Astronomy

The oldest known drawings of constellations are motifs on seals, vases, and gaming boards from the Sumerians, indicating that constellations may have been developed as early as 4000 BC. The constellation Aquarius was named by the Sumerians after their god of heaven An, who pours the waters of immortality upon the earth. The division of […]

Popularity: 73%

The first actual inventor and constructor of an achromatic telescope was Chester Moor Hall, who was not in trade, and did not patent it. Towards the close of the eighteenth century a Swiss named Guinand at last succeeded in producing larger flint-glass discs free from striate. Frauenhofer, of Munich, took him up in 1805, and […]

Popularity: 69%

To date, telescope is the main equipment booth for amateur and professional astronomers to observe remote objects in the sky. It begin with wonderful optical experiments by Roger Bacon (who died in 1292), and in the sixteenth century by Digges, Baptista Porta, and Antonio de Dominis, who have led some to suppose that they invented […]

Popularity: 33%

What would happen if the Earth stopped spinning? Well, actually you would not like this situation. Fortunately, the probability for such an event is practically zero in the next few billion years. Let’s see. If the Earth stopped spinning suddenly, the atmosphere would still be in motion with the Earth’s original 1100 mile per hour […]

Popularity: 57%

Then, how the universe looks like before the Big Bang? The problem is, astronomers measuring the age of the universe starts from the moment of big bang. And since Big Bang event marks early time and forming of space, there is no moment “before big bang”. In that moment, there is no “space” or “time”, […]

Popularity: 27%

For decades after its discovery by Clyde Tombaugh on 1930, Pluto had considered as a planet. But since 1992, astronomers become aware that beyond Neptune orbit, there is a region, were around 70.000 small, icy bodies that slowly orbiting the Sun. Then, we call such an objects as “Kuiper Belt” objects, named after Gerard P. […]

Popularity: 28%

Not all the protostars later become stars. To become a star, an object must have mass at least 80 times of Jupiter mass. These masses will create enough gravitational force to ignite thermonuclear fusion to burning helium on its core as its source of energy. Contrary, if it isn’t having enough mass, it will become […]

Popularity: 32%

A star was born from gravitational collapse of gas cloud and interstellar dust. On its birth process, a protostar heated by collision of gas molecules on clouds interior. The process continues until it reached the point where hydrogen on its core fused into helium. Four hydrogen nuclei, each with the mass of one proton, are […]

Popularity: 22%

When we talk about distance, we must use certain unit of measurement. We usually use units of miles or kilometers for depicting distance between two places on Earth. But how about on outer space?
If we describe average distance between Earth and Sun, we got the number of 149.598.000 kilometers. And then, we use this […]

Popularity: 22%

How old our universe is? So far, astronomers had applied several methods to determine the age of the universe. One method is by estimating age of element on our Milky Way galaxy based on radioactive decay of element that its half-period is already known, and then, assumed that the elements created (on a giant star […]

Popularity: 20%