Related papers: Senenmut: An Ancient Egyptian Astronomer
Among the geniuses of mankind, Einstein was probably one of those who made more erroneous claims, and often changed his opinion during the years on important scientific subjects. However, it is important to bear in mind that his mistakes…
This article discusses the reasons for the choice of the sexagesimal system by ancient Sumerians. It is shown that Sumerians chose this specific numeral system based on logical and practical reasons which enabled them to deal with big…
Over the past decade, sky surveys such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey have proven the power of large data sets for answering fundamental astrophysical questions. This observational progress, based on a synergy of advances in telescope…
The Sapient Paradox is the apparently unexplainable time delay of several ten thousand years following the arrival of Homo sapiens in Asia and Europe and before the introduction of impressive innovations with the agricultural revolution.…
The observation of space seems to have always caused wonder into people's collective consciousness, generating a series of historical myths. More recently specially with the development of better tools alongside the constant refinement of…
Solar astrometry deals with the accurate measumerent of the solar diameter, and in general with the measurement of the shape of the Sun. During the last decades several techniques have been developed to monitor the radius and the irradiance…
Sunspots contain multiple small-scale structures in the umbra and in the penumbra. Despite extensive research on this subject in pre-Hinode era multiple questions concerning fine-scale structures of sunspots, their formation, evolution and…
Astronomy provides a laboratory for extreme physics, a window into environments at extremes of distance, temperature and density that often can't be reproduced in Earth laboratories, or at least not right away. A surprising amount of the…
Gravity plays an important part in the experiments and discoveries of the modern world. But how was it discovered? Surely Newton and Einstein were not the only people to observe it and account for it. It had been a long path before the full…
In preparation for the International Astronomical Union (IAU) General Assembly (GA) 2024, the first GA held in Africa, the African Network of Women in Astronomy (AfNWA) embarked on a visionary project: the creation of an inspiring…
In the 5th century B.C.,the philosopher and logician Zeno of Elea posed several paradoxes which remained unresolved for over two thousand five hundred years. The $20^{th}$ century saw some resolutions to Zeno's mind boggling problems. This…
We attempt to grasp the mathematics behind the planetary theories of the Syrian astronomer Ibn al-Shatir (1304-1375) in his treatise Nihayat al-Sul. Following the Maragha school of astronomers, by composing circular movements with constant…
Many have have taken in hand to write a treatise on the Star of Bethlehem, particularly on Kepler's explanation as a stellar birth, triggered by Mars joining a great conjunction (a meeting of Jupiter and Saturn), as he observed it in…
Arts are a seamless way to introduce the general public to both basic and more sophisticated astronomical concepts. The visual richness of astronomy makes it attractive and easily incorporated in painting and literature. Astronomy is the…
Astronomy has a long history of acquiring, systematizing, and interpreting large quantities of data. Starting from the earliest sky atlases through the first major photographic sky surveys of the 20th century, this tradition is continuing…
Studies in Australian Indigenous astronomical knowledge reveal few accounts of the visible planets in the sky. However, what information we do have tells us that Aboriginal people were close observers of planets and their motions, noting…
Between the mid-eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries, long-haul oceanic voyages of exploration and discovery routinely carried astronomical tent observatories to support land-based longitude determinations using heavy and cumbersome…
Sundials and gnomons pointing out dates and times are a beautiful reminder of how we understand the movement of the Sun and use it to structure day and year. They also encapsulate the basic astronomical knowledge and concepts of the…
The interdisciplinary topic of archaeo-astronomy links science subjects such as astronomy with archaeology and sociology to explore how ancient societies perceived the heavens above. This is achieved by analysing ancient sites such as…
All visible bodies are bound dense vertices of overlapping astroparticles with extremely weak r^{-4} radial densities of elementary (and summary) matter beyond human perception and instrumental resolutions. The non-empty material space of…