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The handed down latitudinal data ascribed to Eratosthenes and Hipparchus are composed and each tested for consistency by means of adjustment theory. For detected inconsistencies new explanations are given concerning the origin of the data.…
The modern usage of the words astronomy and astrology is traced back to distinctions, largely ignored in recent scholarship. Three interpretations of celestial phenomena (in a geometric, a substantialist and a prognostic versions) coexisted…
The present observational status of neutrino physics is sketched, with emphasis on the hints that follow from solar and atmospheric neutrino observations, as well as dark matter. I also briefly review the ways to account for the observed…
This is a reply to Johansen's comment on `Are Financial Crashes Predictable?', by L. Laloux, M. Potters, R. Cont, J.P. Aguilar, J.P. Bouchaud, Europhys. Lett. 45, p. 1 (1999).
Was Einstein wrong? This paper provides a detailed technical review of Einstein's special and general relativity from an astrophysical perspective, including the historical development of the theories, experimental tests, modern…
Four hundred years after its publication, Galileo's masterpiece Sidereus Nuncius is still a mine of useful information for historians of science and astronomy. In his short book Galileo reports a large amount of data that, despite its age,…
With the vast majority of scientific papers now available online, this paper describes how the Web is allowing physicists and information providers to measure more accurately the impact of these papers and their authors. Provides a…
Adaptive Optics is a prime example of how progress in observational astronomy can be driven by technological developments. At many observatories it is now considered to be part of a standard instrumentation suite, enabling ground-based…
(35-words maximum) In this talk I present the scientific drivers related to the optical turbulence forecast applied to the ground-based astronomy supported by Adaptive Optics, the state of the art of the achieved results and the most…
The Hipparcos Intermediate Astrometric Data have been used lately to estimate the inclination of the orbital plane of candidate extrasolar planets. Whereas most of these investigations derive almost face-on orbits, we show that the…
This paper introduces an updated and combined version of the bidirectional English-German EPIC-UdS (spoken) and EuroParl-UdS (written) corpora containing original European Parliament speeches as well as their translations and…
Since its inception in 1993, the ADS Abstract Service has become an indispensable research tool for astronomers and astrophysicists worldwide. In those seven years, much effort has been directed toward improving both the quantity and the…
We expand upon some topics reviewed and sketched in a book to appear with more details, embellishments, and some new material of a speculative nature.
Recently Lazzara et al. (2012) presented a review of the technical and scientific progress in deployment, data collection and analysis of the Automated Weather Stations (AWS) in the Antarctic. In the subsection entitled Science Applications…
Plutarchus, circa 100 AD, in his early book on "astrophysics" --in which he exposed, in a sense, a general theory of gravitation-- wrote the noticeable passage: <<The Moon gets the guarantee of not falling down just from its motion and from…
Major advancements in space science and detector technology brought about a revolution in global astrometry, the science of measuring distances and motions of stars in the Milky Way and in the local universe. From the first ESA astrometric…
These are the commentaries for a volume of reprints of my selected papers with commentaries that I am preparing for publication by World Scientific. Contents: Preface; (1)Early Years, and Condensed Matter Physics; (2) High Energy Neutrino…
In the current era of data-intensive science, it is increasingly important for researchers to be able to have access to published results, the supporting data, and the processes used to produce them. Six years ago, recognizing this need,…
The Virtual Observatory (VO) will revolutionise the way we do Astronomy, by allowing easy access to all astronomical data and by making the handling and analysis of datasets at various locations across the globe much simpler and faster. I…
A (subjective) overview of Internet resources relevant to professional astronomers is given. Special emphasis is put on databases of astronomical objects and servers providing general information, e.g. on astronomical catalogues, finding…