Look-UP
by Mitchell Tester, College Student Saturn The Ringed Planet When looking through a telescope, our sixth planet, Saturn, is one of the most breathtaking. As we know now, Saturn is not the only planet in our solar system that has rings. Planets such as Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune all have rings, although they are much…
Look-UP
by Mitchell Tester, College Student The North Star If you go outside any night with the sky clear and look directly above, you’ll notice a “fixed star.” That star is what we call the North Star, or its official name, Polaris. This star is in the constellation Ursa Minor, also known as the Little Dipper.…
Look-UP
by Mitchell Tester, College Student Christmas & Astronomy Happy holidays and Merry Christmas, everyone! This really is a special time of the year. As it is the holiday season, and Christmas is right around the corner, I wanted to somehow bridge the connection between astronomy and Christmas. Astronomical roots of the holiday season lead us…
Look-UP
by Mitchell Tester, College Student How our moon came to be “The Capture Theory” In last month’s column, I talked about the origin of the Moon and how it came to orbit us. I mentioned the two theories I would be discussing: the Giant Impact Theory and The Capture Theory. To recap from last month’s…
Look-UP
by Mitchell Tester, College Student How our moon came to be The “Giant Impact Theory” I want you to imagine for a moment that you are an Arab explorer in the 7th century. Talk of an abundance of gold across the Sahara Desert has convinced you and your fellow explorers to take a caravan across…
Look Up
Mitchell Tester, College Student With the recent news of the Soviet-era spacecraft crashing back to Earth from our friends on the other side of the world, I thought it would be fitting to talk about one of my favorite planets: Venus. Venus is the second most inner planet, roughly the size of the Earth. Often,…
Look Up
by Mitchell Tester, College Student “breathe in nature” I decided to take a break once more from space this month and talk about another thing that is really important to me: the outdoors. I love nature. To get in touch with nature, I like to visit national parks. I frequently visit Catoctin National Park right…
Look Up
by Mitchell Tester, College StudentWhen one talks of the universe, what comes to mind for me is outer space. Planets, moons, asteroids, and galaxies. Although the universe is everything around us, we are connected to everything. My favorite space fact is: We are made up of star dust. Meaning us, the grass on your front…
Look Up
by Mitchell Tester, College Student It’s cold out tonight. I open the slide door, and the frigid air hits me as I walk out my back door, telescope in hand. I make my way over to the table and set down the piece of equipment. I adjust it up to what appears as a bright…
Look Up
Life with a white dwarf star by Mitchell Tester, College Student As we know it, our solar system is currently the only harborer of life. But there is a possibility other solar systems in galaxies far away have the potential for life. Galaxies light years away…so far away, we could never even reach them in…
Look Up
The Curious Case of the Planet of the asteroids by Mitchell Tester, College Student As I discussed last month, there is much more to our solar system than just our planets. We learned the difference between meteors, meteoroids, meteorites, asteroids, and comets. It is only natural that I discuss the next part of our solar…
Look Up
Asteroids, M’s, and comets by Mitchell Tester, College Student At the center of our solar system sits the arbiter of life, our Sun. Eight planets orbit that Sun, although, what else is out there in our solar system? To answer that question, I will be discussing asteroids, meteoroids, meteors, meteorites, and comets. While next month,…
Look Up
You’re the expert lunar geologist of the first Moon cave exploration mission, currently hoisted up by a rope off the edge of a lunar cave. Probes were sent in advance and deemed the cave as safe. You are in a deep lava tube tunnel in an area of the Moon named “Mare Tranquillitatis.” The “Sea…
Look Up
As we learned last month, the Sun and stars alike are fascinating celestial objects. They produce the energy that allows us to exist, while varying greatly in size while doing so. To understand stars is to understand the lives that they lead. I will be breaking stars into two categories. First, I will lay out…
Look Up
by Mitchell Tester, College Student ““FAT OLD SUN”” The sun is a means for all living beings to exist, sitting at the center of our own solar system, 93 million miles from us here on Earth. Taking a trip around the Sun would take you 2.7 million miles, or 1,889 days, at a steady 60…
Look Up
by Mitchell Tester, College Student “The Dark Side of the Moon” I must admit I struggled to conjure up an idea of what to write about for this first month—space is just so vast. The Sun, rising above our heads every morning we wake up, is 93 million miles away. For the sake of trying…
