The immediate context ofIl Saggiatorewas a controversy sparked by the appearance of comets in the night sky in 1618. In 1619, Jesuit astronomer Orazio Grassi published a treatise arguing that comets were real celestial bodies traveling through space beyond the Moon. His conclusions, though reasonabl...
→Read about more fun facts in the Almanac Astronomer’s post, “Vernal Equinox Oddities.” Q: According to folklore, you can stand a raw egg on its end on the equinox. Is this true? A:This egg folklore became popular in 1945 following aLIFEarticleabout the spring practice. “The origins...
The Sicilian mathematician and astronomer Francesco Maurolico (1494–1575) also published his influential Cosmographia Francisci Maurolyci Messanensis Siculi in tres dialogos distincta, in quibus de forma, situ numeroque tam coelorum quam elementorum aliisque rebus ad astronomica rudimenta spectantibu...
old people that don’t feel like they have something to do and their friends don’t love them anymore; they die fast. People who have something to do and friends they care about; they don’t die out like that. I’m one of those guys. ...
38. “UFOs are real. They are being seen all over the world, by credible witnesses of all kinds, under conditions which rule out hoaxes and hallucinations.”—Dr. J. Allen Hynek, astronomer & UFO researcher 39. “I have no doubt that the phenomenon of UFOs is real. The evidence for ...
- Sir Martin Rees (astronomer) "I can't see any farther. Giants are standing on my shoulders!" - unknown "In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they would actually change their minds and you never...
Carl Sagan was an American astronomer and planetary scientist best known for his contribution to research on extraterrestrial life. Sagan was bornCarl Edward SaganinBrooklyn, New Yorkon November 9, 1934. His interest in astronomy began when he was five years old when his mother sent him to the...
Aurora also turns up in aurora borealis, anoth- er name for the northern lights, so called because Pierre Gassendi, the French astronomer who coined the term in 1621, fancied these lights to be a second coming of dawn from the northern (bore- alis) horizon. Thus boreal is a collateral ...
Other articles where The Discourse on Method is discussed: René Descartes: The World and Discourse on Method: In 1633, just as he was about to publish The World (1664), Descartes learned that the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) had been
The Belgian astronomer and statistician Adolphe Quételet did more than anyone to claim these statistical regularities were evidence of determinism. Individuals might think marriage was their decision, but since the number of total marriages was relatively stable from year to year, Quételet claimed the...