Category: Cosmos
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“Do not look at stars as bright spots only. Try to take in the vastness of the universe.”
– Maria Mitchell (1818-1889) – attributed 1 October 1847 is the day Maria Mitchell swept the sky with her telescope and discovered the comet of 1847 (comet Mitchell 1847VI). Honoured and recognized internationally for her discovery, Mitchell, who lived from 1818 to 1889, became one of the most famous American scientists of her day. Vassar…
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“Space isn’t remote at all. It’s only an hour’s drive away, if your car could go straight upwards.”
– Sir Fred Hoyle FRS (24 June 1915 – 20 August 2001) Observer 9 September 1979 ‘Sayings of the Week’ Where does space start? It’s ‘up there’, but where? Most people would say it’s above the atmosphere, but where does the atmosphere stop? There is no sharp boundary line, like the equator, where you can…
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“Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science.”
– Edwin Hubble (20 November 1889 – 28 September 1953), from “The Exploration of Space“. Harper’s Magazine 158: 732 (the May 1929 issue) An astrophysicist who was, amongst other things, able to determine that there were other galaxies and that they are all receding from us. He was famously named after the Hubble Space telescope,…
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“If the earth were flat from east to west …”
Claudius Ptolemy, c. 100 – c. 170 AD The full quote is here: “If the earth were flat from east to west, the stars would rise as soon for westerners as for Orientals, which is false. Also, if the earth were flat from north to south and vice versa, the stars which were always visible to anyone would continue…
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Pitfalls of Common Sense: courtesy of Carl Sagan – blog 11 of 11 – the wrap-up!
– Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark This is the final blog in this series and is intended to bring everything together with a summary, from Sagan, from some other sources and maybe one or two comments from me. ____________________________________________________________________ Rules for critical thinking (as per Carl Sagan’s Fine Art…
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Pitfalls of Common Sense: courtesy of Carl Sagan – blog 10 of 11
– Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark The last of Sagan’s twenty most common and perilous pitfalls — many of which are rooted in our chronic discomfort with ambiguity — are available here – one and two (blog 1 of 11), three and four (blog 2 of 11), five and…
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Pitfalls of Common Sense: courtesy of Carl Sagan – blog 9 of 11
– Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark The first 14 of Sagan’s twenty most common and perilous pitfalls — many of which are rooted in our chronic discomfort with ambiguity — are available here – one and two (blog 1 of 11), three and four (blog 2 of 11), five…
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Pitfalls of Common Sense: courtesy of Carl Sagan – blog 8 of 11
– Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark The first 12 of Sagan’s twenty most common and perilous pitfalls — many of which are rooted in our chronic discomfort with ambiguity — are available here – one and two (blog 1 of 11), three and four (blog 2 of 11), five…
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Pitfalls of Common Sense: courtesy of Carl Sagan – blog 7 of 11
– Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark The first 12 of Sagan’s twenty most common and perilous pitfalls — many of which are rooted in our chronic discomfort with ambiguity — are available here – one and two (blog 1 of 11), three and four (blog 2 of 11), five…
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Pitfalls of Common Sense: courtesy of Carl Sagan – blog 6 of 11
– Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark The first ten of Sagan’s twenty most common and perilous pitfalls — many of which are rooted in our chronic discomfort with ambiguity — are available here – one and two (blog 1 of 11), three and four (blog 2 of 11), five…
Stargazing Guy 