History Of Astronomy Research Articles

How did a Lutheran astronomer get converted into a Catholic authority? The Jesuits and their reception of Tycho Brahe in Portugal.

This article explores the complex process of integrating Tycho Brahe's theories into the Jesuit intellectual framework through focusing on the international community of professors who taught mathematics at the College of Saint Anthony (Colégio de Santo Antão), Lisbon, during the first half of the seventeenth century. Historians have conceived the reception of the Tychonic system as a straightforward process motivated by the developments of early modern astronomy. Nevertheless, this paper argues that the cultural politics of the Counter-Reformation Church curbed the reception of Tycho Brahe within the Jesuit milieu. Despite supporting the Tychonic geo-heliocentric system, which they explicitly conceived of as a 'compromise' between the ancient Ptolemy and the modern Copernicus, and making recourse to some of the cosmological ideas produced in Tycho's Protestant milieu, the Jesuits strove to confine the authority of the Lutheran astronomer to the domain of mathematics. Philosophy was expected to remain the realm of Catholic orthodoxy. Thus, while Tycho Brahe entered the pantheon of 'Jesuit' authorities, he nonetheless was not granted the absolute status of intellectual authority. This case demonstrates how the impact of confessionalization reached well beyond the formal processes of science censorship.

Numerical tables in the history of astronomy

Numerical tables in the history of astronomy

Processing & Production of Scientific Data: An historical marriage, now in a permanent divorce?

Once upon a time, the same person generated and then processed data arising from an original scholarly pursuit. For example: an early modern astronomer predicted sky phenomena based on their observation; a ship's navigator plotted a course using readings from their instruments; and a natural philosopher uncovered laws of nature from basic physical measurements. These measuring and calculating skills would have been studied in tandem before being applied, thus ensuring their wedded deployment. And fittingly, when any results became known, "who got credit" would have been clear.

The Supernova Remnant of More than 4100 Years Ago Was Discovered—Emperor Yao’s Jingxing (PKS 1209-52)

According to Bamboo Annals, “The year Emperor Yao ascended the throne was the year of Bingzi” and “In the forty-second year of his reign, Jing star appeared on the Yi xiu (constellation)”. LunHeng says that “during the era of emperor Yao, Jing star was seen in the Zhen xiu (constellation)”. This star may be a supernova between Yi xiu and Zhen xiu. Calculated by already known years that was designated by Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, the 42nd year of Emperor Yao’s reign was B.C.2164. If we take a wide range (180∘±23∘) as the transition area between ‘Yi’ and ‘Zhen’, we can find 20 supernovae in the Green Supernova Remnant Table. Among them, only the high silver latitude remnant PKS 1209-52 (G296.5+10.0) conforms to brightness and age limitations of Emperor Yao’s Jing star that appeared “like a half moon”. It is the only candidate of Emperor Yao’s Jing star (SN-B.C.2164). According to the relationship between the surface brightness of supernovae and the line diameter that SNR Σ∝D−β, as well as the adiabatic expansion theory, the adiabatic phase age (t=4165 yr) is calculated to be consistent with the era of Emperor Yao. In addition, according to the limitation that the Jing stars are as bright as “half moon”, the distance d= 1–1.2 kpc can be figured out. Then according to the Sedov relation D=0.94t2/5, the age of Emperor Yao’s Jing star was (4450 ± 900) years ago. It is also in accordance with the times of Emperor Yao. This is one of the earliest recorded supernovae in the history of astronomy, which advances the history recorded in Chinese literature and confirmed by science to more than 4100 years ago.

Spin off: The Surprising History of the Coriolis Effect and the Jesuits Who Investigated It

This paper discusses six astronomers of the Society of Jesus who investigated the Coriolis Effect: the deflection of objects moving at Earth's surface that is caused by Earth's rotation. The paper includes introductory material on what the Coriolis Effect is and how it works, especially as regards the atmosphere of Earth and other planets. Four of the six Jesuits—Christoph Scheiner, Giovanni Battista Riccioli, Francesco Maria Grimaldi, and Claude François Milliet Dechales—worked in the seventeenth century. They envisioned the effect occurring if Earth rotated; they believed that no such effect actually occurred; and thus they investigated the effect as an argument against Earth's motion. The fifth, Angelo Secchi, experimented with the Foucault pendulum, the first clear demonstration of this effect. The sixth, Johann Georg Hagen, the first Jesuit Director of the Vatican Observatory, worked in the early twentieth century. He developed experimental tests for the effect. This paper provides a synopsis of information that recently has been published in books and journals related to physics and the history of astronomy regarding Jesuits and the Coriolis Effect.

Monotonicity of the Cores of Massive Stars

Massive stars are linked to diverse astronomical processes and objects including star formation, supernovae and their remnants, cosmic rays, interstellar media, and galaxy evolution. Understanding their properties is of primary importance for modern astronomy, and finding simple rules that characterize them is especially useful. However, theoretical simulations have not yet realized such relations, instead finding that the late evolutionary phases are significantly affected by a complicated interplay between nuclear reactions, chemical mixing, and neutrino radiation, leading to nonmonotonic initial-mass dependencies of the iron core mass and the compactness parameter. We conduct a set of stellar evolution simulations, in which evolutions of He star models are followed until their central densities uniformly reach 1010 g cm−3, and analyze their final structures as well as their evolutionary properties, including the lifetime, surface radius change, and presumable fates after core collapse. Based on the homogeneous data set, we have found that monotonicity is inherent in the cores of massive stars. We show that not only the density, entropy, and chemical distributions, but also their lifetimes and explosion properties such as the proto-neutron-star mass and the explosion energy can be simultaneously ordered into a monotonic sequence. This monotonicity can be regarded as an empirical principle that characterizes the cores of massive stars.

Localization and Classification of Venusian Volcanoes Using Image Detection Algorithms.

Imaging is one of the main tools of modern astronomy-many images are collected each day, and they must be processed. Processing such a large amount of images can be complex, time-consuming, and may require advanced tools. One of the techniques that may be employed is artificial intelligence (AI)-based image detection and classification. In this paper, the research is focused on developing such a system for the problem of the Magellan dataset, which contains 134 satellite images of Venus's surface with individual volcanoes marked with circular labels. Volcanoes are classified into four classes depending on their features. In this paper, the authors apply the You-Only-Look-Once (YOLO) algorithm, which is based on a convolutional neural network (CNN). To apply this technique, the original labels are first converted into a suitable YOLO format. Then, due to the relatively small number of images in the dataset, deterministic augmentation techniques are applied. Hyperparameters of the YOLO network are tuned to achieve the best results, which are evaluated as mean average precision (mAP@0.5) for localization accuracy and F1 score for classification accuracy. The experimental results using cross-vallidation indicate that the proposed method achieved 0.835 mAP@0.5 and 0.826 F1 scores, respectively.

Stellar initial mass function varies with metallicity and time.

Most structural and evolutionary properties of galaxies strongly rely on the stellar initial mass function (IMF), namely the distribution of the stellar mass formed in each episode of star formation1-4. The IMF shapes the stellar population in all stellar systems, and so has become one of the most fundamental concepts of modern astronomy. Both constant and variable IMFs across different environments have been claimed despite a large number of theoretical5-7 and observational efforts8-15. However, the measurement of the IMF in Galactic stellar populations has been limited by the relatively small number of photometrically observed stars, leading to high uncertainties12-16. Here we report a star-counting result based on approximately 93,000 spectroscopically observed M-dwarf stars, an order of magnitude more than previous studies, in the 100-300 parsec solar neighbourhood. We find unambiguous evidence of a variable IMF that depends on both metallicity and stellar age. Specifically, the stellar population formed at early times contains fewer low-mass stars compared with the canonical IMF, independent of stellar metallicities. In more recent times, however, the proportion of low-mass stars increases with stellar metallicity. The variable abundance of low-mass stars in our Milky Way establishes a powerful benchmark for models of star formation and can heavily affect results in Galactic chemical-enrichment modelling, mass estimation of galaxies and planet-formation efficiency.

The peculiar fate of human reason. Reflections on Kant’s concept of astronomy

The question whether and how Kant can introduce a concept of reason which is compatible with his critical claims of enlightenment is a perennial challenge. This question implies the problem of how reason can be the supreme touchstone of all rights and remedies without being affected by Kant’s despotism-reproach (WA, AA 08: 41). To defend Kant’s concept of reason, I reflect on the astronomy example as introduced in the fourth antinomy. With reference to Jean Jacques Dortous de Mairan, Kant considers a dispute between two astronomers concerning the question whether the moon turns on its own axis or not. Based on his own perspective resolution (i.e. the distinction between the perspective of the sun and the perspective of the earth), Kant presents his distinction between theoretical and practical philosophy. Simultaneously, he develops the possibility of understanding reason in its regulative use as well as in its historical dimension. Consequently, Kant refers to astronomy again in the “Appendix to the Transcendental Dialectic”, and explains the historical progress of its underlying assumptions, i.e. the circular, elliptical, hyperbolic and parabolic motion of the courses of planets around the sun. From Kant’s point of view, these theories of movement build foci imaginarii and, for this reason, they are transformable, as the history of astronomy has shown. Regarding these astronomy examples, I argue that reason does not build an Archimedean Point but can fulfil its function as the highest judge in a regulative use.

Kinematically engaged yoke system for segmented lens-based space telescope integration and testing

One of the most profound and philosophically captivating foci of modern astronomy is the study of Earth-like exoplanets in the search for life in the Universe. The paradigm-shifting investigation described here calls for a new type of scalable space telescope that redefines the available light-collecting area in space. The Nautilus Space Observatory, enabled by multiple-order diffractive optics (the MODE lens), is ushering in the advent of large space telescope lenses designed to search for biosignatures on a thousand exo-earths. The Kinematically Engaged Yoke System (KEYS) was developed to align a segmented version of the MODE lens. A technology demonstration prototype of KEYS was built and tested using scanning white light interferometry and deflectometry. A deflectometry system was also developed to monitor the closed-loop alignment of the segmented MODE lens during its UV (i.e., Ultraviolet) curing.

An Interview with Professor David Cook on Islamic Studies

David Cook is a Professor of religion in the Department of Religious Studies at Rice University, specializing in Islam. He completed his undergraduate degree at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1994. He later received his M.A. degree in 1998 and his Ph.D. degree with the study titled “The Beginnings of Islam in Syria during the Umayyad Period”, which he prepared under the supervision of Fred Donner, Walter Kaegi, and Patricia Crone from the University of Chicago (Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures) in March 2002. He received most of his training in Arabic and Islamic studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Then he took training in other languages and the research methodology of Islamic studies at the University of Chicago. His areas of specialization include early Islamic history and development, Muslim apocalyptic literature and movements (classical and contemporary), radical Islam, jihad, jihadist movements in Islam such as Salafism, historical astronomy, Judeo-Arabic literature, and West African Islam. This study was prepared as part of an interview with Prof. Cook in July 2022 at Rice University. It covers a number of subjects, including Cook’s educational background, his research into Islamic topics, his methodology, and his opinions on Western Islamic literature.

전통 천문 지식의 범주와 연구의 방향 — 전통지식과 무형유산으로서의 가치를 중심으로 —

In this study, the concept and scope of traditional astronomical knowledge and the current research status were reviewed, and the collection and research directions of traditional astronomical knowledge were suggested. This can be summarized as follows. First of all, traditional astronomical knowledge refers to traditional knowledge about astronomical phenomena related to the universe, sun, moon, and stars, and specifically, the brightness of stars, constellations, lunar cycles, year cycles, calendars, astrology, concepts about the universe, sky or it refers to knowledge about cosmic myths and rituals. As such astronomical knowledge was presented to the humanities perspective on astronomy, it gradually began to receive attention. In Western academia, as the field of national astronomy emerged, research on astronomical knowledge of each country is actively conducted under international cooperation. In Korea, research on astronomical knowledge is partially carried out mainly in the fields of ancient astronomy, agriculture, folklore, oriental medicine, epidemiology, etc., mainly on the calendar method, the seasons, but it is limited to each area. There is a limit to comprehending the full picture of astronomical knowledge. Traditional astronomy knowledge can be broadly divided into knowledge about the universe, the sun, the moon, and the stars. These knowledge can be divided into knowledge about regeneration, knowledge about shapes, knowledge transmitted as relics, knowledge related to fortune-telling, and knowledge related to rituals. Such astronomical knowledge can be divided into knowledge produced by pre-modern state institutions, knowledge produced by pre-modern intellectuals or the private sector, and knowledge transmitted by modern and modern folklore. Most of the knowledge produced by pre-modern state institutions is shown in the documents compiled by Gwansang-gam, and the knowledge produced by pre-modern intellectuals and the private sector is shown in various historical records, agricultural books, encyclopedic literatures, astrology, and Myongri theory. In addition, knowledge of modern and contemporary folklore is included in oral and field research materials. It is necessary to comprehensively review these data and organize them systematically. In the future, traditional astronomical knowledge should be intensively studied on the relationship between traditional astronomical knowledge and livelihood, the relationship with rituals, and the aspects and methods used for future prediction. As such, traditional astronomical knowledge has important meaning and value both in terms of traditional knowledge and intangible heritage. Therefore, comprehensive collection, arrangement, and full-scale research on it should be carried out.

Astronomical Surveys, Catalogues, Archives, Databases and Virtual Observatories

Astronomical surveys and catalogs are the main sources for the discovery of new objects, both Galactic and extragalactic. Archives and Databases maintain billions of astronomical objects; planets, comets, stars, exoplanets, nebulae, galaxies, and quasars. We will review the current background in astronomy for further all-sky or large-area studies. Modern astronomy is characterized by multiwavelength (MW) studies (from gamma-ray to radio) and Big Data (data acquisition, storage, mining and analysis). Present astronomical databases and archives contain billions of objects observed at various wavelengths, and the vast amount of data on them allows new studies and discoveries. Surveys are the main source also for accumulation of observational data for further analysis, interpretation, and achieving scientific results. We review the main characteristics of astronomical surveys (homogeneity, completeness, sensitivity, etc.), compare photographic and digital eras of astronomical studies (including the development of wide-field observations), and describe the present state of MW surveys. Among others, Fermi-GLAST, INTEGRAL (gamma-ray), ROSAT, Chandra, XMM (X-ray), GALEX (UV), DSS1/2, SDSS, Hubble, Gaia (optical), 2MASS, IRAS, AKARI, WISE, Herschel (IR), NVSS and FIRST (radio) surveys and major astronomical archives and databases will be presented and discussed, as well as surveys and databases for variable and transit objects.

JWST observations of ALMA [O iii] 88 μm emitters in the epoch of reionization

AbstractUnderstanding properties of galaxies in the epoch of reionization (EoR) is a frontier in the modern astronomy. ALMA observations have demonstrated that i) some [O iii] 88 μm emitters have matured stellar populations at z>6, implying early star formation activity at z>10, and that ii) high-z star-forming galaxies typically have very high [O iii] 88 μm-to-[C ii] 158 μm luminosity ratios ranging from 3 to 12 or higher, indicating interstellar media of high-z galaxies could be highly ionized. We discuss initial results of a medium-sized JWST GO1 program that targets a sample of 12 z=6–8 ALMA [O iii] 88 μm emitters with NIRCam and NIRSPec IFU modes (GO-1840). Our JWST GO1 program, in conjunction with ALMA data, will characterize the stellar, nebular, and dust properties of these [O iii] 88 μm emitters and place this galaxies in the context of reionization.

Data-driven photometric redshift estimation from type Ia supernovae light curves

ABSTRACT Redshift measurement has always been a constant need in modern astronomy and cosmology. And as new surveys have been providing an immense amount of data on astronomical objects, the need to process such data automatically proves to be increasingly necessary. In this article, we use simulated data from the Dark Energy Survey, and from a pipeline originally created to classify supernovae, we developed a linear regression algorithm optimized through novel automated machine learning (AutoML) frameworks achieving an error score better than ordinary data pre-processing methods when compared with other modern algorithms (such as xgboost). Numerically, the photometric prediction RMSE of type Ia supernovae events was reduced from 0.16 to 0.09 and the RMSE of all supernovae types decreased from 0.20 to 0.14. Our pipeline consists of four steps: through spectroscopic data points we interpolate the light curve using Gaussian process fitting algorithm, then using a wavelet transform we extract the most important features of such curves; in sequence we reduce the dimensionality of such features through principal component analysis, and in the end we applied super learning techniques (stacked ensemble methods) through an AutoML framework dedicated to optimize the parameters of several different machine learning models, better resolving the problem. As a final check, we obtained probability distribution functions (PDFs) using Gaussian kernel density estimations through the predictions of more than 50 models trained and optimized by AutoML. Those PDFs were calculated to replicate the original curves that used SALT2 model, a model used for the simulation of the raw data itself.

Astronomy and Culture

Modern astronomy as a field of inquiry may be shaped by what we consider the “scientific” ways of knowing. However, the history of astronomy as a human endeavour dates back millennia before the “modern” notions of “science”. This long history means that astronomy is, at its core, built on a rich cultural diversity and history. This offers a rich potential that, while having been examined in various studies, has yet to be explored from a contextual pedagogical perspective. This paper offers an initial exploratory theoretical perspective on how social semiotics can be used to inform a conceptual framework. This approach not only brings notions of culture into the teaching and learning of astronomy but uses culture as the starting point in a way that does justice to the cultural diversity of the discipline and the world. In doing so, this paper develops two frameworks: (i) the Conceptual Framework for Culture in Astronomy Education and (ii) the Pedagogical Framework for Culture in Astronomy Education, both of these offer a novel approach to astronomy education.

On Both Sides of the Strait of Gibraltar: Studies in the History of Medieval Astronomy in the Iberian Peninsula and the Maghrib, written by Julio Samsó

On Both Sides of the Strait of Gibraltar: Studies in the History of Medieval Astronomy in the Iberian Peninsula and the Maghrib, written by Julio Samsó

Atom Teorileri Paradigma Değişimi Açısından Değerlendirilebilir mi?

Atom is one of the most controversial and interesting subjects of first natural philosophy and natural sciences. It has preoccupied people's minds since ancient times. This historical adventure, which started with the ancient Greek atomism and Muslim scholars in the Middle Ages also contributed to ideas of atom. Since atomism was far from the possibilities of experimentation in the early periods, it was tried to be proved by rational reasoning. XIX. In the 19th century, the concept of the atom has become one of the fundamental phenomena of modern science. By the 20th century, it was understood that this fundamental particle, which was thought to be indivisible, could be divided into more fundamental parts, thanks to both experimental evidence and scientific and technological developments. In fact, thanks to the atom, energies that could not even be imagined before having begun to be obtained.
 In our study, first, this journey of the atom will be discussed. Later, the Kuhnian approach, which deeply affected the history of science studies in the second half of the 20th century, will be examined. For this, the concepts of paradigm and non-comparability will be discussed. Then, the place of this Kuhnian approach in the history of the atom, which is given in the first part of the study, will be discussed. The Kuhnian paradigm was frequently used by Kuhn and his followers, especially in explanations in the history of astronomy. In our study, it will be shown in the explanatory power of this approach is weak when the atomic history is examined.

The role and contribution of magnetic fields, characterized via their magnetic flux, to the statistical structuring of the solar atmosphere

The anomalous heating of the solar upper atmosphere is one of the eight key problems in modern astronomy. Moreover, the stratification of the solar atmosphere is an outstanding key-problem in solar physics. In this study, a hot butterfly-like pattern is found to run through the chromosphere to the corona lying right on top of the magnetic butterfly pattern of sunspots in the photosphere. We thus propose to introduce the term butterfly body to describe the butterfly diagram in the 3-dimensional atmosphere. Besides, we discuss the so-called polar brightening in different layers. It is found to be statistically in anti-phase with the solar cycle in the photosphere and the chromosphere, while in phase with the solar cycle in the corona. Accordingly, we describe the role and relationship of solar magnetic elements of different magnetic flux strengths to explain the statistical structuring of the solar atmosphere with the butterfly body over the solar cycle.

Ortaçağ Türk Şiirinde “Sünbül” İmgesi Üzerine Bir Değerlendirme

In the literature of medieval Turkish civilization, the concept of "sünbül" has a very rich variety of usage. This diversity has manifested itself in the humanities as well as in the natural and applied sciences, especially in Turkish poetry, where the concept of sünbül is widely used. How does the concept of sünbül differ between texts of natural and applied sciences and literature? In literary texts, it is necessary to investigate what is meant by the use of sünbül. In this study, we discussed what is meant by the use of sünbül in poetry by comparing the works created using Turkish in the Middle Ages in natural and applied sciences with the medieval Turkish poetry. In the literature of medieval Turkish civilization, the concept of "sünbül" is a concept used in the disciplines of botany, astrology and semiotics, as well as its use as a poetic image. In our study, a general viewpoint has been created to cover the definition and usage areas of the use of sünbül in the works of the Old Anatolian Turkish period, and in the conclusion part, all these uses and the values that the concept expresses. According to our findings, the use of "sünbül" in Turkish poetry is related to its terminology in the three disciplines. As a botanical term, a relation was established between the sünbül and the ideal woman's hair, and the pleasant scents of the plants known as sünbül in the Middle Ages, the filamentous structures seen in the root systems of these plants or, possibly, the inflorescence. As the term of astronomy, sünbül is meant by establishing a visual similarity with the concept of sünbül, which is used as a botanical term, and the modern sign of Virgo, called "sünbüle". As a semiotic term, the sünbül was used to indicate the perfect hair of the ideal woman, as well as the scent of this hair, it has also been mentioned among the elements that complement the beauty of a unique and celestial garden from time to time. This study also argues that in addition to the aforementioned forms of use, the establishment of the relationship between “sünbül” and “zülüf” is an evolved manifestation of the feeling of gratitude towards the goddesses of agriculture in Antiquity. Keywords: History of plants, Medieval astronomy, Medieval botany, Medieval semiology, spikenard.