Reasons Why Triton, Neptune’s Moon, is One of the Coolest Moons!

By on Feb 17, 2014 in For Your Information | 0 comments

  When I think about moons in our solar system I usually go for the favorites like, Jupiter’s Europa because of its mysterious hidden ocean beneath the crust, or Saturn’s moon Titan being one of the only moons with a dense atmosphere. However, one planet and moon that never gets in the spotlight is Neptune’s moon Triton! It’s arguably one of the coolest hidden gems in our solar system, and I’ll tell you why.   Why Triton Rocks My Boat   1 ) Triton is one of Neptune’s largest moons and is the only large moon with a retrograde motion, which means it orbits in the opposite direction of the planets. Sure, it’s cool to know that this moon is a rebel and orbits the other direction but what’s really neat is astronomers believe because of its retrograde motion Triton may have come from the Kuiper belt. 2) The surface on Triton is...

Happy Martian Summer Solstice (For the Northern Hemisphere Martians)

By on Feb 15, 2014 in Events | 2 comments

  Quick Facts About Mars: 1) Since Mars has only 15% of Earth’s volume, Martian gravity is only 37% of the Earth’s. Meaning you could jump 3x higher on Mars than on Earth. 2) In this particular image you can see the BIGGEST volcano in the Solar System. This beast is 21 km high (compared to Mt. Everest’s 8 km) and a whopping 600 km in diameter. Even though this volcano formed over billions of years, many scientists believe this volcano is still active. 3) Average temperatures on Mars is about -60 degrees C or maybe you rather be closer to the equator where it’s about 20 degrees C! It also snows on Mars! 4) If you were to compare how the sun looks in the sky on Earth vs. on Mars, the sun would look half the size on Mars. 5) Out of the total of 47 missions there have only been 19 successful ones! 6) Mars has the largest dust storms in the Solar System. These...

What is a Dark Galaxy?

By on Feb 6, 2014 in For Your Information | 0 comments

  What is a dark galaxy? Well a dark galaxy is an early galaxy formation that is very inefficient at forming stars and is thought to be made up of dark matter. They are usually small low density gas-rich galaxies that have been thought to be the building blocks of today’s bright star filled galaxies. Since dark galaxies don’t hold any visible stars they are invisible to us making it very hard to detect. The theory of dark galaxies originated in 2000 when astronomers were studying a gas cloud called VIRGOHI21. Scientists were trying to figure out what it was and why it could cause a gravitational pull from the galaxy NGC 4254. After years of research they concluded that VIRGOHI21 was a dark galaxy due to the massive effect it had on NGC 4254. Well how does an astronomer detect a dark galaxy if they devoid light? Interestingly astronomers use quasars (which is an active...

Happy 10 Year Anniversary Mars Spirit Rover

By on Jan 3, 2014 in Events | 0 comments

  10 years ago today Spirit rover lands on Mars, marking it a beautiful time in human history.  It landed in 2004 and was active until 2010. It was one of the two rovers, at the time, that took part in NASA’s ongoing mission called Mars Exploration Rover Mission. The other rover, Opportunity, landed on the other side of the red planet 3 weeks later than Spirit. The objective for Spirit’s mission was to search for and characterize a variety of rocks and soils that hold clues to past water activity. It wa also sent to determine what geological processes have shaped the local terrain. Spirit rover was built to last for 600 m and about 90 sol (sol is one day on Mars), but lasted for an astounding 2,208 sols and drove 7 km! Unfortunately in 2009 the rover became stuck and its last communication with Earth was sent on March 22, 2010. JPL continued to make contact with Spirit...

Your 2013 Guide to the Top Space Discoveries of the Year

By on Dec 30, 2013 in Round Up Post | 0 comments

  What a year it has been for astronomy! There have been some amazing discoveries like finding more habitable planets that contained water to the more bittersweet stories such as the malfunctioning of the Kepler Spacecraft. Nonetheless, it’s that time of the year where we take a look back at some of the top space discoveries of 2013. Let’s take a look!     Our Friend Voyager Enters Interstellar Space Sending Humankind Farther Than Ever Before Back to Top   Voyager 1 and 2 have made humankind proud with how far they have traveled in the depths of space. They have been traveling for over 30 years and they manage to keep sending us data back. It has traveled about 18 billion km! To give you a little perspective, if you traveled at the speed of light it would take you about 35 hours to reach Voyager! I am still very proud of Voyager to keep pushing the...