Author: Ayden Harris
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Space Weather
Space weather is an interesting topic that has not been discussed much. We know that the temperature in space is ~3 degrees Kelvin, however, we don’t consider space weather to be important because it is hard for us to visualize weather in space. Space weather is primarily affected by the interplanetary magnetic fields carried by…
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Goldilocks Planet
Looking for another habitable planet outside of Earth has drawn the attention of scientists for years. Initially scientists believed that as long as a planet orbits a star in a habitable zone that the could be a potential planet for humans to colonize on. However, over the years that list has gotten more extensive. So,…
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The Unknown Planet
Growing up we always heard about how our solar system had eight main planets orbiting the Sun; Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. But, what if there was another planet? This is known as the ninth planet hypothesis, and no I don’t mean Pluto. It is estimated that it could have ten…
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The Lesser Known Moon
Titan is a commonly forgotten about moon in our solar system. It is the second largest moon that orbits Saturn. There are a few interesting things about Titan. Titan is one of the most Earth-like worlds found to date. Titan’s atmosphere is comprised of mainly nitrogen (95%) and some methane (5%). However, why it is…
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Asteroid Mining
As we know, the Earth’s resources are finite. There are only so many materials and metals that we can extract from Earth before it runs out. To help combat this problem, a new solution was envisioned, asteroid mining. What asteroid mining would do is collect precious metals from asteroids near Earth. Some of these include…
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Tectonics, plate tectonics, and Pangea
Something that is interesting is the difference between plate tectonics and tectonics. Tectonics is the faulting or folding or other deformation of the outer layer of a planet. This goes hand in hand with volcanism because of the required internal heat. A good example of this in our solar is mars having the Tharsis region…
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Understanding Gravity
There are many different ways to visualize how gravity functions. However, one of the best way I have found to visualize gravity is with strings and using the center of mass. Gravity is the weakest force of the four fundamental forces, however, it works over an infinite amount of distance. I put this in perspective…
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Chapters 1 and 2
Something that I thought was interesting about the readings was the concept of the speed of light, but more specifically how it applies to space travel. We know, based on looking out into the universe, that the universe is about ~14 billion years old. Obviously this means, that if we were to travel at the…
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Intro post
I am excited to learn about the solar system this semester! I have taken Astronomy which inspired me to become a physics major! You can learn more about the physics major at Vanderbilt here. The attached image is My buddy and I playing volleyball
Ayden Harris' astro blog 