Related papers: Comets in ancient India
The enigmatic open clusters serve as a constant reminder of the mysteries of the universe, helping to confront astronomical theories. Unknown to many, these clusters often possess tails with inappropriate labels, serving as the tell-tale…
The author describes some stones which he found at the bottom of Khushmo River's shoal during 1988 expedition into the region of the Tunguska impact (1908). Photos of stones are presented. Three stones have traces of melting and the author…
Descriptions of cosmic impacts and meteorite falls are found throughout Australian Aboriginal oral traditions. In some cases, these texts describe the impact event in detail, sometimes citing the location, suggesting that the events were…
No firm evidence has existed that the ancient Maya civilization recorded specific occurrences of meteor showers or outbursts in the corpus of Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions. In fact, there has been no evidence of any pre-Hispanic…
Some asteroids eject dust, producing transient, comet-like comae and tails; these are the active asteroids. The causes of activity in this newly-identified population are many and varied. They include impact ejection and disruption,…
The most outstanding contribution to general relativity in this era came in 1953 (published in 1955 \cite{akr}) in the form of the Raychaudhri equation. It is in 1960s that the observations began to confront the eupherial theory and thus…
Understanding the origin of comets requires knowledge of how the Solar System formed from a cloud of dust and gas 4.567 Gyr ago. Here, a review is presented of how the remnants of this formation process, meteorites and to a lesser extent…
In 1977, while Apple II and Atari computers were being sold, a tiny dot was observed in an inconvenient orbit. The minor body 1977 UB, to be named (2060) Chiron, with an orbit between Saturn and Uranus, became the first Centaur, a new class…
We discuss the work of a brilliant line of Mathematicians who lived in central Kerala and starting with its founder Madhava (1350 CE) developed what can best be described as Calculus and applied it to a class of trigonometric functions. We…
The origin of the numerals that we inherited from the arabo-Islamic civilization remained one enigma. The hypothesis of the Indian origin remained, with controversies, without serious rival. It was the dominant hypothesis since more of one…
This paper is intended to serve two purposes: one, to present an account of the life of Sangamagr\=ama M\=adhava, the founder of the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics which flourished during the 15th - 18th centuries, based on…
X-ray astronomy is a mature area of observational astronomy. After the discovery of the first non-solar X-ray source in 1962, X-ray astronomy proliferated during the Apollo era's space race. Then, it matured as an established area of…
In this Note, which is a sequel on the Indian amateur astronomer R.G. Chandra [Biswas2011a, Biswas2011b], we have presented some documents to reveal his three-decades relationship with the American Association for Variable Stars Observers…
In Hesiod's calendar, circa 8th century BCE, the harvest times of cereals were indicated by the heliacal rising of Pleiades (harvest) and by that of Orion (thresh). We tried to verify which risings and settings of the brightest stars could…
The heartland of the Khmer empire is literally crowded by magnificent monuments built in the course of many centuries. These monuments include the world-famous state-temples, such as Angkor Wat, but also many other temples and huge water…
We investigate the anomalies in the Earth - Moon system using ancient eclipse data. We identify nine groups of anomalous eclipses between 400 and 1800 AD recorded in parts of India that should have completely missed the subcontinent as per…
We study the evolution of long-period comets by numerical integration of their orbits, following comets from their origin in the Oort cloud until their final escape or destruction, in a model solar system consisting of the Sun, the four…
Astronomy has always been at the forefront of information technology, moving from the era of photographic plates, to digital snapshots and now to digital movies of the sky. This has brought about a data explosion with multi- terabyte…
We have studied the context and development of the ideas of physical forces and differential calculus in ancient India by studying relevant literature related to both astrology and astronomy since pre-Greek periods. The concept of…
This paper describes progress achieved in early investigations of the orbital motion and light curve of comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS), the third ground-based discovery of a Kreutz sungrazer in the 21st century. The highly unusual trait of the…