fundamentals: deep space
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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…
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The Big Bang in a Nutshell
Okay, okay, I know…with that featured image, I just broke my own cardinal rule of not depicting the Big Bang as an explosion. I did pick that image for a reason, though. We first covered the Big Bang waaaay back…
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Dark Matter: What We Know
I considered titling this post “Dark Matter Demystified” and including it in my “Cosmos Demystified” series…but honestly, there are some promises I can’t make! Dark matter is one of the most mysterious concepts in cosmology, second only to the even…
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Cosmology: How Do We Know?
Have you ever wondered how the heck astronomers think we know anything about cosmology? It’s a truly mind-blowing field of study, full of whacky concepts like the shape of empty space, the expansion of the universe, and dark energy. More…
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The Shape of Space
I’ll admit it: when I hear something like “the shape of space,” my first thought is, whaaaaa? It’s hard to talk about the science behind space itself because we first have to wrap our minds around what that even means.…
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Cosmological Redshift Demystified
If you’ve been following my recent posts, cosmological redshift will likely be a familiar idea. I introduced it in my post on the Hubble Law. We revisited it again in our discussion of the size and brightness of galaxies. When…
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What is the Cosmological Principle?
What if I were to ask you: Are there any unique places in the universe? That is, does any one location in the universe have a special vantage point? Does the universe look different from different locations? You might say…
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What was the Big Bang?
Have you heard of the Big Bang? I still remember the first time I heard about it. I was little; I can’t remember if I’d fallen in love with astronomy yet. But I do remember sitting in my living room,…
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The Different Shapes of Galaxies
By now, we’ve spent a heck of a lot of time exploring spiral galaxies. It makes sense — they’re certainly the most photogenic. Seriously. Do me a favor and do a quick Google search for galaxies. When I did, nearly…
