The FAS Astronomers Blog

  • Year End Summary 2020

    Young Astronomers Blog, Volume 28, Year End. Happy New Year! I hope you enjoyed the Young Astronomers Blogs for 2020. Just in case you missed a few, here is a summary of the articles for the past year. More to follow in 2021. The Solar System (and beyond) Venus Journey to a Red Planet Jupiter Saturn…

  • Saturn (and a conjunction with Jupiter)

    Young Astronomers Blog, Volume 28, Number 24. Every so often, two (or more) planets appear close to each other in the night sky. We call this a conjunction. Late in December 2020, we were treated to a special conjunction where Jupiter and Saturn appeared closer together than they had since 1226. The two planets were…

  • Exoplanets

    Young Astronomers Blog, Volume 28, Number 23. Prior to 1992, the number of known planets was small; there were nine. Yes, nine. It was easy to memorize their names using the mnemonic “My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas.” Then everything changed and Pluto had nothing to do with it. Astronomers began to…

  • Black Holes

    Young Astronomers Blog, Volume 28, Number 22. The 2020 Nobel prize in physics was recently awarded to three scientists, Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel, and Andrea Ghez, for their landmark work with Black Holes. Black Holes are probably one of the strangest and most interesting objects in the cosmos. Their density is so great that gravity…

  • Asteroids

    Young Astronomers Blog, Volume 28, Number 21. When we think of our solar system, we typically think of our Sun, eight planets, and five dwarf planets. We often forget about the objects circling the Sun in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. They are, of course, the asteroids. Most of the…

  • Water, Phosphine, and the possibility of life elsewhere in the Solar System

    Young Astronomers Blog, Volume 28, Number 20. Although many have dreamed about life on other worlds, so far, life has only been found on the Earth. The search for life has gone down one avenue as new “exoplanets” are found and we get closer to finding a planet like the Earth orbiting another star. This…

  • Rocks and Minerals

    Young Astronomers Blog, Volume 28, Number 19. Walk outside and look down. You might see a few rocks. A casual glance might reveal that the rocks around you are gray, or they might have a hint of color. A few might even sparkle in the sun. Although they look simple, rocks are hard! A more…

  • Jupiter

    Young Astronomers Blog, Volume 28, Number 18. If you look up in the night sky over the next few months you might see what looks like a bright star. However, it is not a star, it is the planet Jupiter. Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system, at 11 times the width of…

  • Meteors, Meteoroids, and Meteorites

    Young Astronomers Blog, Volume 28, Number 17. Have you ever gone out at night and looked up at the stars? From time to time you might see a streak of light stretch across the sky. Many people call these “shooting stars”. But they are not stars at all. They are meteors – small chunks of…