockets of our planet, in places once believed to be impossible to sustain life, exist organisms that not only can survive in these places but thrive under these conditions as well. These impressive organisms are known as extremophiles. The existence of extremophiles challenges everything that we…
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Blog Post 6 – Hubble Space Telescope
NASA Science The Hubble Space Telescope! How cool! The idea for the telescope first came around in the 1940’s! Nearly 100 years ago, a scientist wrote a paper about the advantages of having a big telescope out in outer space, and they were right! Work on the telescope didn’t then begin until 1974 but the…
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Blog 5 – Pluto
Johns Hopkins University HUB As we learned in class/from Dr. Stern’s Pluto talk, we really did not know a whole lot about Pluto until the historic New Horizons flyby in 2015. However, that daring team of scientists allowed us to discover new things about Pluto that people had not even fathomed before. For example, Pluto…
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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…
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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…
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Blog Post 2 – Gravity
“Animation vs. Physics “ by Alan Becker on Youtube Before we get started, the video linked above is phenomenal. If you have any interest in physics, astronomy, astrophysics or anyting related, I cannot recommend this video enough. It encompasses all of these topics in a fun animated way that also gives Interstellar vibes with its…
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Historical Astronomers in Context
Brittanica Johannes Kepler: December 27, 1571 – November 15, 1630– Kepler was originally hired by Tycho Brahe to do many calculations because brahe was not a profound mathematician. After Tycho’s death, Kepler was able to secure some of his formerly privatized data and observations to develop what would become known as Kepler’s Laws of Planetary…
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The Vast Size and Scale of the Universe
BBC Science Focus The Universe is also used as a reference point to display somethings enormity. “I love you more than anything in the world” is massively trumped by “I love you more than anything in the Universe.” But what does this really mean? How much can the universe really hold? How big is it…
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