General

Wildfires

WildFires: The Risk Posed To Astronomy

With the devastating Australian wildfire season of 2020 and the California wildfires over the past few years, we understand that the issue of wildfires are not contained to the Pacific Northwest. We just would just…



Uranus Discovery Of Uranus

The Case For Exploring Uranus

As has been seen recently, with the recently reviewed data of Voyager 2, it was recently discovered that Uranus is actually losing its atmosphere! The full article can be found on the Phys.org website, but…


Orbits

Types Of Common Satellite Orbits

Today, we will be talking about the different satellite orbits that are commonly used. These are the most often used, but not a full list of all the possible orbits. Geostationary transfer orbit This is…


Leap Day

Leap Years: What Are They

Leap years are a calendar year that contains an additional day added to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical year or seasonal year. As a result of the Earth’s revolution around the Sun taking approximately 365.242189 days, there needs…


Weather Satellites

Celebrating 60 Years Of Weather Satellites

2020 marks the 60th anniversary of the first weather satellite, Tiros 1 by NASA. Launched on April 1, 1960 at 11:40:09 UTC, Tiros-1 was the first successful low-Earth orbital weather satellite. It was a major test for…


NIST

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a physical sciences laboratory and a non-regulatory agency of the United States Department of Commerce. Its mission is to promote innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST’s activities are organized into…


Deep Space Atomic Clock

Deep Space Atomic Clock: An Introduction

A specific miniaturized type of atomic clock, the Deep Space Atomic Clock is a ultra-precise mercury-ion atomic clock that would be utilized for precise radio navigation in deep space. Managed by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and activated in…


Asteroid Sample Mission

Asteroid Sample Missions

2020 is a big year for asteroid sample missions as there are 2 missions objectives that are on this year. The NASA mission OSIRIS-REx beings sampling manuevers from 101955 Bennu in July. The JAXA Hayabusa2…


Atomic Clocks

Atomic Clocks

Atomic clocks are clock devices that utilize a hyperfine transition frequency that is based upon certain frequencies of atoms as a timekeeping element. Atomic clocks are the most accurate time and frequency standards known, and are used as primary standards for international time distribution services. Utilizing atomic…