Galactic astronomy is the study of the Milky Way galaxy and all of its matters. Up until eighty years ago, it was unclear whether there were other galaxies besides the Milky Way. Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher, suggested that there might be other disk-like ‘island universes’. Then, in the years prior to 1920, Jacobus Kapteyn, a Dutch astronomer, finalizes a huge survey of stars. He did this to determine the Milky Way structure. Kapteyn determines that the Milky Way and possibly the entire universe, is an oblate ellipsoid with a diameter of 17 kpc. However, Kapteyn was not aware of dust absorption. In 1918, an American astronomer, Harlow Shapley, investigated the distribution of globular clusters. He finds that they have a spherical distribution, its centre being 15kcp from the sun, Shapley argues that the Milky Way is around 100kpc across. …show more content…
The debate was between Harlow Shapley and another American astronomer, Heber Curtis. The debate took place in Washington at the meeting of the National Academy of Sciences. Both Shapley and Curtis gave speeches regarding “The Scale of the Universe”. Shapley believed that the Milky Way is large and we are not at its center. He also believed that spiral nebulae are small gas clouds included in the Milky Way. Whereas, Curtis believed that the Milky Way was small and we are toward the galaxies center. He also believed that spiral nebulae are external galaxies comparable to the Milky Way. Curtis theory was based on Kapteyn’s, with the unawareness of dust absorption. Shapley argued that because of the Copernican Principle, it was doubtful we were near the center of the galaxy. He believed that the center of the galaxy was probably in the direction where all the globular clusters were. However, because Curtis did not include dust, his map was
In Alan Lightman’s, “Our Place in the Universe,” he describes his experiences in the Greek Isles explaining how meek it made him feel to be surrounded by the vast ocean with no land in sight except a small strip of brown in the distance. Great thinkers throughout history, have been exploring the visible variety of shapes, colors, and sizes, though the greatest of these are size, from the smallest atom to gargantuan stars. These massive differences in size change the way we view ourselves in the universe. (470) Garth Illingworth, from the University of California, has studied galaxies more than 13 billion light years away from us.
Haven’t We Met Before: an Archetypal Analysis of Guardians of the Galaxy Have you ever thought to yourself, now where have I seen that before? Odds are you were watching a movie or reading a book, when something that happened in the story or a character said or did that sounded familiar. This is probably due to archetypes. Archetypes are original models that others are based upon, almost like a mold or a cookie cutter that makes similar copies. One movie that has many great examples archetypal characters, themes, and journeys is Guardians of the Galaxy, directed by James Gunn.
Two men named Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis has a debate in 1920 that is still important today for changing how we think about galaxies. They talked about five important things. The first thing they debated was how big our galaxy, the Milky Way, is. Shapley said that the Milky Way was much bigger than we first thought, 100,000 light-years across, and that, because it was that big, it had to be the only one. Curtis said the the Milky Way was smaller than that, and that other galaxies existed past ours. They were both right and both wrong. Shapley was right about the size of the Milky Way, and Curtis was right about there being many more galaxies in the universe.
Moreover, Kuhn says observation is a double edged sword (page 7). This sword can confirm or conflict with cosmology which can destroy the theory. Kuhn discusses the astronomer (page 7), who because of his own world view (via his specialty) will not verify Milton's image of the Milky Way as being broad and ample or Shakespeare's vision of stars as night candles. Those descriptions don't tell the astronomer how far away the Milky Way, the Sun or Jupiter happen to be.
Shock, anger, numbness, denial, acceptance, and fighting for one’s life, are the general phases of grief through one’s experience with cancer (cancersurvivors.org). Although discovering about one’s cancer can be excruciating, an additional agonizing reaction to a sick person is how the others are affected and their one-on-one reaction to the person. Feeling overly pitiful to one’s illness can impair the situation for the one who is ill by emotionally making the tragedy feel additionally worse. Although the extra sympathy, empathy, and compassion Hazel Grace Lancaster is treated with in The Fault In Ours Stars are intended to comfort, these exaggerated emotions have the opposite effect, further isolating and reminding her of her limited existence, but concurrently, the reality of condolences is pivotal to Hazel’s life.
Cosmology is a field of astronomy that focuses on the framework, and emergence of the universe. Over the years, many cosmologists have contributed to the subject, using many forms of technology, to make a multitude of discoveries. Improvements in technology are responsible for superlative discoveries, chiefly about the Big Bang, the origin of our universe. The works of various cosmologists, such as Galileo Galilei, Edwin Hubble, Robert Dicke, Arno Penzias, Robert Wilson, and Vera Rubin have changed the way humanity views the universe, through their use of technology, and through their brilliance.
The cosmological argument is the existence of God, arguing that the possibility of each existing and the domain collected of such elements in this universe. The inquiry is that 'for what reason does anything exist? Why as opposed to nothing? In this paper, I will explain for what reason does everything need cause? Why is God thought to be the principal cause?
The Main Strengths of the Cosmological Argument There are many strengths within the Cosmological Argument which have proven theories and ways to prove the existence of God. Many of these strengths have come from such scholars as; Copleston, Aquinas and Leibniz, all of which have put together major points to prove the existence of a non-contingent being. One of the main strengths of the Cosmological Argument is from Aquinas way I that was about motion. This would be a posteriori argument because you need to gather evidence from the world around you.
Waller, William H. The Milky Way: An Insider's Guide. Princeton, N.J: Princeton UP, 2013. 42+. Print.
The Andromeda Galaxy is the Milky Way Galaxy’s closest neighbor; with it being around 2.5 million lightyears away from Earth. It was once referred to as the Great Andromeda Nebula in older readings. It gets its name from the Andromeda constellation which in turn received its name from the Greek goddess Andromeda.
As we discussed in lecture, galaxies are constantly colliding with each other and these collisions shape the structure and evolution of galaxies. “Andromeda II provides direct evidence for the importance of mergers even for the smallest and least luminous of galaxies” (Amorisco et al, 2014, p. 3). By discovering more evidence of galactic collisions, cosmologists and astronomers will be able to determine the effect they have on the Universe. The merging of galaxies allows for them to grow bigger—small galaxies are merged to create ...
By 1936, astronomers had realized that the hazy balls they sometimes saw in their telescopes, which looked like stars obscured by gas, were actually galaxies (Hibbison).
The first person to ever observe the Milky Way was Greek philosopher, Democritus, who said the galaxy may consist of distant stars. In 1610, Galileo Galilei used a telescope to study the Milky Way and came to the conclusion that it was composed of billions and billions of faint stars. Then, in 1750, Thomas Wright c...
One thing us as humans have never been able to fully understand is astronomy. Always having an unexplained mystery, astronomy also has served as a way to keep time and predict the future. The word “astronomy” is defined as the study of heavenly bodies, meaning anything in the sky such as stars, galaxies, comets, planets, nebulae, and so on. Many people, if not everyone, is amazed by the night sky on a clear, moonless night.
Astronomers believe that most galaxies consist of a supermassive black hole at the center, which attracts all constituents of galaxies such as, dust, gases (mainly Hydrogen and Helium), atoms, stars, interstellar clouds and planets to the center by force of gravity, but are not sure whether all galaxies contain a black hole in the center. Galaxies keep moving in relative motion to one another and intermittently can come so close that the force of gravitational attraction between the galaxies may become strong enough to cause a change in the shape of the galaxies, while in exceptional cases, the galaxies may collide. If two galaxies collide, they may pass right through without any effect or may merge, forming strands of stars, extending beyond 100,000 light years in space (World Book Online Reference Centre, 2005). Hence, neighboring and often other colliding galaxies induce the sha...