The Young Astronomers Newsletter

  • Exploring Mars, Past and Present

    Young Astronomers Blog, Volume 29, Number 2. Back in the 19th century there was a focus on the planet Mars. Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli studied the surface of Mars during the opposition of 1877 and believed he saw lines crossing the planet. He called them canali, which means channels. The term was later mis-translated as…

  • The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI)

    Young Astronomers Blog, Volume 29, Number 1. The universe is a big place. There might be some 200 billion to over a trillion galaxies in the visible universe, each with around 200 billion stars. Then here we are on this bluish/green planet orbiting a single yellowish star in a solar system around ½ way out…

  • 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…