ad astra per aspera

studyblr/stemblr | planetary science major

[vexheart]

[fairycosmos]

definitely not locked in. but not really locked out either. as that would imply a sort of freedom

[jos-study-corner]

Why are almost all the study blogs also like girl bloggers or have a super clean aesthetic? Where are my chaotic and outdoorsy study blog girlies?

[study-diaries]

Friendly reminder:

You lack consistency, not potential.

Get. To. Work.

[study-diaries]

How to Mentally Shift From Teacher-Guided to Self-Guided Learning

As someone who was homeschooled from Grade 8 till Grade 10, these are the small things that actually matter in the long run when you want to get ahead.

Because you can't always rely on teachers to help you through everything. Especially in college. So, hope this helps :)

Question the “I can’t do it alone” thought and replace it with “I can figure it out.”

The first thing is to change your mindset. If you have the perspective that you can only succeed or learn something if there is a teacher, then you've already relied on them.

So, instead of saying "I don't think I can do this alone", say "I can figure it out with some more time"

Tip: Whenever you feel that self-doubt taking over you, just remember the times when you've actually studied without a teacher. Especially during exam times, that counts as "doing it alone" too!

Accept learning is self-driven

Learning is not conditional. You can learn about various things entirely on your own if you put your mind to it.

The main thing you have to understand is that learning is always self-driven. Self-education is the best education, and the easiest way to do that is to sit down and actually start studying.

Teachers are guides, not handholding tools

I am not against teachers, in fact, I know how important a teacher is when it comes to learning. And that is why, you need to know the difference between someone you can go and ask questions to and someone you think you completely depend on.

Tip:

1. Ask questions when you genuinely have a doubt. If you haven't found the answer even after 25-30 mins, only then does the teacher come in.

2. If you do have to ask, group all your questions together for the topic and then go to the teacher.

[The reason why I give the 25-30 mins timeframe is because when you're learning, then you'll obviously have questions. And if you immediately go to teachers and ask them to clarify, you will get the answer, but it is possible that you forget it a lot quicker too. Because when you spend that much of time to find answers, then you'll definitely remember it longer.]

Embrace mistakes as learning opportunities and repeat each task

When you learn something new, you'll obviously do a lot of mistakes. That is a given.

And those mistakes are the ones that will stick with you. This is really common in subjects that require working and constant practicing. Like Maths, Physics, Accountancy, Statistics etc.

And for skills, you still need to keep doing repetitions of every single task until you finally understand the process.

Tip: Keep a small notebook where you'll write the mistakes you did for every single mistake that you keep repeating for a particular topic.

Surround yourself with the right people [environment matters]

If you are around people who don't focus on their studies and developing skills, who are lazy, and who ignore their work. It is highly possible that you will get influenced.

This is because environment matters. This does not mean you just stop being friends, it means that you make a few new friends that you can study with. Over time, you realize how productive you've really become.

Tip: People who drain your energy and distract you need to go out of your life.

Ask yourself “why” and “how” questions constantly.

The easiest way to learn is by asking two main questions:

Why do we do that?

How do we do that?

If you are studying a topic, start asking yourself these two questions for everything. Change the format of the questions too. "Why do we do X and Y and not Z?", "How do we know that?", "Why do we need to do this again?" etc.

Set challenges slightly above your current level

You will not be able to learn new things if you just stay in the same comfort zone.

And that is why, you have 3 levels in your learning journey:

Level 1 => Your comfort zone. Things you already know

Level 2 => Things that are out of your comfort zone but are managable

Level 3 => Things that are hard and cannot be managed yet without passing Level 2

Divide different tasks into different layers. And do the process in order so you can easily understand the process and adapt it.

Experiment with different learning formats (videos, podcasts, books)

When you want to study something or learn a new skill. YouTube, AI, and Books are your best friends.

When you learn using different styles, information sticks to your brain faster. So, experiment!

Tip: Use NotebookLM for this! It is the best tool that helps you combine every style

________________________

Hope this helps ! :)

[pwrfectsnoopy]

for someone with a study blog i sure don’t study a lot

[mawofthemagnetar]

What do you mean “chat” is now referring to ChatGPT and not twitch chat? What? What? What the fuck? No?

When I address chat I am speaking to a presumed Greek chorus of real human people shitposting on their lunch break, not a machine that devours lakes to covert electricity into slop.

[astronomy--girl]

[scribeherself]

the art of making it matter

light a candle when you work. put on lipstick for the grocery store. play that song that makes you feel like you're in a coming-of-age montage. take the long way home. write love letters to no one. read poetry out loud to your plants. the secret isn't that life is inherently romantic—it's that you can MAKE it romantic by paying attention, by adding ceremony to the mundane, by refusing to let a single ordinary day pass unloved.

[nasa]

What’s Hiding in the Emptiest Parts of Space?

This artist’s impression pinpoints many cosmic voids –– relatively empty bubbles of space.

The universe is home to trillions of galaxies, each chock full of smaller cosmic objects like stars and planets. Since galaxies gravitate together in a web-like pattern, there are also immense open spaces called cosmic voids in between. In those growing, gloomy places, dark energy dominates.

Galaxies in this animation are structured a bit like a Hoberman sphere (a lattice-like toy ball that expands and collapses), growing farther apart as the universe expands.

Zoomed out maps of the universe show that galaxies often cluster together in bright city-like regions. Each cosmic metropolis is connected to others by interstate highways – vast filaments of dark matter, gas, and dust, along which additional galaxies can be found. This large-scale structure is called the cosmic web.

Way out in the boondocks – far from the galaxies and filaments – are the cosmic voids. They’ve been growing larger for billions of years, emptying out as gravity pulls matter elsewhere.

This animation visualizes the early universe, when the cosmic was full of a hot plasma soup.

Cosmic voids were born when the universe looked extremely different than it does today. Instead of being speckled with stars and galaxies, the cosmos was filled with a sea of plasma (charged particles) that formed a dense, almost uniform fluid.

There were slightly denser kernels of matter, like a single ounce of cinnamon sprinkled into about 13,000 cups of cookie dough! Since the clumps had more mass, their gravity attracted additional material. Those areas grew and grew, drawing more matter together to form stars, galaxies, and galaxy clusters as the universe expanded over billions of years. Meanwhile, the spaces in between became ever emptier.

A simulation of large-scale structure forming under the influence of gravity.

Cosmic voids aren’t completely empty, though. They do have sparse galaxies, though they seem to have delayed development. Since there’s less matter, there’s weaker gravity pulling things together so stars and galaxies form more slowly. And those galaxies are isolated so they’re less likely to interact with others, which fuels growth in denser places like galaxy clusters.

But voids are mostly filled with things we can’t see. They contain a thin mist of dark matter along with a relatively larger amount of WIMPS (weakly interacting massive particles) like ghostly neutrinos than we find elsewhere in the universe. Since there’s not very much stuff in voids to create gravity, a different force reigns supreme: dark energy, the mysterious cosmic pressure that seems to be speeding up the universe’s expansion. Since cosmic voids are influenced primarily by dark energy, they offer clues about its behavior.

Astronomers haven’t thoroughly studied cosmic voids yet, but our upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will be wide-eyed enough to reveal those desert patches of space like we’ve never seen them before. Studying them will show how the universe is put together and how dark energy is pushing galaxies apart.

If you could fly through the cosmic web at hyperspeed, you might see a view like this simulated one!

So far, scientists have found around 1,000 cosmic voids. Roman’s 3D surveys should find tens of thousands more, both large and small, scattered throughout earlier cosmic eras than previous large sky surveys could see. That means we’ll be able to watch how the most vacant places get even emptier over billions of years. And astronomers can trace any changes in dark energy’s might by seeing how it stretches voids, where dark energy dominates, across cosmic time. 

Follow along with Roman’s journey to launch at nasa.gov/roman.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

[astronomy--girl]

As someone who failed calculus three times, physics 1 once, vector calc once, and ochem twice: failure will only push you to work harder. a hard class genuinely is difficult, and not everyone will get it on the first try. as long as it doesn't impact your degree path too greatly, it should work out okay! trust!

[nasa]

Welcome to the Far Side of the Moon

A crescent Earth sets behind the Moon.

On April 6, 2026, the Artemis II astronauts flew around the Moon, observing the far side – which we never see on Earth thanks to tidal locking – with their own eyes and with cameras.

See more of the Moon:

A crescent Earth setting behind the Moon’s horizon.

Earth setting behind the Moon as seen by the Artemis II crew. Over half the left side of the image is filled by the gray lunar surface, pocked with craters.

A close view of the Moon. Jagged circles of craters dot the gray surface, fading to dark on the left side of the image.

A close view of the edge of the Moon. Jagged circles of craters dot the dark gray lunar surface, which arcs across the image.

A close-up view of the Moon, filling most of the frame. Along the left side of the image, the terminator divides the illuminated and darkened sides of the Moon.

A close-up view of the Moon, filling most of the frame. Along the left side of the image, the terminator divides the illuminated and darkened sides of the Moon.

Earth just as it set behind the Moon, as seen by the Artemis II crew. The dark gray surface of the Moon, pocked with craters, arcs from the bottom left corner of the image to the top right.

Check out more photos from the lunar flyby, including astronaut selfies and the solar eclipse only they experienced.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

[sabitchhh]

everyone is trying to take your oxford comma away from you. don't give them that satisfaction, reward, or pleasure.

[astronomy--girl]

Your daily reminder that you don't have to be a genius or some math whiz in order to be a STEM major. One failed class, one bad exam, or even one awful teacher does not make you unintelligent or incapable of achieving your goals. Dust yourself off and try again.

[e-the-village-cryptid]

Your daily reminder that the cocky prep-school-grad white boy in your STEM class is not smarter than you, just wildly more overconfident and with a slight advantage from better preparation. There is so much to learn though that the preparation advantage truly is slight and will disappear in the first year or two if you stick with it. Don't fall for the lie that everyone else gets it and you're the only one struggling, frequently the worst know-it-all in the class actually only the slightest idea what's going on, too.

Also, don't assume that the thing you don't understand is insanely complicated and you'll never get it. Assume you will understand it. Assume you're very close to understanding it. I did peer tutoring for three years in college and something almost every student said as soon as they understood a concept was always: "Oh, that's it? I thought it was way more complicated than that." And I'd be like yes!!! You've been so very close to understanding it all along!!!! I watched students go from failing and considering dropping the major to getting B+/A-s while two-thirds of the time all I had to do was say "show me how you would try to solve this" and tell them to just keep going every time they looked at me like they were lost and ready to give up. And they'd figure it out. That's the real advantage that the privileged students have: they assume that obviously they are smart and can figure it out, and so eventually they do. Persevere with the confidence of a mediocre white man!

[astronomy--girl]

Orion

[astronomy--girl]

a bad semester will never dictate your intelligence. you will get this degree in spite of it all.

[astronomy--girl]

most horrific quarter of my life oh my god. but we persist.

[astronomy--girl]

a bad semester will never dictate your intelligence. you will get this degree in spite of it all.