Is Anything at Rest in the Universe?

Universe: You Are Here 36 in. x 24 in. Buy This Allposters.com In the year 1851 cultivated persons in cities throughout Europe went to the largest cathedrals to attend an unusual sort of worship. They were coming to witness Jean Foucault’s pendulum experiment, which he had first performed for the public in that year under the dome of the Pantheon… (more…)

Coldest star in the galaxy spotted

NASA discovers a brown dwarf star so cool you could stand on it and not be burnt to a crisp. When you think of stars, you probably imagine massive, burning balls of fire much like our sun, but there are stars out there in space which you could actually stand on and not be burnt to a crisp. NASA has… (more…)

Intriguing find holds big clue to Stonehenge

A skeleton known as “The Boy with the Amber Necklace” helps prove a key theory about the site. A wealthy young teenager buried near Britain’s mysterious Stonehenge monument came from the Mediterranean hundreds of miles away, scientists said Wednesday, proof of the site’s importance as a travel destination in prehistoric times. The teen — dubbed “The Boy with the Amber… (more…)

The ‘dance of the spirits’: Polar auroras, then and now

“The dance of the spirits” are one of many ancient names for the astronomical phenomena we call the northern and southern lights. The old Nordic culture said the lights were reflected light from oceans of fire. The Swedish used to think they were huge schools of herring with sunlight shining off of their scales. Other northern indigenous peoples believed that… (more…)

50 Years of Listening for Aliens

For 50 years now humans have been scanning the skies in hopes of answering the question: Are we alone in the universe? That mystery will be the topic of discussion during this weekend’s SETIcon, a convention for scientists, sci-fi writers, celebrities and fans to discuss every aspect of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). SPACE.com caught up with Jill Tarter,… (more…)

Thousands flock to see asteroid pod in Japan

Thousands of people lined up to see a capsule from a space probe that landed on an asteroid. Thousands of people flocked to an exhibition in Japan on Sunday to see a capsule from the Hayabusa space probe which was hoped to have brought asteroid dust to Earth. Some 1,800 people were queuing in Tokyo to see the heat-proof pod,… (more…)

China UFO sparks rampant speculation

A mysterious light forces an airport closure and is photographed by many residents. On July 7, something unusual happened near the Xiaoshan Airport in Hangzhou, China. An oddly shaped bright light appeared, forcing the airport to close down and delay 18 flights. Things are now back to normal, but people are wondering, what was that “thing”? An ABC News article… (more…)

The Wrath of Heaven

Chart of The Heavens – ©Spaceshots Art Print 30.5 in. x 22.75 in. Buy at AllPosters.com Framed   Mounted In the earliest times astronomers were required to warn rulers and people of impending onslaughts of the wrath of Heaven. It was their responsibility to anticipate any unusual behavior in the celestial signposts of space and time: a colored ring around the Moon;… (more…)

Babylonian Astrology

Babylonian astrology became a second celestial religion; but it was quite unlike the first, that of ancient China. In China the stars became gods; in Babylon the gods became stars. To the Chinese the mysteries of the cosmos were so sublime that they degraded their traditional popular divinities to demons and created a cult of the stars without priests, myths,… (more…)

Time appears to be neglected

The universe (like all Gaul) is divided into three parts–matter, space and time. Chemistry deals with matter; geometry calculates space; but time appears to be neglected. We are so accustomed to our watches and calendars that we take for granted all the mechanism behind them. Only our poets and lovers look to the sky for practical inspiration; and not one… (more…)

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  • Important events in astronomical history