-
“The most remarkable discovery in all of astronomy is that the stars are made of atoms of the same kind as those on the earth.”
– Richard P. Feynman (11 May 1918 – 15 Feb 1988) What is there to say about Richard Feynman, American theoretical physicist who was probably the most brilliant, influential, and iconoclastic figure in his field. His lifelong interest was in subatomic physics. In 1965, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in…
-
“When we look out into space, we are looking into our own origins, because we are truly children of the stars.”
– Professor Brian Cox, Wonders of the Universe, BBC Why are we here? Where do we come from? These are the most enduring of questions. And it’s an essential part of human nature to want to find the answers. We can trace our ancestry back hundreds of thousands of years to the dawn of humankind.…
-
“Shoot for the stars but if you happen to miss, shoot for the moon instead.”
– Neil A Armstrong (5 August 1930 – 25 August 2012) The first human to stand on the Moon! What a guy! With Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins in lunar orbit, the first two human beings to stand somewhere that isn’t the Earth. Did he say the above quote? Whether he did or didn’t what does…
-
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9
Discussing originality and plagiarism, Matthew Syed uses the release of two very similar movies in 1998, Armageddon and Deep Impact, as an example of how our brains are wired for unoriginality. He finds, in his Radio 4 series Sideways (available as a podcast), that we evolve as a collective brain, absorbing our shared cultural cues and looking…
-
“Because they are so long-lived, atoms really get around. Every atom you possess has almost certainly passed through several stars and been part of millions of organisms on its way to becoming you.”
― Bill Bryson, A Really Short History of Nearly Everything The rest of the paragraph from his book is really awesome and inspiring, it goes: “We are each so atomically numerous and so vigorously recycled at death that a significant number of our atoms—up to a billion for each of us, it has been suggested—probably…
-
“Vita ex pulvis. We are made from the dust of dead stars.”
— Christopher Paolini, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars Go to the bottom of this post to read about this incredible image of the Cone Nebula Credit The full quote is: “Have you ever considered the fact that everything we are originates from the remnants of stars that once exploded?” Jorrus said, “Vita ex…
-
“Above me shone the stars, for the night was very clear.”
Wells, H.G.. The Time Machine: with Illustrations (Classic Collection Book 22) (p. 63). Kindle Edition. The great H.G. Wells, in The Time Machine, goes on to state: “I felt a certain sense of friendly comfort in their twinkling. All the old constellations had gone from the sky, however: that slow movement which is imperceptible in…
-
“I don’t believe in astrology; I’m a Sagittarius and we’re sceptical.”
― Arthur C. Clarke (16 December 1917 – 19 March 2008) Science fiction author, futurist, sceptic, science proponent and all-round quotable guy – but did he say this? QI isn’t sure! Whether he said it or not, is not the issue. It’s whether astrology is true or not – and how people react, behave and treat…
-
“It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience.”
The full quote goes: “It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the…
-
“While [Thales] was studying the stars and looking upwards, he fell into a pit, and a neat, witty Thracian servant girl jeered at him, they say, because he was so eager to know the things in the sky that he could not see what was there before him at his very feet.”
![“While [Thales] was studying the stars and looking upwards, he fell into a pit, and a neat, witty Thracian servant girl jeered at him, they say, because he was so eager to know the things in the sky that he could not see what was there before him at his very feet.”](https://stargazingguy.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/the_eclipse_of_thales_historical_eclipses.png?w=1024)
Plato, Theaetetus, 174a (trans. H. N. Fowler)Thales (624/623 BC – c548/545 BC) Thales – the father of science. According to Herodotus, Thales predicted the solar eclipse of 28 May 585 BC. The appearance of the eclipse was interpreted as an omen and interrupted a battle in a long-standing war between the Medes and the Lydians.…
Stargazing Guy
Connecting people to the Stars
-
“Distribution Is Survival. Expansion Is Progress.”
– Alex Ioskevich (LinkedIn) Alex Ioskevich, of (amongst other things) Quantum Propulsion Technologies Ltd, goes on to state that “every scalable system distributes its load. Biological life spreads across ecosystems. Digital systems distribute across networks. Resilient economies diversify across geography.Civilization is no different. ___________________________________________________________ His insight to this simple and insightful observation is full of…
-
“Science Fiction Is a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy.”
– Peter H. Diamandis, Metatrends substack, 17 July 2026 Why are people so pessimistic about the future – and view the past as some form of pastoral utopia? On these pages we promote hope – not cope or mope. Hope lives here. An interesting insight is from Peter H. Diamandis in his substack, where he…
-
“I believe in evidence.”
– Isaac Asimov, The Roving Mind (1997), (2 January 2 1920 – 6 April 1992) Scientist and science fiction author Asimov’s output of novels and books popularising and explaining science was prodigious. As a rationalist he often railed against superstitious and pseudoscientific beliefs that tried to pass themselves off as genuine science and had this…
-
What is a light-year?
A light-year is a measure of distance – not time (or anything to do with Disney’s Toy Story). It’s used to indicate the distance to stars and galaxies. It’s the distance light travels in one year in a vacuum, which is about: – 4.2465 light-years OR 5.88 trillion miles OR 9.46 trillion kilometres Light travels…
-
How far is that star?
Basically, far! The Sun is the closest (and brightest) star. It is about: – 93 million miles – 150 million kilometres The next closest star (Proxima Centauri) is invisible to the unaided human eye and you need to be in the Southern Hemisphere to see it with a telescope (it’s too dim to see with…
-
Death rates from disasters have fallen over the last century.
Good news. Recent data indicates that natural disasters are NOT going to kill us all. The global death rate from all natural disasters (drought, floods, storms, earthquakes, wildfires, extreme temperatures, etc.) has fallen by more than 90% over the last century. The total number of deaths has fallen substantially, despite there being four times as…
Stargazing Guy 