The Young Astronomers Newsletter

  • 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…

  • Journey to a Red Planet

    Young Astronomers Blog, Volume 28, Number 16. From time to time if you look up into the night sky, you might see an orangish/reddish object. This most likely is the planet Mars. As well-known as Mars is, it is not a great sight through a small telescope. A telescope with a relatively large aperture is…

  • Dark Matter

    Young Astronomers Blog, Volume 28, Number 15. In a previous article, I explored the standard model of particle physics and discussed what ordinary matter is made of. All the matter that we can see and touch is composed of baryons (particles containing three quarks) and, as such, is referred to as baryonic matter. However, the…

  • Leap Year, the Solstice, and Seasons

    Young Astronomers Blog, Volume 28, Number 14. As we go through the year, we notice that our weather changes. For those of us who live in the United States it can be quite warm (okay, hot) during the summer months. In winter, it is cold and often accompanied by snow. As we look up at…

  • Venus

    Young Astronomers Blog, Volume 28, Number 13. Often when you look up into the night sky you will find a bright object low in the horizon in the morning to the east or in the evening to the west. This is not the Moon; it is the planet Venus. Venus is the third brightest object…

  • Going Commercial

    Young Astronomers Blog, Volume 28, Number 12. In 1958, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration was formed. NASA is a civilian agency responsible for overseeing the United States space program. Commercial companies have played a significate role in the design, development, and manufacture of the hardware and software required to put U.S. spacecraft into space.…

  • The Standard Model of Particle Physics

    Young Astronomers Blog, Volume 28, Number 11. I thought we would take a different view of the Universe than most astronomers do and explore what the universe is made of … at a very small scale. Scientists call this the Standard Model of Particle Physics. Many of us learned that things are made of molecules, which are…

  • The Great Debate

    Young Astronomers Blog, Volume 28, Number 10. We live in a galaxy called the Milky Way. Our galaxy is around 100,000 light years across, and our solar system is located ½ of the way out from the galactic center. The universe is significantly larger containing billions and possibly a trillion other galaxies. However, for a long time…