While researching for some course work in Introduction to Astronomy for AMU, my six year old little boy was looking over my shoulder. So, I figured I'd explain to him […]
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Tag: Astronomy and Space
Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the drug store, but that’s just peanuts to space. – Douglas Adams
Kreutz Sun-grazers
On June 1 and 2, 1998, two comets entered and burned up in Sol’s atmosphere. Interestingly, a coronal mass ejection of gas and magnetic energy occurred on June 2, 1998 […]
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Neptune’s Capture and Destruction of Its Largest Moon
Neptune’s satellites all travel in one direction with the strange exception of Triton’s retrograde orbit. Triton is believed to have been a small planet like Pluto until it was “captured” […]
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Uranus’ Dark Moon
Umbriel is the fourth largest satellite orbiting Uranus. Unlike the other moons orbiting Uranus, this moon is strangely dark. In fact, it reflects only about half the light of the […]
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Intergalactic Pipeline
On October 25, 1999, the Hubble Space Telescope took a fascinating photo of mass transference between two galaxies. The two galaxies, located in the constellation Taurus, are known as NGC […]
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Our Fascination and Future on Mars
January 25, 2004 Our Fascination and Future on Mars American Military University SC104, Introduction to Astronomy by James Landrith Mars, also known as the Red Planet, has long fascinated humanity. […]
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Jovian Aurora
There are some excellent photos of Jovian aurora from the Hubble Space Telescope and Galileo available here: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap001219.html http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980123.html http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970609.html Links courtesy of Physics Forums. This entry also posted […]
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The Failed Star?
Jupiter is often described as not only a gas giant, but “almost a sun” or a “failed star.” Surprisingly, Jupiter and Sol share similar atmospheric contents: Sol: Hydrogen – 78 […]
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Jupiter’s Atmosphere
It is believed by some scientists that the atmosphere of gas giants like Jupiter have retained much of their original atmospheric molecules since their formation. This is believed to be […]
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Mercury and Venus – A Comparison
Mercury Size: 4879 km Distance from Sun: 57,910,000 km Atmospheric composition: 42 % helium, 42% sodium and 15% oxygen Moons: none Orbit: 88 Earth days (highly elliptical) Rotation on axis: […]
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