Daily Archives: February 10, 2013

Gravitational Lensing

Posted on February 10, 2013 by fathomingthestars

Isaac Newton may be well known for his Law of Universal Gravitation, but the law has a fundamental flaw—it states that only things with mass can be affected by gravity.  Photons, the quanta of light, have no mass, but we know that they are affected by gravity.  One of the ways we can see how […] Continue reading →

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Historical Astronomers in Context

Posted on February 10, 2013 by werdercj

Johannes Kepler (December 27, 1571- November 15, 1630) Johannes Kepler was initially hired as Tycho Brahe’s apprenctice.  When Tycho died, Kepler was left to make sense of his observations; after years of analyzing them and trying to make sense of them in terms of circular orbits, he finally realized that planetary orbits are ellipses, not circles.  […] Continue reading →

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