Related papers: Cometary records revise Eastern Mediterranean chro…
The Dutch Jesuit astronomer Johan Stein published in 1909 a text about the legend on a papal bull of Pope Callixtus III against the comet of 1456. This comet happened to be the Halley's one. The original documents, either chronicles and…
The $\delta$-Cancrid meteoroid stream forms four active meteor showers which are observable on the Earth annually during January-February and August-September. The stream's definite parent comet has not been established. We performed a…
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,…
Irregular satellites of Jupiter with their highly eccentric, inclined and distant orbits suggest that their capture took place just before the giant planet migration. We aim to improve our understanding of the surface composition of…
Ettore Majorana, perhaps the greatest Italian theoretical physicist of this century (Enrico Fermi compared him to Galilei and Newton), disappeared misteriously from Naples in 1938, when he was 31. In the first part of this work we outline…
New orbit for C/2014 W10 PANSTARRS is obtained. High original eccentricity of e = 1.65 might suggest an interstellar origin of this comet. The probable reasons for missing this possible important event is discussed and a call for searching…
The pulsating variable star Mira (omikron Ceti) was observed by David Fabricius (Frisia) in 1596 and 1609. We review suggested previous detections (e.g. China, Hipparchos). We analyze all Mira records from Fabricius in their historical…
The hypothesis of a companion object (Nemesis) orbiting the Sun was motivated by the claim of a terrestrial extinction periodicity, thought to be mediated by comet showers. The orbit of a distant companion to the Sun is expected to be…
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…
This paper centers on the collection of accounts on solar eclipses from the era of the Aztecs in Mesoamerica, about 1300 to 1550 AD. We present a list of all eclipse events complying with the topological visibility from the capital…
Using orbital integrations of particles ejected from Comet Halley's passages between 1404 BC and 240 BC, the authors investigate possible outbursts of the Orionids (twin shower of the Eta Aquariids) that may have been observed in the…
This illustrated article represents a popular account of the study of the Babylonian astronomical records of Enuma Anu Enlil tablet series i.e. of the Venus Tablet of Ammisaduqa and of two lunar eclipses linked with the IIIrd dynasty of Ur,…
Historical records of total solar eclipses provide vital information for computing the rotation of the Earth and understanding its long-term variations by providing data from the time before the modern measurements. While eclipses recorded…
Asteroids and comets are remnants from the era of Solar System formation over 4.5 billion years ago, and therefore allow us to address two fundamental questions in astronomy: what was the nature of our protoplanetary disk, and how did the…
The principle that celestial bodies must move on circular orbits or on paths resulting from the composition of circular orbits has been assumed as a constant guide in the astronomical thougth of the peoples facing the Mediterranean sea as…
Astronomical observations were used as a marker for time and the Calendar from ancient times. A more subtle calibration of epochs is thrown up by an observation of the position of the solstices and equinoxes, because these points shift in…
Historical observations of transients are crucial for studies of their long-term evolution. This paper forms part of a series of papers in which we develop methods for the analysis of ancient data of transient events and their usability in…
BL Lacertae is not only archetypical of an entire class of jet-dominated active galactic nuclei, blazars, but also one of the most active and rapidly changing objects in this class. In the fall of 2024 (September--November), BL Lacertae…
Immediately after their formation, the terrestrial planets experienced intense impact bombardment by comets, leftover planetesimals from primary accretion, and asteroids. This temporal interval in solar system evolution, termed late…
In this short paper we report that the dynamics of the earthquake (EQ) preparation processes, as embedded in the observed fracture-induced electromagnetic emissions (EME), were characterized by critical and then tricritical behavior a few…