Tag Archives: Astronomy

Top: A glimpse of the solar corona (the Sun's outer atmosphere) as seen from Madras, Oregon, during the total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017. Bottom: The path traced by the Moon's shadow as it moved across the United States during the same total solar eclipse.
2017: The Great American Solar Eclipse

The 2017 North American Solar Eclipse was a rare and educational celestial event that captivated [...]

Artist's impression of the planetary system around the red dwarf Gliese 581. Astronomers have found evidence for three "earthlike" planets with masses of 5, 8, and 15 times that of Earth in orbit around that star. However, these planets orbit extremely close to their sun, unlike our own terrestrial planets.
1995: Discovering Earthlike Exoplanets in the Cosmos

Astronomers have discovered thousands of exoplanets, including Earth-sized worlds, using methods like radial velocity and [...]

A stunning solar prominence eruption, captured through time-lapse frames on March 30, 2010, using the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite in extreme ultraviolet light of ionized helium. To provide a sense of scale, hundreds of Earths could fit within the loop seen in the top frame.
1859: Unraveling the Mysteries of Solar Flares and Their Impact on Space Weather

Richard Carrington's 1859 observation of a solar flare linked the Sun's activity to Earth's environment, [...]

Main image: Johannes Kepler's efforts to discover divine perfection in the orbits of the known planets by attempting to align them with the shapes of the so-called perfect solids, as depicted in his book "Mysterium Cosmographicum" (1596). Inset: A 1610 portrait of Kepler by an unknown artist.
1619: Kepler’s Revolutionary Laws of Planetary Motion

Johannes Kepler, a Renaissance-era German mathematician and astronomer, transformed the field of astronomy with his [...]

A portion of a bronze relief created by Italian sculptor Ettore Ferrari (1845–1929) depicting the trial of Giordano Bruno by the Roman Inquisition in 1600.
1600: Giordano Bruno – Visionary of a Universe Beyond Earth

Giordano Bruno, an Italian philosopher and Dominican friar, was an early advocate of Copernican heliocentrism [...]

Above: Evidence for the Earth's round shape is the curved shadow it casts on the Moon during a lunar eclipse, as seen in this 2008 observation from Greece. Main image: An engraving of the sixth-century BCE Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras, one of the early proponents of the idea that the Earth is a spherical object.
c. 500 BCE: Pythagoras and the Spherical Earth

The concept of a spherical Earth, now a fundamental understanding, was popularized by Pythagoras, the [...]

The great pyramids of Giza, used as burial sites for pharaohs and serving as astronomical markers pointing to the presumed gateway to the heavens at the north celestial pole. These structures held the title of the world's largest human-made constructions for nearly 4,000 years
c. 2500 BCE: The Great Pyramids of Giza – Astronomical Marvels of Ancient Egypt

The Great Pyramids of Giza, built 4,500 years ago, showcase the ancient Egyptians' advanced astronomical [...]