Star Stuff
astronomy the study of objects and matter outside the earth's atmosphere and of their physical and chemical properties
cosmos an orderly harmonious systematic universe
Throughout the centuries man has gazed at the stars in wonder. The more we discover about them, the more there is to know. Where did the search begin, and how far has it gone? And what does it mean for us?
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) built the first telescopes that brought our solar system planets into view as more than pinpoints of light in the night sky but as solid orbs lit by the sun. As telescopes improved, complicated questions arose about light. Galileo thought light was composed of corpuscles. Today we know his "corpuscles" are photons. Galileo demonstrated that light would move, which begged the question: how fast?
In 1849 Armand-Hippolyte-Louis Fitzeau first measured the speed of light as 186,000 miles per second. That means that when we see photographs of the universe taken by the Hubble telescope and others even more powerful, we are looking back in time - at events and objects some of which existed billions of years ago, almost back to the beginning of our universe. As we look at those photographs and images coming to us now, we are seeing ourselves at a time when we were subatomic chemical elements.
In the December 2005 issue of Scientific American, in the article titled Skeptic, Michael Shermer writes "There are many ways to be spiritual and science is one with its awe-inspiring account of who we are and where we came from." Mr Shermer goes on to quote the late Carl Sagan as follows: "We are made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself....We've begun at last to wonder about our origins, star stuff contemplating the stars, organized collections of ten billion billion billion atoms contemplating the evolution of matter, tracing that long path by which it arrived at consciousness..."
The questions posed in the first paragraph of this post are answered here only in part. Other answers are yours to give.
cosmos an orderly harmonious systematic universe
Throughout the centuries man has gazed at the stars in wonder. The more we discover about them, the more there is to know. Where did the search begin, and how far has it gone? And what does it mean for us?
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) built the first telescopes that brought our solar system planets into view as more than pinpoints of light in the night sky but as solid orbs lit by the sun. As telescopes improved, complicated questions arose about light. Galileo thought light was composed of corpuscles. Today we know his "corpuscles" are photons. Galileo demonstrated that light would move, which begged the question: how fast?
In 1849 Armand-Hippolyte-Louis Fitzeau first measured the speed of light as 186,000 miles per second. That means that when we see photographs of the universe taken by the Hubble telescope and others even more powerful, we are looking back in time - at events and objects some of which existed billions of years ago, almost back to the beginning of our universe. As we look at those photographs and images coming to us now, we are seeing ourselves at a time when we were subatomic chemical elements.
In the December 2005 issue of Scientific American, in the article titled Skeptic, Michael Shermer writes "There are many ways to be spiritual and science is one with its awe-inspiring account of who we are and where we came from." Mr Shermer goes on to quote the late Carl Sagan as follows: "We are made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself....We've begun at last to wonder about our origins, star stuff contemplating the stars, organized collections of ten billion billion billion atoms contemplating the evolution of matter, tracing that long path by which it arrived at consciousness..."
The questions posed in the first paragraph of this post are answered here only in part. Other answers are yours to give.
posted by marguerite louise at
3:12 PM
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