Our Lady of Guadalupe

Posted on February 11, 2023 by oilrigatoni
Big C Catholics

To me, one of the most interesting historical phenomena related to the cosmos occurred in modern day Mexico in the year 1531. This is just after the Spaniards had conquered much of the region through bloodshed and war. However, one moment of peace emerged from the area. Our Lady of Guadalupe is a well-known image venerated by millions around the world. There is a whole legend around it, which you can read about at Learn Religions, but it will suffice to say that her appearance and the subsequent chapel led to the conversion of millions of indigenous peoples to Catholicism around the Americas. Furthermore, its presence has seen many miracles, including its miraculous longevity and durability, as well as the supernatural nature of its painting and its eyes.

But the primary purpose of this blog post is to describe the astronomical significance of the tilma (the name of the cloak on which it is painted). Firstly, a general description of the celestial bodies within the image. She stands in front of the sun, with rays emerging from behind her. Also, she stands on the crescent moon. Both of these align with the Bible verse saying, “A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve star. (Rev 12:1)”. She is also clothed with the tilma covered in stars. These stars were investigated by an astronomer named Juan Hernandez Ilescas.

His investigations found that there are 46 stars on the tilma, and the positioning of their constellations align perfectly with the night sky on December 12, 1531. There are fifteen visible constellations of the possible eighty-nine, as those were the ones seen in the sky on the night of her apparition.

Sacred Windows

The only difference is that the constellations are reversed on the tilma, making it seem as if the sky was being viewed from above the stars, or as if from outside the universe. Some of the constellations are invisible, as the tilma is not present at those places or there are folds covering them. The constellations hold significance; for example, Leo is positioned over her womb, and the Lion is a common symbol for God in Christianity. Also, the primary star in Leo is Regulus (“Little King”). Corona Borealis means Northern Crown, and is positioned over her forehead, also matching with the verse of Revelations. Finally, the Virgo constellation, meaning Virgin, is positioned over her heart. This refers to her pure heart and perpetual virginity as outlined in the Christian faith.

Her appearance also coincided with the winter solstice (12th of December) of the Julian calendar (22nd of current calendar). This had important cultural significance, indicating the arrival of the longer days and its association with “The Light of the World,” as in her Son in her womb. Furthermore, the winter solstice was a time of fear for the Aztecs, as they believed the celestial bodies to be deities in war, and the winter solstice meant the moon was winning. But the positioning of the Virgin Mary both above and in front of the sun and the moon signaled she was greater than both of their deities.

The final celestial phenomena not seen in the tilma yet present on the day of her apparition is Haley’s Comet, right on the horizon. It is yet another celestial event abounding on the night of her appearance.

I find all of the miracles surrounding the tilma of Our Lady of Guadalupe fascinating. Whether you believe in God or not, the testimonies around the supernatural cloak are still amazing. Also, the astronomical events depicted on the tilma aligning with the night of its creation are astounding to me. The entire situation I find captivating, and I wanted to share it with whomever reads this.

Posted in Class, Historical, Stars | Tagged , | Comments Off on Our Lady of Guadalupe

Blog Post 2 – What was Stonehenge really for?

Posted on February 10, 2023 by Melanie Marszal

Most people have seen pictures or heard of Stonehenge, an ancient monument on the Salisbury Plain in England. Personally, while I had seen references to Stonehenge in the media, I never actually knew what it was for, or what people thought it was for. It has been difficult for historians to find a definitive answer, as the building of Stonehenge is estimated to have begun over 5,000 years ago, and spanned over the course of about 1,500 years. Historians are fairly certain that Stonehenge was used as a burial site at some point, and many believe Stonehenge was crucial to the ceremonies and/or religion of the people who built it. However, in the 1960’s, astronomer Gerald Hawkins suggested a different possible purpose of Stonehenge: astronomy.

It was always somewhat accepted that if you stand at the center of Stonehenge on June 21st (the day of the summer solstice), you will see a cluster of stones lined up perfectly with where the solstice Sun rises. Hawkins not only confirmed this alignment, but suggested a number of other alignments, and asserted that the arrangement of Stonehenge may have been used to predict eclipses as well. While this theory has excited many people, and may be true, some argue that the people building Stonehenge would not have had the knowledge or data necessary to make so many astronomical predictions. What do you think? Was Hawkins reaching? Do you think the builders of Stonehenge were conscious of the astronomy at play in their arrangements, or do you think the alignments are due to coincidence?

Picture of Stonehenge at night under the stars from Sky at Night Magazine.
Posted in Class, Historical, Instruments, Moons, Sun | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Blog Post 2 – What was Stonehenge really for?

The Trial of Galileo

Posted on February 9, 2023 by reachforthestarsbysam
Astronomer Galileo Galilei using a telescope. Galileo is the scientist known for first turning a telescope towards the sky.

Galileo Galilei is one of the most renowned figures in astronomy history, as he was one of the biggest and most meticulous supporters of the heliocentric model of the universe. However, Galileo not only had to fight against the fact that for all of history the idea of the geocentric solar system had been accepted as fact, he also had to deal with the fact that as a devout Catholic, he had to follow under the guidelines of the Catholic Church’s teaching. In Italy during Galileo’s lifetime, The Roman Catholic Church reigned supreme and to claim or try and prove that the earth was not the center of the solar system (and the universe) was deemed as heretical (which is why Copernicus waited until he was on his death bed before publishing his theories on heliocentrism. Despite Galileo’s extremely accurate data and falsification of Aristotelian physics, he was warned several times by the Catholic Church and its leaders to back away from the heretical theory.

Galileo went through a long and arduous period of fending off the church and trying to prove his theories correct through essays and publications. It all came to a head in June of 1633 when he was called before the Roman Inquisition to confess his crime of going against the doctrine of the Catholic Church as well as his sin of heresy. At such an old age (around 70), Galileo was tired of fighting and had done all he could do to prove heliocentrism and had done the work for future scientists to prove him correct. He confessed to the Inquisition and claimed that they were correct (a theory he did not believe). Because he confessed, he was excused from death and instead lived out the rest of his days under house arrest.

Although today we are taught that heliocentrism is correct and it seems like common knowledge, it was certainly not always the case. So many ancient astronomers laid the groundwork for the knowledge we hold today, and Galileo was one the most influential of these.  

Posted in Class, Historical | Tagged , , | Comments Off on The Trial of Galileo

High and Low Tides with a Bit of British Humor

Posted on February 9, 2023 by 88bw
This is an image of a lifeboat that was sent out to search for walkers who may have been unaware of the changing tides.

High and low tides can pose great challenges and dangers to nature lovers, especially those who enjoy being close to the water. I was originally searching how spring/neap and high/low tides might affect erosion rates; while scouring the Internet, I found this article from the UK (Lancaster Guardian) that details how these tide patterns actually affect human rescue searches. As we discussed in class, a Lancaster official did note that spring tides come with greater magnitudes of high and low tides; in this case, the officials were conducting a search for possible cases of seashore walkers getting cut off from land due to the rapid influx of the spring high tide. In this case, the Lancaster official reminded locals about the pattern of spring tide and even made a joke:

“Tides have a reputation for being unpredictable, but really they follow a timetable more reliable than most trains!”

On a more serious note, it’s important to consider that the amplitude of tides is not solely determined by the moon’s pulls either; while the volume of water may be affected directly by the differentials between far side and near side pull on Earth, the height that tides reach can also be determined by the “container” that the water belongs in. In this Nat Geo article, there is an important consideration for longer, straight beachlines having less violent tides while a more limited space like an inlet could host a tidal range of many meters.

Posted in Class, Physics, Science | Tagged , , | Comments Off on High and Low Tides with a Bit of British Humor

How Do Moons Form?

Posted on February 8, 2023 by willems49
Giant Impact Hypothesis Visual by NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle from Astronomy

Have you ever considered how Earth got its moon in the first place? Astronomers have come up with several theories for why each planet in our solar system has a certain number of moons, and how these moons formed.

For Earth’s moon, it is thought a collision with another planet shortly after formation of the solar system caused material from the planet to be launched into space. Some of this material was caught in Earth’s orbit and eventually consolidated into the Moon, and this is called the Giant Impact Hypothesis. Another theory is similar, and it purports that the Earth once had two moons due to this collision, but later the moons collided and formed the Moon today. This theory is supported by the fact that the Moon’s surface differs so greatly in shape and material across it. More evidence for this theory is here. Overall, the early solar system was chaotic with plenty of collisions that could have created other planets’ moons as well. 

Additionally, plenty of moons are thought to have formed from rings of gas and dust, like Saturn’s rings for example, which eventually consolidated into larger bodies that became moons. For example, Jupiter’s Galilean moons (Io, Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede) likely formed in this way. Although, Jupiter is so large that it likely captured stray asteroids which got caught in its orbit and became moons. Other planets likely could have stolen moons from the orbits of other planets during the early solar system. Orbits are elliptical, and ones with high eccentricity could easily overlap into other orbits.

An important thing to note is that Mercury and Venus do not have moons. Mercury is thought to have had an outer layer of dust and gas, but a collision caused it to be launched out of its orbit, and the planet’s relatively small mass could not provide the gravitational force to keep the material in orbit. On the other hand, Venus is similar in size to Earth and far enough from the Sun to keep potential moons from instead heading to the Sun. It is thought Venus was impacted twice. The first impact created a moon, but an impact later caused the moon’s orbit to become distorted and lead straight into Venus. As the impact imparted such a large force and transfer of angular momentum, Venus’s spin became significantly slower and caused it to spin in the opposite direction.

Ultimately, more research will be required to determine exactly how each moon in the solar system formed, but these theories provide a general idea. More information can be found here.

Posted in Moons | Tagged , , | Comments Off on How Do Moons Form?

archaeoastronomy

Posted on February 8, 2023 by Emma Williams
Stonehenge at Sunset from the Huffington Post

Astronomy hasn’t always been practiced the way that it is today! For many centuries, different civilizations have conceptualized the universe in a wide range of ways covering the entire spectrums of science and mythology– from this, at the intersection of astronomy and anthropology, the field of archaeoastronomy was born!

The field began with the discovery of Stonehenge in the 1960s, but it has roots dating back to the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt (which can claim accurate cardinal orientation!). A majority of the work done in the field concerns alignment, or pointing out the connections between the structures and beliefs of ancient peoples to what we now know to be true about the universe.

Archaeoastronomy became particularly important in 2012 with the infamous ‘End of the World’ panic due to the Mayan Calendar. The Mayan Calendar was at the end of Baktun 13, one of many cycles that they used to categorize time. As scientists have deciphered Mayan texts to learn how they understood time and the universe, they realized that the string of zeroes that would have been displayed on December 21, 2012 did not mean the solar system would be transcendentally aligned with the center of the Milky Way– it simply meant the changeover of an era, similar to the way an odometer flips to zero as it runs.

categories:
tags: , ,
Posted in Historical | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on archaeoastronomy

Retrogrades

Posted on February 8, 2023 by araceal

Have you ever thought about why planets in our night sky sometimes appear to be moving backwards? Well, this phenomenon is known as retrograde motion. It is not as strange as it sounds. Retrograde occurs when a planet is moving in the sky and appears to be moving backwards from our perspective on Earth –  but this is really an illusion. This optical illusion is due to the positions and movements of our spaceship Earth. Although it is most noticeable with outer planets in our solar system such as Mars, Saturn and Jupiter, this motion can occur with any planet in our night sky. During retrograde, the planet will appear to slow down, then stop, and then start moving backwards in the opposite direction. But this isn’t ACTUALLY a physical backwards movement of the planet, it is just a result of changing perspectives of out Earth and the planet moving as they orbit the sun at the same time together – its pretty cool!

On retrograde I think everyone is familiar with is Mercury Retrograde. But instead of thinking about this in terms of astrology and changing behaviors, here is a video that explains this famous retrograde in terms of astronomy and science.

Sources: What is a retrograde?

Posted in Class, Physics, Universe | Tagged , | Comments Off on Retrogrades

Ancient Egypt Switches from the 360 to 365-Day Year

Posted on February 6, 2023 by Europa

The other day, my friend told me about an Ancient Egyptian myth regarding the switch from the 360 to the 365-day calendar in Egypt. At the time, I just thought it was a cool story, but later realized that it was a perfect example of archaeoastronomy.

Before 4200 BCE, the Ancient Egyptian calendar year was 360 days long, composed of 12 months of 30 days each (Springer Link). This is because the year was based on the lunar cycle (Webexhibits), which at the time was considered to be 30 days long (it is now known to be 29.5). However, this lunar calendar failed to predict the annual flooding of the Nile river, which was a critically important event in Ancient Egyptian life. This spurred the development of a solar calendar with 365 days in a year, which is the earliest recorded 365-day calendar in human history. The five additional days are called epagomenal days (Global Egyptian Museum), which means “days within a solar calendar that are outside any regular month” (Collins Dictionary).

Due to not being incorporated into the normal months, these days were considered ominous, and their creation was immortalized in a mythological story characteristic of Ancient Egypt. Central to the myth was the sky goddess Nut, who became pregnant by the Earth god Geb (Lost Age Secrets). The supreme sun god Ra, worried that Nut and Geb’s offspring would usurp his rule, cursed Nut by preventing her from giving birth during any day of the year.

Ra (center) holds Nut (overarching) away from Geb (bottom). Source

After hearing this, the god of wisdom, Thoth, took pity on Nut and Geb and challenged the moon deity Khonsu to a board game. Thoth proposed that should he win, he would be awarded a portion of the Moon’s light. Confident, Khonsu agreed, but Thoth was victorious. Thoth gave the light he won to Nut, and the shift in energy increased the Earth’s orbital time to 365 days. Since these extra five days were not included in the 360 days that Ra cursed, Nut was able to give birth to five children, one on each day. They were Isis, Osiris, Seth, Nephthys, and Horus. Thus, Thoth’s act of kindness to Nut and Geb explains Egypt’s transition to a more astronomically accurate solar cycle, although understandably still not as accurate as the 365.2422-day year we now recognize (The Washington Post).

This story made me think about the way myths grow and develop and the degree to which they are believed. I feel that my conception of ancient myths is similar to how many modern people conceive of religion. Many religious people believe that the stories described in, for example, the Bible actually happened in history. What about in the context of this Ancient Egyptian myth about the switch to a 365-day calendar? Were there people alive who understood that the calendar needed five extra days because the initial year calculations were incorrect, or did they believe that Thoth had just recently won his board game against Khonsu, causing their previous calendars to become incorrect? Was the myth an entertaining story to explain their new calendar, or a deeply held belief?

Posted in Class, Historical | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Ancient Egypt Switches from the 360 to 365-Day Year

Historical Astronomers in Context

Posted on February 4, 2023 by sahilreddy2

Johannes Kepler was born on December 27, 1571, and died on November 15, 1630. He was crucial for advances in Astronomy as he discovered that the Earth and planets travel the sun in elliptical orbits. Furthermore, he also created three laws (called Kepler’s Law’s) that were integral to planetary motion. These laws stated that the orbits are ellipses, in an orbit equal areas are swept out in equal time, and the mathematical relationship between distance from the sun and time to orbit is p^2=ka^3.

Thirty Years War (1618-1648) – It was an extremely destructive conflict in Europe that resulted in approximately 4.5 to 8 billion soldiers dying.

Colony of Jamestown (1607) was established in Virginia which was the first permanent English colony in the New World.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) lived during the same time as Johannes Kepler, he was crucial for literature, he essentially created so many words that we use today regularly.

I thought that learning about the late 1500’s/early 1600’s was really interesting as so many advances were happening around the world at the same time. While Kepler was discovering how planets function, Shakespeare was writing and performing his plays, and America was being colonized. Also, specifically about astronomy I never really thought that this long ago people were able to make accurate theories about objects so unimaginably far away to then.

Posted in Historical | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Historical Astronomers in Context

Historical Astronomers in Context

Posted on February 4, 2023 by ctom8

Astronomer

The astronomer I chose to focus on was Sir Isaac Newton, one of the smartest people to ever live.

Historical Events

The 2 historical events during the lifetime of Newton I chose to cover were the London Plague and the founding of the Pennsylvania colony. While the 2nd didn’t have nearly as much of an affect on Newton’s life, the London Plague, Newton stayed home for 2 years to avoid the plague, during which he created calculus and worked out his laws of motion.

Contemporary

A famous contemporary of Newton was Louis XIV; As the absolute monarch of France from 1643 – 1715, he became the longest serving monarch in European history and strengthened the power of the French monarchy.

Reflection

Learning about the order in which each astronomer comes helps show why each of their contributions were major for their time. Copernicus’s heliocentric model was around, but not widely accepted by the time of Brahe, but Brahe saw the benefit of the model and used it, combined with his own observations to make his own model of the solar system where the sun revolved around the earth and the other planets revolved around the sun. Galileo’s invention of the telescope killed the earth-centered models, paving the way for the acceptance of Kepler’s and Newton’s laws of planetary motion and gravity respectively. Seeing their birth and death dates next to each other helps make the picture clearer.

Posted in Historical | Tagged , | Comments Off on Historical Astronomers in Context