Related papers: Comets in ancient India
This is a historian's view of how modern astronomy data can be used to discuss the shifting historical worldview of Late Antiquity. In this article an attemp is made to construct an approximate model of how the cycles of astronomical…
Of the hundreds of distinct Aboriginal cultures of Australia, many have oral traditions rich in descriptions and explanations of comets, meteors, meteorites, airbursts, impact events, and impact craters. These views generally attribute…
The data obtained in the recent Rosetta space mission to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko have had a profound impact on the understanding of the nature of comets. In addition to revising the notions on the physical properties and structure…
Until the second half of the 19th century, two or more brief appearances of bright comets, such as the ones in 1668 and 1702, alike in aspect and motion, seen with a tail near the Sun, were almost universally believed to be periodic returns…
In the ancient Egypt seven goddesses, represented by seven cows, composed the celestial herd that provides the nourishment to her worshippers. This herd is observed in the sky as a group of stars, the Pleiades, close to Aldebaran, the main…
The ancient priest-astronomers constantly watched many heavenly bodies. The record about Halley's Comet of 1682 A.D. has been decoded completely. Good agreement between it and the results of European astronomers is seen. The records about…
The search of a rational explanation of eclipses pervades the beginnings of philosophical and scientific thought. Within this intellectual frame, the knowledge of the "saros cycle" (a cycle of 18 years, 10 or 11 days and 1/3 of a day that…
The practical distinctions between asteroids and comets, viewed as products of accretion on either side of the snow line, are less clear-cut than previously understood. In this chapter, we discuss the numerous solar system populations which…
I discuss various aspects of archeoastronomy concentrating on physical artifacts (i.e., not including ethno-archeoastronomy) focusing on the period that ended about 2000 years ago. I present examples of artifacts interpreted as showing the…
Given that the cause for the strong increase in 14C in AD 774/5 in Japanese and German trees is still a matter of debate (e.g. short Gamma-Ray Burst or solar super-flare), we have searched in Arabic chronicles for reports about unusual…
The discovery of Sedna places new constraints on the origin and evolution of our solar system. Here we investigate the possibility that a close encounter with another star produced the observed edge of the Kuiper belt, at roughly 50 AU, and…
In Ojibwe the Morning Star is called Ikew Anung, which means the Womens Star. In Lakota the same planet Venus is called Anpetu Luta, the Red Day Star. Bother cultures have rich and interesting understandings of Venus that relate to other…
The Nabateans built several monuments in Petra and elsewhere displaying a decoration with a preference for astronomical motifs, possibly as a reflection of their religion. However, due to the lack of direct written accounts and the scarcity…
We provide textual evidence on divisibility and primality in the ancient Vedic texts of India. Concern with divisibility becomes clear from the listing of all the fifteen pairs of divisors of the number 720. The total number of pairs of…
In this review presented at the Royal Society meeting, "Cometary Science After Rosetta", I present an overview of studies of small solar system objects that exhibit properties of both asteroids and comets (with a focus on so-called active…
Sumedh Anathpindika surveys astronomy in India and finds a lively and developing community as well as great public interest.
Meteors can be classified into either sporadic meteors or showery meteors. We compile the meteor records in the astronomical archives in the Chronicle of the Koryo dynasty (918-1392), and investigate the spatial distribution of meteor…
A fragment of the folklore text "Apai" that was once put down on Easter Island contains a report about astronomical observations of Kirch's Comet or the Great Comet of 1680-1681 A.D. (C/1680 V1) and the partial solar eclipse of March 19,…
Red coloured rain occurred in many places of Kerala in India during July to September 2001 due to the mixing of huge quantity of microscopic red cells in the rainwater. Considering its correlation with a meteor airbust event, this…
Donati's comet was one of the most impressive astronomical events of the nineteenth century. Its extended sword-like tail was a spectacular sight that inspired several literary and artistic representations. Traces of Donati's comet are…