Daily Archives: February 20, 2013

Astronomy’s Evolving Role in Society

Posted on February 20, 2013 by werdercj

Above: Stonehenge is an ancient structure in England that was used to mark the seasons. Archaeoastronomy is the study of ancient structures in search of astronomical connections.  It shows how people in the past understood and utilized phenomena they observed in the sky.  To me, the most interesting part of this is the progression of […] Continue reading →

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Plato’s Cosmology

Posted on February 20, 2013 by JT McJunkins

While Plato’s cosmology may seem odd to a modern observer, it was a carefully reasoned, innovative theory in its time. Plato departed from his predecessor’s ideas beginning with his belief in a deity. While pre-Socratic philosophers attributed orde… Continue reading →

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The OWL

Posted on February 20, 2013 by marknshirleyvu

While reading about different types of telescopes here on Earth I stumbled across a cancelled project known as the OWL (Overwhelmingly Large) Telescope, and overwhelming might be an understatement.  This telescope, a concept developed by the European Southern Observatory, would boast a single aperture measuring 100 meters in diameter, longer than a football field! It […] Continue reading →

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Aether And The Celestial Region

Posted on February 20, 2013 by jacksonlangham

  Picture Source Aristotle accepted the ideas of fire, air, earth, and water. He claimed them to be terrestrial elements due to their variable nature. These elements could be broken […] Continue reading →

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Black Hole Collisions

Posted on February 20, 2013 by marknshirleyvu

Even with little formal expertise about black holes, most people know that black holes are extremely powerful regions in space in which gravity “sucks in” everything around the black hole with no chance of escape.  Now imagine if two of these massive regions were to collide.  It is easy to infer that said collision would […] Continue reading →

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Interferometry

Posted on February 20, 2013 by eaangel

The concept of interferometry is really cool to me.  The fact that multiple telescopes can be combined to make larger images makes perfect sense, but I have trouble wrapping my head around the idea that even though there are huge … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Hubble Images: Not as Easy as Just Taking Pictures

Posted on February 20, 2013 by zvgio

Most people have heard of the Hubble Space Telescope, a visible light telescope that has been orbiting Earth since 1990, and if they haven’t, they’ve probably at least seen some of it’s images of distant galaxies and majestic nebulae. These pictures are vibrantly colorful and awe-inspiring, but they don’t start off that way. All of […] Continue reading →

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White Holes?

Posted on February 20, 2013 by charlesbcochran

The idea of a black hole has been along for a long time, as a region in space having a gravitational field so intense that no matter can escape from it. These regions have not been directly discovered so to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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