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MOIYA MCTIER,
Astrophysicist, Folklorist, & Science Communicator
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Astronomy Fun Fact #81
Since astronomers study things that are so large and distant, we often think in log scales (base 10). That means we think in terms of...
Moiya McTier
Jul 4, 20191 min read
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1 comment
Astronomy Fun Fact #80
In honor of yesterday's total solar eclipse in South America, here's another eclipse fact. One hundred years ago, Albert Einstein was...
Moiya McTier
Jul 3, 20191 min read
8 views
0 comments
Astronomy Fun Fact #79
Today is a really exciting day for sky-watchers and solar astronomers everywhere, because today there's a total solar eclipse! This...
Moiya McTier
Jul 2, 20191 min read
7 views
0 comments
Astronomy Fun Fact #78
Stars are really hot! They have to be with all that force, energy, and enough pressure to fuse hydrogen into helium. But just how hot are...
Moiya McTier
Jul 1, 20191 min read
4 views
0 comments
Astronomy Fun Fact #77
It's technically possible for it to snow on Mars, but the snow almost never accumulates on the ground. The average temperature on Mars is...
Moiya McTier
Jun 30, 20191 min read
6 views
2 comments
Astronomy Fun Fact #76
You may have heard the terms "redshift" and "blueshift," which refer the stretching and contracting, respectively, of waves. This works...
Moiya McTier
Jun 29, 20191 min read
6 views
1 comment
Astronomy Fun Fact #75
Astronomers call an object's reflectivity or shininess its albedo. If an object reflects none of the light that's shined on it, its...
Moiya McTier
Jun 28, 20191 min read
9 views
2 comments
Astronomy Fun Fact #74
Comets are balls of dust and ice that orbit the Sun. They give off tails of vaporized particles as they orbit, but those tails don't...
Moiya McTier
Jun 27, 20191 min read
3 views
0 comments
Astronomy Fun Fact #73
A lot of people think that it's dangerous to fly through the asteroid belt or Oort cloud (a region of space beyond the orbit of Pluto...
Moiya McTier
Jun 26, 20191 min read
10 views
0 comments
Astronomy Fun Fact #72
Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, but Venus (the second planet from the Sun) is actually the hottest planet in the solar system....
Moiya McTier
Jun 25, 20191 min read
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0 comments
Astronomy Fun Fact #71
For most of its year, Pluto doesn't have an atmosphere. But when it reaches it's closest approach to the Sun, the heat thaws the frozen...
Moiya McTier
Jun 24, 20191 min read
6 views
1 comment
Astronomy Fun Fact #70
The Sun isn't on fire. The Sun is a giant ball of gas fusing millions of tons of hydrogen into helium every single second. People call...
Moiya McTier
Jun 23, 20191 min read
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0 comments
Astronomy Fun Fact #69
You actually can’t see the Great Wall of China from space! People say you can see it from space because it’s so big, but it’s not big....
Moiya McTier
Jun 22, 20191 min read
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0 comments
Astronomy Fun Fact #68
Happy Solstice, friends! I'm in the northern hemisphere, where I'll be celebrating the summer solstice and the longest day of the year....
Moiya McTier
Jun 21, 20191 min read
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0 comments
Astronomy Fun Fact #67
There's an actual protocol in place for what to do if someone ever detects aliens! In 1989, the International Academy of Astronautics...
Moiya McTier
Jun 20, 20191 min read
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0 comments
Astronomy Fun Fact #66
Happy Juneteenth! Today is a celebration of the end of slavery in the U.S., which lasted for 246 years before the 13th amendment was...
Moiya McTier
Jun 19, 20191 min read
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0 comments
Astronomy Fun Fact #65
Not all planets orbit a star. Theory suggests that planets could be ripped away from their host stars by gravitational interactions with...
Moiya McTier
Jun 18, 20191 min read
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Astronomy Fun Fact #64
Earlier this year (April 2019), astronomers released the first ever picture of the event horizon of a black hole. It was super exciting!...
Moiya McTier
Jun 17, 20191 min read
6 views
0 comments
Astronomy Fun Fact #63
There’s a 10,000 (!!!) square mile piece of land in West Virginia called the National Radio Quiet Zone. At the heart of the NRQZ sits a...
Moiya McTier
Jun 16, 20191 min read
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0 comments
Astronomy Fun Fact #62
There's no center of the universe! You might have heard that the universe is expanding, and someone might have explained it to you by...
Moiya McTier
Jun 15, 20191 min read
6 views
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