One of this month's IYA themes is the solar system. And I'll bet you think that the topic doesn't have much to do with your everyday life. Unless you're an astrogeek like me, or you're unlucky enough to have a momstronomer like Little Dudestronomer. (Fortunately, he's too young to know that he's being submitted to torturous geekery every day of his life.) But even if you are not as nerdy as I am, I'm here to tell you that you and the solar system are closer than you think every single day.
Here is just one of the ways that the solar system affects your life. What day of the week is it? No matter what you answered, your response is something in our solar system. Give it a moment; I'll even give you a hint: can you think of any days that might be associated with the sun, the moon or Saturn?
[Waiting for your moment to pass...]
OK, so you have realized that Sunday is really Sun Day. Named after the sun. Monday is really Moon Day. And Saturday is Saturn Day.
This goes back to the Greeks, who named the days of the week after the sun, moon and five known planets (each of which were named after gods). The other days get a little trickier, because we have to trace them back to other languages. The first three are almost direct translations, but from here on out, we're going on an astrolinguistic journey. (I'm pretty sure that's not a real word.)
Tuesday comes from Tui - Tui's Day, which is the Germanicized version of the Norse god of war, Tyr. That Norse god can be traced back further to the Roman god of war, Mars. In fact, if you're a Spanish speaker*, you know that Tuesday in Spanish is martes, which is an even closer link. (Days of the week are not capitalized in Spanish.) If you're Greek, you'll be angry if I leave out the fact that the Romans' Mars was originally the Greeks' Ares.
Wednesday comes from Woden, the Ango-Saxon relative of the Norse God, Odin. Odin was the the counterpart of the Roman god Mercury (Hermes to the Greeks). Again, Spanish speakers might now see the connection with miércoles.
Thursday comes from Thor (Thor's Day). Thor is the Norse version of Jupiter, which is the Roman version of the Greek Zeus. For Spanish speakers, you will want to know that Jupiter has another Roman name, Jove.
Friday comes from Freya, the Norse goddess of love and beauty. Process of elimination will lead to know that the Roman goddess of love and beauty is Venus (Aphrodite to the Greeks).
So there you have it. Whether you knew it or not, you've been proudly displaying the solar system on your calendar. You probably plan events in your life around the planets; for example, you might watch American Idol on the day of Mars and the day of Mercury, but football is king on the day of the moon. You call your mom on the day of the sun, you go to yoga on the day of Jupiter and you TGI Venus.
*This goes for French and Latin as well, but interestingly not for Portuguese.
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
What Good Is a Telescope? Part 3
As we celebrate IYA and Galileo's use of the astronomical telescope, it's time for some clarification. Galileo was not the first person to use a telescope. He wasn't even the first person to use a telescope for astronomical purposes. That honor goes to Thomas Harriot, an English astronomer who drew maps of the moon several months before Galileo. In fact, his very detailed diagrams were some of the best of the period. Unfortunately, he never published those maps or anything else related to his astronomical observations. He was well off and didn't need the income; it seems he pursued astronomy as a hobby and was content to keep his drawings to himself.
So as we honor Galileo for his discoveries and contributions, let's give a shout out to Thomas Harriot, who proved that if you don't publish, you just may perish (historically speaking). To hear more, you can check out this podcast from 365 Days of Astronomy, although it's a bit dry.
Thanks for joining me for this three part series. Check back next week for information on how and where you can see Venus!
So as we honor Galileo for his discoveries and contributions, let's give a shout out to Thomas Harriot, who proved that if you don't publish, you just may perish (historically speaking). To hear more, you can check out this podcast from 365 Days of Astronomy, although it's a bit dry.
Thanks for joining me for this three part series. Check back next week for information on how and where you can see Venus!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
What Good Is a Telescope? Part 2
Yesterday we left off with the geocentric view of our universe (with Earth at the center and everything else orbiting it), as propounded by The Church. Since this model could help predict the future positions of the planets, this meant power.
But of course, this couldn't last forever; absolute power and all that. The guy who changed everything forever was Galileo, and he did it with a telescope.
Galileo was an Italian scientist who became a student of Copernicanism upon reading works of Nicolaus Copernicus, an astronomer who died 21 years before Galileo was born. Copernicus maintained that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the universe (I'm using the term 'universe' as it would have been described at that time, not in our time). This model explained retrograde motion more clearly and simply that the geocentric model did, and thus provided more accurate predictions.
In the early 17th century, Galileo heard of a device called a spyglass and adapted a similar device to study the heavens. It was a simple device, a tube with a concave lens at one end and a convex lens at the other. It wasn't like a telescope you would use today; in fact, its power and quality were probably a bit less than a decent pair of binoculars today. To his credit, Galileo made vast improvements in the design of telescopes, eventually grinding his own mirrors and thereby drastically bettering his view of the universe.
Once he applied this new technology to the study of the stars, Galileo stumbled upon a cosmic quandry that would resolve the geocentric/heliocentric debate: the phases of Venus. If the geocentric view were to be correct, Galileo would never see Venus as more than a crescent in his telescope; if the heliocentric view were correct, Venus would grow from crescent to nearly full as viewed from the earth. Below are two animations demonstrating what each of these models would look like respectively.
Ptolemy's Model
Copernicus' Model
You guessed it; as Galileo studied Venus' phases through his telescope, he saw not just a crescent Venus but as time passed, all the way to a gibbous Venus in his field of view. And as quick as that, thousands of years worth of cosmological thinking were made obsolete.
You probably know the rest of the story. I won't go into details, but The Church wasn't particularly gracious about this new information (remember, astronomical knowledge = power); nor was Galileo gracious in his response. Nonetheless, the Scientific Revolution had begun and our understanding of the universe changed forever.
One last note: if you would like to listen to a fascinating account of all this, I highly recommend you give my fellow former planetarian Davin Flateau a listen. His podcast (part 365 Days of Astronomy podcast series) is available here. It's definitely worth nine minutes of your time. And the theme song is awesome!
Check back tomorrow for the exciting conclusion of our telescope tale.
But of course, this couldn't last forever; absolute power and all that. The guy who changed everything forever was Galileo, and he did it with a telescope.
Galileo was an Italian scientist who became a student of Copernicanism upon reading works of Nicolaus Copernicus, an astronomer who died 21 years before Galileo was born. Copernicus maintained that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the universe (I'm using the term 'universe' as it would have been described at that time, not in our time). This model explained retrograde motion more clearly and simply that the geocentric model did, and thus provided more accurate predictions.
In the early 17th century, Galileo heard of a device called a spyglass and adapted a similar device to study the heavens. It was a simple device, a tube with a concave lens at one end and a convex lens at the other. It wasn't like a telescope you would use today; in fact, its power and quality were probably a bit less than a decent pair of binoculars today. To his credit, Galileo made vast improvements in the design of telescopes, eventually grinding his own mirrors and thereby drastically bettering his view of the universe.
Once he applied this new technology to the study of the stars, Galileo stumbled upon a cosmic quandry that would resolve the geocentric/heliocentric debate: the phases of Venus. If the geocentric view were to be correct, Galileo would never see Venus as more than a crescent in his telescope; if the heliocentric view were correct, Venus would grow from crescent to nearly full as viewed from the earth. Below are two animations demonstrating what each of these models would look like respectively.
Ptolemy's Model
Copernicus' Model
You guessed it; as Galileo studied Venus' phases through his telescope, he saw not just a crescent Venus but as time passed, all the way to a gibbous Venus in his field of view. And as quick as that, thousands of years worth of cosmological thinking were made obsolete.
You probably know the rest of the story. I won't go into details, but The Church wasn't particularly gracious about this new information (remember, astronomical knowledge = power); nor was Galileo gracious in his response. Nonetheless, the Scientific Revolution had begun and our understanding of the universe changed forever.
One last note: if you would like to listen to a fascinating account of all this, I highly recommend you give my fellow former planetarian Davin Flateau a listen. His podcast (part 365 Days of Astronomy podcast series) is available here. It's definitely worth nine minutes of your time. And the theme song is awesome!
Check back tomorrow for the exciting conclusion of our telescope tale.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
What Good Is a Telescope?
This month's IYA theme is telescopes. In fact, the reason this year is IYA is that 2009 marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first use of the astronomical telescope. So what? Why should you care?
I'm going to answer that question in three parts, each of which will go live in three consecutive days. So consider this the first part, but by no means the entire story. Check back for more tomorrow and the day after.
The first part of this story centers around the power of astronomy. The power of astronomy is the power to predict the future. That is to say, we all have enough astronomical knowledge to know that the sun will rise and set each day. We can plan around this and it gives us power. If we didn't have that knowledge, we wouldn't have the power to set our own schedules or even know when the best times to sleep or work would be. In earlier times, the power to predict the future was just as important. And that future was laid out in the stars. If you could know where the planet Venus would be 5 months in the future, that meant power. And if you predicted it incorrectly, that was even worse.
To understand the importance of telescopes, let's take a journey back in time to the early 17th century. At that time, the ruling view of the universe was the geocentric model articulated by Ptolemy and Aristotle before him. From this point of view, the sun, the moon, the planets, and the stars all orbited Earth in perfect spheres. This was the "onion" universe: the earth was at the center; the moon orbited in the sphere closest to the earth (like the layer of onion closest the center); Mercury and Venus orbited the earth just past the moon, each in their own layer; the sun was in the next layer out; followed by Mars; Jupiter; Saturn; and then the stars were the outside layer, all being part of one sphere that encircled all other spheres of orbit. In this model, the movement of celestial bodies was perfect and circular.
There was a bit of problem with this model; as all keen sky observers know, the planets don't follow a straight path in a single direction across the sky; occasionally, they seem to go backward in their path and then forward again, making a loop. How could this be explained in a model of spheres? The idea of epicycles sprung forth. Epicycles were orbits within orbits; that is to say, a planet like Mars would be moving in its own circular path while circling Earth.
This model of the universe was mostly accurate and allowed early astronomers to predict the positions of the planets más o menos (more or less, as we say in Spanish). Since the Catholic Church was one of the great powers of the day, The Church made sure that this perfect model was the one that people understood. God put Earth at the center of the universe (and by extension, man), and all other celestial bodies orbited in their perfect spheres. The Church could predict the future through this model of the universe and that gave The Church power.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of our telescope talk!
I'm going to answer that question in three parts, each of which will go live in three consecutive days. So consider this the first part, but by no means the entire story. Check back for more tomorrow and the day after.
The first part of this story centers around the power of astronomy. The power of astronomy is the power to predict the future. That is to say, we all have enough astronomical knowledge to know that the sun will rise and set each day. We can plan around this and it gives us power. If we didn't have that knowledge, we wouldn't have the power to set our own schedules or even know when the best times to sleep or work would be. In earlier times, the power to predict the future was just as important. And that future was laid out in the stars. If you could know where the planet Venus would be 5 months in the future, that meant power. And if you predicted it incorrectly, that was even worse.
To understand the importance of telescopes, let's take a journey back in time to the early 17th century. At that time, the ruling view of the universe was the geocentric model articulated by Ptolemy and Aristotle before him. From this point of view, the sun, the moon, the planets, and the stars all orbited Earth in perfect spheres. This was the "onion" universe: the earth was at the center; the moon orbited in the sphere closest to the earth (like the layer of onion closest the center); Mercury and Venus orbited the earth just past the moon, each in their own layer; the sun was in the next layer out; followed by Mars; Jupiter; Saturn; and then the stars were the outside layer, all being part of one sphere that encircled all other spheres of orbit. In this model, the movement of celestial bodies was perfect and circular.
There was a bit of problem with this model; as all keen sky observers know, the planets don't follow a straight path in a single direction across the sky; occasionally, they seem to go backward in their path and then forward again, making a loop. How could this be explained in a model of spheres? The idea of epicycles sprung forth. Epicycles were orbits within orbits; that is to say, a planet like Mars would be moving in its own circular path while circling Earth.
This model of the universe was mostly accurate and allowed early astronomers to predict the positions of the planets más o menos (more or less, as we say in Spanish). Since the Catholic Church was one of the great powers of the day, The Church made sure that this perfect model was the one that people understood. God put Earth at the center of the universe (and by extension, man), and all other celestial bodies orbited in their perfect spheres. The Church could predict the future through this model of the universe and that gave The Church power.Stay tuned for Part 2 of our telescope talk!
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