PROGRESS OF ASTRONOMY

Abstract

The task of presenting the annual progress of his science is particularly difficult for the astronomer since many of the truly great achievements can only be recognized after they have seasoned for a century or more. The present value of astronomy is determined mainly by the knowledge itself the widened perspective, gained by study of the structure of the universe. The more deeply we probe the cosmic depths, the more we realize how true was Shakespeare's utterance: There are stranger things in heaven earth, Horatio, than are dreamed of in thy philosophy. Philosophy! will-o-the-wisp chasing itself! For centuries, philosophers pseudo-philosophers (I leave it to them to define the boundary line) have sought to determine, on purely philosophical grounds, the structure evolutionary course of the universe. Give me matter, says Kant, and I will construct a world out of it. But out of the thousands of hypotheses that have been put forth, not one, to my knowledge, begins to depict the true state of the world. Where, in some cases, there is an apparent resemblance, I am inclined to give the credit, not to philosophy, but to observational astronomy. The proper exercise of the logician's faculties was unduly hampered by the fact that stars nebulae actually exist. Someone once said, A philosopher is like a blind man in a dark room, looking for a black hat that isn't there.