Astronomy
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What About Pluto?
In my last post, we explored the two types of planets: terrestrial (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars) and Jovian (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune). Pluto was conspicuously absent from the lineup…especially considering that we took a peek at the moon.…
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A Solar System Tour
In the grand scheme of the universe, planets are small. But that doesn’t make them unimportant. We live on a planet. Understanding how planets form and how the evolution of their solar system affects them is critical to answering one…
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Cosmology Demystified
That has got to be the single strangest post title I’ve ever written. Of all the whacky branches of science out there, cosmology almost takes the cake — second only, I think, to the downright trippy world of quantum mechanics.…
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Globular Clusters: The Untold Story
Meet Messier 13: my sentimental favorite globular cluster. For more than a decade now, one of my favorite things has been to set up my telescopes at astronomy outreach events and show people the night sky. I have two telescopes…
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The Messier Marathon
Have you heard of the Messier Marathon? If you travel in astronomy circles, you’re bound to have heard of it around this time of the year. Every March and April, astronomers from across the northern hemisphere embark on a challenge:…
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Dark Matter: What We Don’t Know
Okay, I know…weird way to start a post, right? Isn’t this blog supposed to teach science? How can we teach something we don’t know? This is actually one of the most important concepts in the realm of astrophysics, and even…
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What is a Lunar Eclipse?
March 2024: This post has been updated and republished from Sept 2017. Show of hands — who’s heard about the lunar eclipse coming up on March 14? As I always do for eclipses, both solar and lunar, I’ve spruced up…
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Dark Matter: How Do We Know?
In theoretical physics, there are countless theories as to what dark matter is. But how do we know it’s not a wild goose chase? Technically speaking, we don’t. But fortunately for us, this question comes back to one of the…
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The Universe: A Timeline of Discovery
Aaaaand she’s back! Sorry for the delay — school had me burnt out! Consider this: humanity has existed for just a few thousand years, and for most of that time, our existence has been constrained to one little blue mote…
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A Cosmological Timeline
We started covering cosmology way back in April. And since then, we’ve explored quite a bit — in fact, the grandest story the universe has to offer. We’ve followed the universe from the first fractions of a second after the…
