Author: Cassie Hatcher

You are looking up into the night sky and you finally see one, a shooting star! You close your eyes and make a wish. A few minutes later to your amazement you see another! “What are the odds?” you think to yourself as yet another one shoots across the sky. While you might think this…

There is a common misconception about black holes. Many are led to believe that black holes are infinitely heavy and therefore have infinite gravity. This is not true. While black holes are extremely heavy, they do not have an infinite mass or infinite gravity. While their gravity is very strong it is dependent on how…

Our Milky Way galaxy has a Big Sister, the Andromeda Galaxy. Andromeda lies 2.5 million light years away from us. Which is 2.36×1019 kilometers away. That is 2 with nineteen zeros behind it! The Andromeda galaxy is the most distant object you can see with the naked eye, given good observing conditions.  The distance to…

The sixth stop on our journey through the solar system is Saturn. Best recognized for its rings, Saturn is the second largest planet in our solar system. Saturn is not the only planet that has rings, but its rings are the most complex and prominent of all the planets. The ancients knew about Saturn and…

It may be hard to imagine what you have in common with a star or even a galaxy, but all things in the Universe have one thing in common, we are all constantly moving. Even when you are sitting down you are moving because you are on the Earth which is spinning about its axis….

Take a close look at the images above, do you recognize anything? Do you think the images are of the same object? You may be surprised to find out that these images are in fact of two different objects, one a satellite and one a planet. On the right we see the familiar face of…

As we continue to move through the solar system, we next reach Mars. The fourth planet from the Sun is a dusty, cold, red desert. Mars is easy to spot in the night sky, it looks like a bright reddish orange star. Mars is one of the most explored bodies in our solar system and…

Few people know that the Earth is constantly under assault by invisible high energy particles. These particles are cosmic rays, and they are bombarding the Earth from all directions. Cosmic rays were first discovered over one hundred years ago and we still do not know where these high energy particles are coming from.  What Are…

There may be a hypothetical Neptune-sized planet lurking out in the far reaches of our solar system past Pluto. There is mathematical evidence found by Caltech researchers in 2015 suggesting that we may have an undiscovered 9th planet. This planet, called “Planet X” or “Planet 9” could be 10 times as massive as the Earth,…

Continuing our exploration of the solar system we have made it back home, Earth. Our third planet from the Sun is currently the only place we know of that can host life. Earth is the fifth largest planet in the solar system and the largest planet inside of the asteroid belt. While all the other…