space cat's nerd corner
okay so i (space cat) am literally like the only headmate who cares about astronomy stuff, which means we collectively don't know much at all!! and i think that sucks because it's SO COOL to learn about!
anyway, you'll have to forgive me for being a total dumbass about these things. at the time of writing this, i just found out that astronauts don't regularly visit the moon! but how can i call myself 'space cat' if i don't know about space?!!?!? doesnt make any sense lmaooo, so that's why it's time to be a HUGE NERD!!!
this will be a very disorganized sort of journal thing- i'll just be adding onto it whenever i learn something new or just want to share something that's interesting.
space glossary
since we don't know a lot about astronomy, it can be pretty confusing to read stuff about it! so i figured i would write some semi-organized notes to remember what it all means. a lot of this was probably taught to us in school, but it never hurts to refresh our memory, yknow?
(most of these definitions were found here!)
- asteroid: small rocky objects that orbit the sun, and are much smaller than planets.
- astronomical unit (AU): a unit of measure equal to the average distance between the earth and the sun, about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers)
- binary: a system of two stars that revolve around a common center of gravity
- caldera: a type of volcanic crater that is extremely large, usually formed by the collapse of a volcanic cone or by a violent volcanic explosion
- cavus: a hollow, irregular depression
- celestial sphere: an imaginary sphere around the earth on which the stars and planets appear to be positioned
- cepheid variable: a variable star whose light pulsates in a regular cycle. the period of fluctuation is linked to the brightness of a star- brighter cepheids will have a longer period
- chaos: a distinctive area of broken terrain
- chasma: another word for canyon
- chondrite: a meteorite that contains chondrules
- chrondrule: small glassy spheres commonly found in meteorites
- chromosphere: the part of the sun's atmosphere just above the surface
- circumstellar disk: a torus or ring-shaped accumulation of gas, dust, or other debris in orbit around a star in different phases of its life cycle
- coma: an area of dust or gas surrounding the nucleus of a comet
- corona: the outer part of the sun's atmosphere. this is the part that is visible during a solar eclipse
- cosmic string: a tube-like configuration of energy that is believed to have existed in the early universe. it would have a thickness smaller than a trillionth of an inch, but would extend from one end of the visible universe to the other (note: what the fuck???)
- cosmogony: the study of celestial systems, including the solar system, stars, galaxies, and galactic clusters.
- cosmology: a branch of science that deals with studying the origin, structure, and nature of the universe.
- dark matter: matter in the universe that cannot be seen, but can be detected by its gravitational effects on other bodies
- debris disk: a ring-shaped circumstellar disk of dust and debris in orbit around a star. can be created as the next phase in planetary system development following protoplanetary disk phase. can also be formed by collisions between planetesimals.
- declination: the angular distance of an object in the sky from the celestial equator
- double asteroid: two asteroids that revolve around each other and are held together by the gravity between them. also called a binary asteroid
- variable star: a star that fluctuates in brightness
GOD THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS I WANT TO INCLUDE IN THIS LIST!!! i'll take a break now, but i'll add on to this later!
rambling about artemis ii
okay, let's talk about ARTEMIS II !!!! it launched on april 1, and im writing this on april 4. we briefly heard about it through a tumblr post earlier, but didn't think much of it because we didn't realize how significant it is. like, people go to space all the time, right? why's this one any different?
so you can imagine my surprise when i found out its the first crewed mission to the moon since apollo 17 in 1972?? like what the hell, that's huge! i guess i didn't realize just how far away the moon is- i thought it wasn't much different from going to the international space station. but like, hold on let me grab a picture-
LIKE ?? WHAT?? THE HELL?? how have i never heard that the ENTIRE REST OF THE GODDAMN SOLAR SYSTEM can fit in between earth and the moon?? thats insane! i just read that while scrolling on tumblr and i was like "no way that cant be right" but now im actually looking it up. dude thats crazy that we've been able to travel so far omg
anyway, now artemis ii is on their way there, currently more than halfway to the moon! the pictures so far are absolutely gorgeous. im kinda more focused on the pics of the actual spacecraft though, not the pics of earth (although those are really cool too!) but like, just look at this one:
okay this isnt necessarily related to astronomy but like damn!!! the dark green lighting, the screens, it looks straight out of a sci-fi movie. spacecrafts are just so prettyyy ughhh i wanna stare at them forever...
OKAY SORRY my dumbass objectum brain got distracted for a second LMAO- anyway lets change the subject!! have you heard that there's a sailor moon plushie at mission control in houston? found this on tumblr and its literally me:
guys we did it....we found the space cat....
i think thats all i have to say for now! there's a ton of other cool stuff that i could say but i think helix wants me to stop hogging front so byeee