Great astronomical discoveries.  Our place in the universe

Astronomers often operate in the position of a theorist or observer. Theorists invent models of reality, which are then verified by observers – they create a description, usually in the language of mathematics, and predict the behavior of a particular object or phenomenon. Models are not reality, but they are an attempt to better or worse describe them. Models that reproduce observed reality exceptionally well, as well as make predictions consistent with other observations, are sometimes elevated to the level of laws of physics, but they are also not a fact, but a description of it. Scientific findings, as opposed to unverifiable and by definition indisputable “unearthed facts”, are subject to modification and improvements. I stress openness to verification and the need for improvement as the essence of science, because these features are sometimes interpreted as unfavorable, when the exact opposite is true.

Humanity has practiced astronomy “forever” and it was initially associated with attempts to understand reality based on religion. Therefore, the first astronomers were more or less priests. Evidence of their activity is, for example, a piece carved from mammoth bone with the constellation Orion marked over 30,000 years ago. Years and similar ancient drawings on a cave wall in Lascaux, France depict the Pleiades, the Summer Triangle, and the Crown of the North.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You May Also Like

13.5 thousand new cases of corona virus

Here are the numbers for Thursday, March 10. In Wielkopolska, 1,755 new…

Supermassive black holes are choking their galaxies. The more they ate, the worse it got

When a supermassive black hole is surrounded by a large amount of…

The Earth’s troposphere is growing. Planes may get into trouble soon

An article with the results of the research was published in the…

NASA has revealed the possible landing sites for humans on the moon

NASA organized a special video conference in which scientists revealed 9 perfectly…