Physical Science

This has been one of the most exciting and fascinating writing assignments I have undertaken for Helium. During my research for this article (which has spanned nearly two weeks), I have become totally convinced that extraterrestrial life exists. Not only…
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Pulsars are amazing astronomical objects. The most accurate definition of a pulsar is that they are fast rotating neutron stars. Pulsars begin with a supernova explosion. A supernova occurs when a very massive star collapses and then explodes. This occurs…
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While the Hubble telescope was launched in 1990, the idea behind it was launched much earlier. In 1946, a professor and researcher from Yale, Lyman Spitzer came up with the idea. He pointed out that even the best telescopes on…
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The Hubble Space Telescope was first launched January 24,1990. On board it carried a variety of cameras and spectrographs and supposedly, everything imaginable it would need to overcome atmospheric deterrents to learning the secrets of outer space. Yet, despite the…
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Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun, and the second largest gas giant in the solar system. It takes twenty-nine and a half years to orbit the sun. Its name comes from Saturn (Kronos), the father of Jupiter. One…
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A shepherd moon orbits near the outer edges of a gas giant’s rings, or sometimes even within the rings themselves. These moons appear to be responsible for defining sharp boundaries and even gaps in those rings. The gravity of the…
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The moment the news was released that the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter had discovered opal on Mars, I knew that at one time, there had once been persistent masses of liquid water on the Martian surface. Hydrated silica, better known as…
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Kepler’s three laws deal with how the planets orbit the sun. Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) in 1599, as a former assistant to Danish Astronomer, Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), was a note taker and observer of the stars, galaxies, and heavenly matters, worked hard…
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Lyrids Meteor Shower 2011 April 17 to April 26 – No telescope required. The Lyrid meteor shower 2011 promises to be a meteor shower well worth watching, for astronomy enthusiasts and casual viewers alike. During the period April 17 to…
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Dwarf planets are now one of three categories of non-satellite, non-stellar objects orbiting the sun, the other two being planets and small solar system bodies. As defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 2006, a dwarf planet is a celestial…
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