Astronomy

"I am as familiar with the paths of heaven as with the streets of Nehardea, with the exception of the comet, about which I am ignorant."

"What you fellows call progress moves by two springs, men and events. But sad to say, from time to time the exceptional is necessary. For events as well as for men, the stock company is not enough; geniuses are needed among men, and revolutions among events. Great accidents are the law; the order of things cannot get along without them; and, to see the apparitions of comets, one would be tempted to believe that Heaven itself is in need of star actors. At the moment you least expect it, God placards a meteor on the wall of the firmament. Some strange star comes along, underlined by an enormous tail. And that makes Caesar die. Brutus strikes him with a knife, and God with a comet."

"When the Deep Impact probe hit Comet 9P/Tempel, there was almost no change in brightness. … This outburst by Comet Holmes is extreme!"

"I see myself as a huge fiery comet, a shooting star. Everyone stops, points up and gasps "Oh look at that!" Then — whoosh, and I'm gone... and they'll never see anything like it ever again... and they won't be able to forget me — ever."

"When in your middle years The great comet comes again Remember me, a child, Awake in the summer night, Standing in my crib and Watching that long-haired star So many years ago. Go out in the dark and see Its plume over water Dribbling on the liquid night, And think that life and glory Flickered on the rushing Bloodstream for me once, and for All who have gone before me, Vessels of the billion-year-long River that flows now in your veins."

"I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: "Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together."

"By being seldom seen, I could not stir But like a comet I was wonder'd at."

"Ruling the calm spaciousness of that heaven was the great comet, now green-white, and wonderful for all who had eyes to see."

"At first it had been an almost telescopic speck; it had brightened to the dimensions of the greatest star in the heavens; it had still grown, hour by hour, in its incredibly swift, its noiseless and inevitable rush upon our earth, until it had equaled and surpassed the moon. Now it was the most splendid thing this sky of earth has ever held. I have never seen a photograph that gave a proper idea of it. Never at any time did it assume the conventional tailed outline, comets are supposed to have."

"As I drew near the end, the sense of strangeness returned to me. It was more and more evident to me that this was a different humanity from any I had known, unreal, having different customs, different beliefs, different interpretations, different emotions. It was no mere change in conditions and institutions the comet had wrought. It had made a change of heart and mind."

"A total eclipse of the sun is of more than passing interest, not merely to the astronomer but also to the . Indeed, by reason of the supposed verification of the so-called Einstein effect during the , which, in consequence, may make that eclipse the most famous of all eclipses observed thus far, an eclipse of the sun has become of profound interest also to the physicist, to the mathematician, and to the philosopher, in general."

"... The Babylonians also realized that specific solar and lunar eclipses were often separated from a similar event by what Halley called one . To understand this cycle in modern terms, imagine the geometry of celestial bodies at the moment of a solar eclipse, when the moon lies directly between the sun and Earth and all three bodies form a neat line. For this to happen, the moon must be a new moon. It must also be at a point where its own tilted orbit around the Earth is plunging through the plane in which the Earth marches through its own orbit around the sun. Now imagine advancing the clock forward to find a time when these same conditions recur. We have to reconcile several overlapping but unequal lunar cycles. Cycle one: It takes about 29.5306 days to go from one new moon to the next. Cycle two: It takes the moon about 27.2122 days to go from one pass through the plane of Earth’s orbit to the same pass on the next go-round. Cycle three: Because the moon’s elliptical orbit draws it nearer and farther away from Earth, the moon also oscillates its apparent size and speed in the skies over Earth, a cycle that takes about 27.5546 days. The Saros, then, is just a nice round interval during which all these cycles repeat a whole number of times: 223 passes through the new moon is almost exactly equal to 242 laps in and out of the ecliptic, which is in turn almost exactly equal to 239 oscillations in the moon’s apparent size. If you saw a solar or lunar eclipse, just wait one Saros, and the same rough geometric arrangement of the celestial bodies will repeat. The moon's orbit is actually more complicated than just these parameters, though. And, regardless, this scheme doesn't tell you where on Earth the resulting eclipse will be visible."

"Once upon a time I was falling in love But now I'm only falling apart There's nothing I can do A total eclipse of the heart Once upon a time there was light in my life But now there's only love in the dark Nothing I can say A total eclipse of the heart."

"People are gradually beginning to realize that these sightings are not bunk. I thought it was bunk until I saw one … Now don't tell me I had been drinking tequila, or that I was seeing spots before my eyes! … you did not offer any explanation for the saucers. Thus far, there certainly is no adequate explanation. All I can say is that if one ever actually sees one, he has seen the most awe-inspiring, strange and unaccountable sight that he'll ever see in his lifetime. … Space does not permit me to go into detail as to why the object was not a balloon, a kite, a plane, or some such object. … I have lost so much sleep thinking about the contraption, I wish I had never seen the darn thing in the first place."

"It is with considerable disappointment you cannot give the explanation of these aircraft as I felt certain they belonged to our government. They have apparently meant no harm, but used as an instrument of destruction in combination with our atomic bomb the effects could destroy life on our planet. ... We have not taken this lightly. It is to us of very serious concern, as we are as interested in the welfare of our country as you are."

"If our government knows anything about these devices, the people should be told at once. A lot of people out here are very much disturbed. Some think these things may be from another planet. But they aren't harming anyone and I think it would be the wrong thing to shoot one of them down – even if it can be done. Their high speed would completely wreck them."

"… well, right here we’ve seen something, I’ve seen something, hundreds of pilots have seen something … in the skies. We have dutifully reported these things. And we have to have 15 million witnesses before anybody is going to look into the problem … seriously? Well this is utterly fantastic. This is more fantastic than flying saucers or people from Venus or anything as far as I am concerned."

"The (British) government took the threat of UFOs so seriously in the 1950s that UK intelligence chiefs met to discuss the issue, newly-released files show... Ministers even went on to commission weekly reports on UFO sightings from a committee of intelligence experts... the papers also include a wartime account claiming prime minister Winston Churchill ordered a UFO sighting be kept secret to prevent "mass panic"... the latest batch of UFO files released from the Ministry of Defence to the National Archives shows that, in 1957, the committee received reports detailing an average of one UFO sighting a week... The files also include an account of a wartime meeting attended by Winston Churchill in which, it is claimed, the prime minister was so concerned about a reported encounter between a UFO and RAF bombers, that he ordered it be kept secret for at least 50 years to prevent "mass panic". Nick Pope, who used to investigate UFO sightings for the MoD, said: "The interesting thing is that most of the UFO files from that period have been destroyed... But what happened is that a scientist whose grandfather was one of his [Churchill's] bodyguards, said look, Churchill and Eisenhower got together to cover up this phenomenal UFO sighting, that was witnessed by an RAF crew on their way back from a bombing raid...The reason apparently was because Churchill believed it would cause mass panic and it would shatter people's religious views."

"With hundreds of thousands of nebulae, each containing thousands of millions of suns, the odds are enormous that there must be immense numbers which possess planets whose circumstances would not render life impossible... I, for one, am not so immensely impressed by the success we are making of our civilization here that I am prepared to think we are the only spot in this immense universe which contains living, thinking creatures, or that we are the highest type of mental and physical development which has ever appeared in the vast compass of space and time."

"[I wonder whether the work the EO did covering the Arnold sighting may have been the pinnacle of press coverage of the UFO phenomenon, and whether the coverage has been in decline ever since. Today’s press coverage of UFOs is lamentable.] For the life of me, I cannot understand why members of the press are not clamoring for information about the UFO issue. [The disinterest of the press] is even more interesting than the apparent presence on our planet of the UFOs themselves."

"Some years ago I had a conversation with a layman about flying saucers — because I am scientific I know all about flying saucers! I said "I don't think there are flying saucers'. So my antagonist said, "Is it impossible that there are flying saucers? Can you prove that it's impossible?" "No", I said, "I can't prove it's impossible. It's just very unlikely". At that he said, "You are very unscientific. If you can't prove it impossible then how can you say that it's unlikely?" But that is the way that is scientific. It is scientific only to say what is more likely and what less likely, and not to be proving all the time the possible and impossible. To define what I mean, I might have said to him, "Listen, I mean that from my knowledge of the world that I see around me, I think that it is much more likely that the reports of flying saucers are the results of the known irrational characteristics of terrestrial intelligence than of the unknown rational efforts of extra-terrestrial intelligence." It is just more likely. That is all."

"Anyway, I have to argue about flying saucers on the beach with people, you know. And I was interested in this: they keep arguing that it is possible. And that's true. It is possible. They do not appreciate that the problem is not to demonstrate whether it's possible or not but whether it's going on or not."

"Aliens are currently all around us, and are watching us all the time. They are not hostile towards us, rather, they want to help us but we have not grown enough in order to establish direct contact with them.”"

"Decades ago, visitors from other planets warned us about where we were headed and offered to help. But instead we, or at least some of us, interpreted their visits as a threat, and decided to shoot first and ask questions after… The veil of secrecy must be lifted and it has to be lifted now, before it is too late."

"They are very much afraid we might be stupid enough to start using atomic weapons again and that would be very bad for us and them as well... We are polluting our waters and our air, and we are playing around with these exotic weapons… and they [space brothers] don't like that. They'd like to work with us to teach us better ways, but only, I think, with our consent."

"(How do you answer UFO skeptics?) I get them to read my books and others; because there’s so much literature on the subject, that it is just amazing. And the skeptics, by large, have never done any reading on it. And it’s just like, take any other subject, physics or something that you are not familiar with, you can be skeptical of some of the rules and things people say if you haven’t taken time out to learn about it.... You have to read the books and get the evidence, and then you can check it out for yourself."

"There’s all kinds of proof, but only if you know where to look and taken the trouble to go and look... The United States government is the principle villain. Why is a good question, you should ask them, because basically, at a hearing we held a couple of years ago in Washington, the consensus of the witnesses at the hearing, of whom I was one, was that it was power and greed. They cover it up under the cloak of national security, but we all, I think the consensus of all of us who gave evidence there was that it had nothing to do with national security, it was a cover story to keep people from demanding answers, and that the real reasons were power and greed."

"Recently, the press has been filled with reports of sightings of flying saucers. While we need not give credence to these stories, they allow our imagination to speculate on how visitors from outer space would judge us. I am afraid they would be stupefied at our conduct. They would observe that for death planning we spend billions to create engines and strategies for war. They would also observe that we spend millions to prevent death by disease and other causes. Finally they would observe that we spend paltry sums for population planning, even though its spontaneous growth is an urgent threat to life on our planet. Our visitors from outer space could be forgiven if they reported home that our planet is inhabited by a race of insane men whose future is bleak and uncertain."

"After a couple of years of intense research into eyewitness accounts of dramatic flying saucer sightings and encounters, it started to dawn on me, dimly at first, that science is not a democracy. It doesn’t really matter how many people have reported observations if the observations make no physical sense. We don’t take a vote to see if flying saucer attributes, such as antigravity, force fields, and speeds of thousands of miles per hour in the lower atmosphere, are technically achievable. Such features either exist or they do not, and they are judged on compatibility with existing proofs and the results of confirmatory research. There are many strange and even unbelievable phenomena that have been proven and re-proven to exist in the nuclear physics model of the universe, but the capabilities of your common flying saucer are not in this set."

"Along with the briefcase with the nuclear codes, the President of the country is given a special ‘top secret’ folder which is entirely devoted to the extra-terrestrials who visited our planet. The report is provided by the special secret service which deals with the extra-terrestrials in our country."

"I happen to be privileged enough to be in on the fact that we have been visited on this planet and the UFO phenomenon is real, although it’s been well covered up by all our governments for the last 60 years or so, but slowly it's leaked out and some of us have been privileged to have been briefed on some of it."

"I've been in military and intelligence circles, who know that beneath the surface of what has been public knowledge, yes - we have been visited. Reading the papers recently, it's been happening quite a bit."

"Hypnotism will become more and more a tool of scientific investigation. Telepathy will be proven without a doubt, and utilized, sadly enough in the beginning, for purposes of war and intrigue. Nevertheless telepathy will enable your race to make its first contact with alien intelligence."

"When science progresses on various planes, then such visitations become less accidental and more planned. However, since the inhabitants of each plane are bound by the particular materialized patterns of their 'home,' they bring this pattern of camouflaged vitality with them. Certain kinds of science cannot operate without it. When the inhabitants of a plane have learned mental science patterns, then they are to a great degree freed from the more regular camouflage patterns … the flying saucer appearances come from a system much more advanced in technological sciences than yours. So strong is this tendency for vitality to change from one apparent form to another, that what you have here in your flying saucers is something that is actually not of your plane nor of the plane of its origins. What happens is this: When the 'flying saucer' starts out toward its destination, the atoms and molecules that compose it (and which are themselves formed by vitality) are more or less aligned according to the pattern inflicted upon it by its own territory. As it enters your plane, a distortion occurs. The actual structure of the craft is caught in a dilemma of form. It is caught between transforming itself completely into earth's particular camouflage pattern, and retaining its original pattern."

"Unknown aerial objects have in fact been observed over many of our nuclear weapons bases and other nuclear facilities, and in some cases the appearance of these objects coincided with compromising the operational readiness of our nuclear weapons… If they wanted to destroy them, with all the powers they seem to have, they could have done that job. So I personally don’t think that it was a hostile intent."

"What struck me more than the book's UFO stories, however, was the common thread weaving among them of breathtaking alterations in consciousness associated with the experiences – sensations of leaving the body, of flying through the air or being "carried along by the wind," and receiving "startling and novel insights into the nature of reality" that reverberated thereafter with profound, life-changing effects."

"(Gardner) writes about various kinds of cranks with the conscious superiority of the scientist, and in most cases one can share his sense of the victory of reason. But after half a dozen chapters this non-stop superiority begins to irritate; you begin to wonder about the standards that make him so certain he is always right. He asserts that the scientist, unlike the crank, does his best to remain open-minded. So how can he be so sure that no sane person has ever seen a flying saucer, or used a dowsing rod to locate water? And that all the people he disagrees with are unbalanced fanatics? A colleague of the positivist philosopher A. J. Ayer once remarked wryly "I wish I was as certain of anything as he seems to be about everything". Martin Gardner produces the same feeling."

"These left me in no doubt that something was trying to communicate with us, but that direct communication would be counterproductive. It seemed to be an important part of the scheme to create a sense of mystery."

"Do you know why I can't stand ufologists? Because with very rare exceptions they are stupendously, hopelessly, spectacularly incompetent. And with their noisy incompetence they do nothing but make ridiculous a field of inquiry that could be serious if only they stopped talking nonsense and mistaking every blurred pixel for a trip out of town by the Venusians. If, then, journalists, instead of uncritically reporting the aforementioned nonsense, deigned to have a moment of critical sense instead of being whores of the click, ufology could finally become a science instead of a nonsense. Not at all. [...] Formulating hypotheses is the duty of every researcher; But the true researcher also goes one step further, which is to try to discard hypotheses that are not supported by the facts and to put them to the test, instead of jumping to conclusions. That's what's wrong with ufology: it's loudly propagandized by people who are so enamored with their worldview that they ignore the most basic methods of verification; so fervent that they are able to write down what they should do and then not do; so fixed on the single track of their own thought that they do not notice their mistakes and instead accuse others of not having an open mind; They are so self-centered that they get when someone dares to point out their mistakes. Few escape this model [...]. Feel, fufologists [...], but it's not my fault that you write rubbish and make a fool of yourself. And get, journalists, but it's not my fault if you publish any nonsense without verifying it. (Paolo Attivissimo)"

"Denzler, Brenda (C.E.2003). The lure of the edge: scientific passions, religious beliefs, and the pursuit of UFOs. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-23905-9."

"Hynek, J. Allen (C.E.1998). The UFO experience: a scientific inquiry. Da Capo Press. ISBN 1-56924-782-X."

"Vallée, Jacques F. (C.E.1991). Confrontations: A Scientist's Search for Alien Contact. Random House Value Publishing. ISBN 0-517-07204-1."

"Klass, Philip J. (C.E.1983). UFOs: The Public Deceived. Prometheus Books. ISBN 0-87975-322-6."

"Sheaffer, Robert (C.E.1986). The UFO Verdict: Examining the Evidence. Prometheus Books. ISBN 0-87975-338-2."

"Graff, Garrett (C.E.2023). UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government's Search for Alien Life Here—and Out There. New York: Avid Reader Press. ISBN 9781982196776. OCLC 1407420009."

"Rutledge, Harley D. (C.E.1981). Project Identification: The First Scientific Field Study of UFO Phenomena. Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-13-730705-5."

"Lousma: 13, we've got one more item for you, when you get a chance. We'd like you to stir up your cryo tanks. In addition, I have shaft and trunnion – – Swigert: Okay. Lousma: – – for looking at the Comet Bennett, if you need it. Swigert: Okay. Stand by. [two minutes of silence] Swigert: Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here. Lousma: This is Houston. Say again, please. Lovell: Uh, Houston, we've had a problem. We've had a MAIN B BUS UNDERVOLT. Lousma: Roger. MAIN B UNDERVOLT. Lousma: Okay, stand by, 13. We're looking at it."

"Space is big. Really big. You won't believe how hugely mindbogglingly big it really is."

"Astrology is a science as infallible as astronomy itself, with the condition, however, that its interpreters must be equally infallible; and it is this condition, sine qua non, so very difficult of realization, that has always proved a stumbling block to both."

"Astrology is to exact astronomy what psychology is to exact physiology. In astrology and psychology one has to step beyond the visible world of matter, and enter into the domain of transcendent spirit. It is the old struggle between the Platonic and Aristotelean schools, and it is not in our century of Sadducean skepticism that the former will prevail over the latter."

"For astronomy is not only pleasant, but also very useful to be known: it cannot be denied that this art unfolds the admirable wisdom of God."

"What to do during the confinement? Become a crater hunter!"

"It does at first appear that an astronomer rapt in abstraction, while he gazes on a star, must feel more exquisite delight than a farmer who is conducting his team."

"In that photo ("Pale Blue Dot"), the inner meaning of four centuries of astronomical research is suddenly available to all of us at a glance."

"Although Uranus and Neptune are superficially twin planets, they are different enough to remind us - as do Venus and Earth - that we still have a lot to learn about the mix of natural laws and historical accidents that formed the planets and fashioned their destinies."

"L’astronomie est fille de l’oisiveté, la géométrie est fille de l’intérêt"

"Surtout l’astronomie et l’anatomie sont les deux sciences qui nous offrent le plus sensiblement deux grands caractères du Créateur; l’une, son immensité, par les distances, la grandeur, et le nombre des corps célestes; l’autre, son intelligence infinie, par la méchanique des animaux."

"The wonder is, not that the field of stars is so vast, but that man has measured it."

"Over the rim of waiting earth the moon lifted with majesty till it swung clear of the horizon and rode off, free of moorings..."

"If you are cheerful, and wish to remain so, leave the study of astronomy alone. Of all the sciences, it alone deserves the character of the terrible."

"Look at the stars! look, look up at the skies! O look at all the fire-folk sitting in the air! The bright boroughs, the circle-citadels there!"

"A strange weasel-built creature with a curly tail."

"It's unique because it doesn't look like a comet with the typical tail; it looks like a cloud. It's not what you would normally see at all … With the naked eye, it looks like a star or planet, but with binoculars it's really weird looking; it doesn't happen every day."

"We have now a science called astronomy. That science has done more to enlarge the horizon of human thought than all things else. We now live in an infinite universe. We know that the sun is a million times larger than our earth, and we know that there are other great luminaries millions of times larger than our sun. We know that there are planets so far away that light, traveling at the rate of one hundred and eighty- five thousand miles a second, requires fifteen thousand years to reach this grain of sand, this tear, we call the earth -- and we now know that all the fields of space are sown thick with constellations. If that statute had been enforced, that science would not now be the property of the human mind. That science is contrary to the Bible, and for asserting the truth you become a criminal. For what sum of money, for what amount of wealth, would the world have the science of astronomy expunged from the brain of man? We learned the story of the stars in spite of that statute."

"L’astronomie … est l’arbitre de la division civile du temps, l'ame de la chronologie et de la géographie, et l’unique guide des navigateurs."

"No. 4638: Luther Rejects the Copernican Cosmology June 4, 1539 There was mention of a certain new astrologer who wanted to prove that the earth moves and not the sky, the sun, and the moon. This would be as if somebody were riding on a cart or in a ship and imagined that he was standing still while the earth and the trees were moving. [Luther remarked,] “So it goes now. Whoever wants to be clever must agree with nothing that others esteem. He must do something of his own. This is what that fellow does who wishes to turn the whole of astronomy upside down. Even in these things that are thrown into disorder I believe the Holy Scriptures, for Joshua commanded the sun to stand still and not the earth [Josh. 10:12].”"

"I subscribe to Jastrow’s view that modern astronomy has found reliable evidence that the Universe was created some fifteen to twenty billion years ago ... I find it very moving to see how the evidence for the Creation . . . should be so clearly stamped on everything around us: the rocks, the sky, the radio waves, and on the most fundamental laws of physics."

"And God made two great lights, great for their use To man, the greater to have rule by day, The less by night, altern."

"L’Astronomie est utile, parce qu’elle nous élève au-dessus de nous-mêmes; elle est utile, parce qu’elle est grande; elle est utile, parce qu’elle est belle… C’est elle qui nous montre combien l’homme est petit par le corps et combien il est grand par l’esprit, puisque cette immensité éclatante où son corps n’est qu’un point obscur, son intelligence peut l’embrasser tout entière et en goûter la silencieuse harmonie."

"At night astronomers agree."

"Why should Venus and Mercury have no satellites, and by what, when they exist, were they formed? The Astronomers 'do not know.' Because, we say, science has only one key — the key of matter — to open the mysteries of nature withal, while occult philosophy has seven keys and explains that which science fails to see. Mercury and Venus have no satellites, but they had 'parents' just as the Earth had. Both are far older than the Earth, and, before the latter reaches her seventh Round, her mother Moon will have dissolved into thin air, as the 'Moons' of the other planets have, or have not, as the case may be, since there are planets which have several moons — a mystery again which no Oedipus of astronomy has solved... Thus, ". . . Our Moon was the fourth Globe [sphere in the Lunar Chain] of the series, and was on the same plane of perception as our Earth. . . ."

"A fair number of people who go on to major in astronomy have decided on it certainly by the time they leave junior high, if not during junior high. I think it’s somewhat unusual that way. I think most children pick their field quite a bit later, but astronomy seems to catch early, and if it does, it sticks."

"My lord, they say five moons were seen tonight: Four fixed, and the fifth did whirl about The other four in wondrous motion."

"These earthly godfathers of heaven's lights That give a name to every fixed star Have no more profit of their shining nights Than those that walk, and wot not what they are."

"And teach me how To name the bigger light, and how the less, That burn by day and night."

"There's some ill planet reigns; I must be patient till the heavens look With an aspect more favorable."

"Two things [are] more necessary in astronomy than in any other science: patience and organised coöperation. Patience because many of the phenomena develop so slowly that a long time is necessary for them to become measurable, coöperation because the material is too large and too various to be mastered by one man, or even by one institute. And coöperation not only between different workers and institutions all over the world, but also cooperation with predecessors and successors for the solution of problems that require, by their very nature, more than one man's lifetime. The astronomer—each working at his own task...—is always conscious of belonging to a community, whose members, separated in space and time, nevertheless feel joined by a very real tie, almost of kinship. He does not work for himself alone, he is not guided exclusively, and not even in the first place, by his own insight or preferences, his work is always coordinated with that of others as a part of an organised whole. He knows that, whatever his special work may be it is always a link in a chain, which derives its value from the fact that there is another link to the left and one to the right of it. It is the chain that is important, not the separate links."

"Socrates: Shall we set down astronomy among the objects of study? Glaucon: I think so, to know something about the seasons, the months and the years is of use for military purposes, as well as for agriculture and for navigation. Socrates: It amuses me to see how afraid you are, lest the common herd of people should accuse you of recommending useless studies."

"O how loud It calls devotion! genuine growth of night! Devotion! daughter of Astronomy! An undevout Astronomer is mad."

"I open the scuttle at night and see the far sprinkled systems, And all I see multiplied as high as I can cyper edge but rim of the farthest systems. Wider and wider they spread, expanding, always expanding, Outward and outward, forever outward."

"Those who see the great God in the sun, moon, stars, earth, air, fire, and water, and always meditate on Him only, get success in life and are the true devotees."

"Surely the stars are images of love."

"What are ye orbs? The words of God? the Scriptures of the skies?"

"The stars, Which stand as thick as dewdrops on the fields Of heaven."

"The star wasn’t poetry before the madwoman discovered it."

"I am not an arsenal of epithets or metaphors. I am the star, and the star shines. I am affirmation."

"When you reach for a star Only angels are there And it's not very far Just a step on a stair…"

"This hairy meteor did announce The fall of sceptres and of crowns."

"Cry out upon the stars for doing Ill offices, to cross their wooing."

"Like the lost pleiad seen no more below."

"The stars are golden fruit upon a tree All out of reach."

"I would not creep along the coast but steer Out in mid-sea, by guidance of the stars."

"If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile."

"The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence. Nature never wears a mean appearance."

"Follow the arc to Arcturus, and on to Spica go; Then turn northwest to Regulus, the foot of the lion, Leo.It's just that far to Gemini, Where Castor and Pollux glow, Near Rigel, and Capella, And Sirius, down below."

"Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars — mere globs of gas atoms. Nothing is "mere". I too can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more? The vastness of the heavens stretches my imagination — stuck on this carousel my little eye can catch one-million-year-old light. A vast pattern — of which I am a part... What is the pattern, or the meaning, or the why? It does not do harm to the mystery to know a little about it. For far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined! Why do the poets of the present not speak of it? What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent?"

"The stars winked down their cryptic morse, and he had no key to their cipher."

"Stars shine but start to fade in the light Love is blind, could be wrong or it could be right In a bind telling myself it's for you"

"You know it's never too late to shoot for the stars regardless of who you are, so do whatever it takes 'cause you can't rewind a moment in this life"

"I will look on the stars and look on thee, And read the page of thy destiny."

"Two men look out between the same prison bars: One sees the mud, the other sees the stars."

"Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven, Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels."

"The night is calm and cloudless, And still as still can be, And the stars come forth to listen To the music of the sea. They gather, and gather, and gather, Until they crowd the sky, And listen, in breathless silence, To the solemn litany."

"So sinks the day-star in the ocean-bed, And yet anon repairs his drooping head, And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore Flames in the forehead of the morning sky."

"The star that bids the shepherd fold, Now the top of heaven doth hold."

"Brightest seraph, tell In which of all these shining orbs hath man His fixed seat, or fixed seat hath none, But all these shining orbs his choice to dwell."

"At whose sight all the stars Hide their diminish'd heads."

"Now glowed the firmament With living sapphires; Hesperus, that led The starry host, rode brightest, till the Moon, Rising in clouded majesty, at length Apparent queen, unveiled her peerless light, And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw."

"The starry cope Of heaven."

"And made the stars, And set them in the firmament of heav'n, T' illuminate the earth, and rule the day In their vicissitude, and rule the night."

"Hither, as to their fountain, other stars Repairing in their golden urns draw light, And hence the morning planet gilds her horns."

"A broad and ample road, whose dust is gold, And pavement stars."

"I am looking at the stars. They are so far away and their light takes so long to reach us. All we ever see of stars are their old photographs"

"Love knows not distance; it hath no continent; its eyes are for the stars..."

"The stars glittered like chips of ice, blue-white, colder than the air. There was some comfort in the thought that they would still shine long after the human world was done."

"Led by the light of the Mæonian star."

"Ye little stars, hide your diminish'd rays."

"I thought you understood," he said. "The world is your teacher. It will be all around you. The ocean and the wind and the stars and the moon will all teach you many things."

"The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff."

"Her blue eyes sought the west afar, For lovers love the western star."

"Our Jovial star reign'd at his birth."

"Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere."

"The skies are painted with unnumber'd sparks, They are all fire and every one doth shine, But there's but one in all doth hold his place."

"The stars above us govern our conditions."

"The unfolding star calls up the shepherd."

"Look how the floor of heaven Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold: There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st But in his motion like an angel sings, Still quiring to the young-ey'd cherubins: Such harmony is in immortal souls; But whilst this muddy vesture of decay Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it."

"These blessed candles of the night."

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are, Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky!"

"Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising thro' the mellow shade, Glitter like a swarm of fire-flies tangled in a silver braid."

"Keen winds of cloud and vaporous drift Disrobe yon star, as ghosts that lift A snowy curtain from its place, To scan a pillow’d beauty’s face.They see her slumbering splendours lie Bedded on blue unfathom’d sky. And swoon for love and deep delight, And stillness falls on all the night."

"But who can count the stars of Heaven? Who sing their influence on this lower world?"

"You know, one of the signs that the second coming, is that the stars will fall out of the sky and land on Earth. To even write that means you don’t know what those things are. You have no concept of what the actual universe is. So everybody who tried to make proclamations about the physical universe based on Bible passages got the wrong answer."

"For my part, I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream in the same simple way as I dream about the black dots representing towns and villages on a map."

"We are merely the stars' tennis balls, struck and bandied Which way please them."

"The twilight hours, like birds, flew by, As lightly and as free; Ten thousand stars were in the sky, Ten thousand on the sea; For every wave with dimpled face, That leaped upon the air, Had caught a star in its embrace, And held it trembling there."

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."

"As man loses touch with his 'inner being', his instinctive depths, he finds himself trapped in the world of consciousness, that is to say, in the world of other people. Any poet knows this truth; when other people sicken him, he turns to hidden resources of power inside himself, and he knows then that other people don't matter a damn. He knows the 'secret life' inside him is the reality; other people are mere shadows in comparison. but the 'shadows' themselves cling to one another. 'Man is a political animal', said Aristotle, telling one of the greatest lies in human history. Man has more in common with the hills, or with the stars, than with other men."

"When these celestial animals burst into view, I was awed by their beauty. But when they became so strongly evident (as they quickly did) that I could no longer dismiss them by an act of will, I began to feel as frightened of them as I was of falling into that midnight abyss over which they writhed; yet this was not a simple physical and instinctive fear like the other, but rather a sort of philosophical horror at the thought of a cosmos in which rude pictures of beasts and monsters had been painted with flaming suns."

"Hence Heaven looks down on earth with all her eyes."

"One sun by day, by night ten thousand shine; And light us deep into the Deity; How boundless in magnificence and might."

"Who rounded in his palm these spacious orbs * * * * * * Numerous as gliterring gems of morning dew, Or sparks from populous cities in a blaze, And set the bosom of old night on fire."

"The stars blazed like the love of God, cold and distant."

"The spacious firmament on nigh, With all the blue ethereal sky, And spangled heavens, a shining frame, Their great Original proclaim. Forever singing, as they shine, The hand that made us is divine."

"The sad and solemn night Hath yet her multitude of cheerful fires; The glorious host of light Walk the dark hemisphere till she retires; All through her silent watches, gliding slow, Her constellations come, and climb the heavens, and go."

"When stars are in the quiet skies, Then most I pine for thee; Bend on me then thy tender eyes, As stars look on the sea."

"The number is certainly the cause. The apparent disorder augments the grandeur, for the appearance of care is highly contrary to our ideas of magnificence. Besides, the stars lie in such apparent confusion, as makes it impossible on ordinary occasions to reckon them. This gives them the advantage of a sort of infinity."

"A grisly meteor on his face."

"And the sentinel stars set their watch in the sky."

"Where Andes, giant of the western star, With meteor standard to the winds unfurl'd."

"In yonder pensile orb, and every sphere That gems the starry girdle of the year."

"Now twilight lets her curtain down And pins it with a star."

"Quod est ante pedes nemo spectat: cœli scrutantur plagas."

"While twilight's curtain gathering far, Is pinned with a single diamond star."

"Whilst twilight's curtain spreading far, Was pinned with a single star."

"Hast thou a charm to stay the morning-star In his steep course?"

"Or soar aloft to be the spangled skies And gaze upon her with a thousand eyes."

"All for Love, or the Lost Pleiad."

"The stars that have most glory have no rest."

"Hitch your wagon to a star."

"The starres, bright sentinels of the skies."

"Why, who shall talk of shrines, of sceptres riven? It is too sad to think on what we are, When from its height afar A world sinks thus; and yon majestic Heaven Shines not the less for that one vanish'd star!"

"The starres of the night Will lend thee their light, Like tapers cleare without number."

"Micat inter omnes Iulium sidus, velut inter ignes Luna minores."

"The dawn is lonely for the sun, And chill and drear; The one lone star is pale and wan, As one in fear."

"When, like an Emir of tyrannic power, Sirius appears, and on the horizon black Bids countless stars pursue their mighty track."

"The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy."

"Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?"

"Canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?"

"When sunset flows into golden glows, And the breath of the night is new, Love finds afar eve's eager star— That is my thought of you."

"Who falls for love of God shall rise a star."

"The stars in their courses fought against Sisera."

"God be thanked for the Milky Way that runs across the sky. That's the path that my feet would tread whenever I have to die. Some folks call it a Silver Sword, and some a Pearly Crown, But the only thing I think it is, is Main Street, Heaventown."

"The stars, heav'n sentry, wink and seem to die."

"Just above yon sandy bar, As the day grows fainter and dimmer, Lonely and lovely, a single star Lights the air with a dusky glimmer."

"There is no light in earth or heaven But the cold light of stars; And the first watch of night is given To the red planet Mars."

"Stars of the summer night! Far in yon azure deeps Hide, hide your golden light! She sleeps! My lady sleeps! Sleeps."

"A wise man, Watching the stars pass across the sky, Remarked: In the upper air the fireflies move more slowly."

"Wide are the meadows of night And daisies are shining there, Tossing their lovely dews, Lustrous and fair; And through these sweet fields go, Wanderers amid the stars— Venus, Mercury, Uranus, Neptune, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars."

"Now the bright morning-star, day's harbinger, Comes dancing from the east."

"Stars are the Daisies that begem The blue fields of the sky, Beheld by all, and everywhere, Bright prototypes on high."

"The quenchless stars, so eloquently bright, Untroubled sentries of the shadow'y night."

"But soon, the prospect clearing, By cloudless starlight on he treads And thinks no lamp so cheering As that light which Heaven sheds."

"The stars stand sentinel by night."

"And the day star arise in your hearts."

"Would that I were the heaven, that I might be All full of love-lit eyes to gaze on thee."

"Starry Crowns of Heaven Set in azure night! Linger yet a little Ere you hide your light:— Nay; let Starlight fade away, Heralding the day!"

"No star is ever lost we once have seen, We always may be what we might have been."

"One naked star has waded through The purple shallows of the night, And faltering as falls the dew It drips its misty light."

"Thus some who have the Stars survey'd Are ignorantly led To think those glorious Lamps were made To light Tom Fool to bed."

"Hesperus bringing together All that the morning star scattered."

"Non est ad astra mollis e terris via.— There is no easy way to the stars from the earth."

"O that my spirit were yon heaven of night, Which gazes on thee with its thousand eyes."

"He that strives to touch a star, Oft stumbles at a straw."

"Clamorem ad sidera mittunt."

"As shaking terrors from his blazing hair, A sanguine comet gleams through dusky air."

"Each separate star Seems nothing, but a myriad scattered stars Break up the Night, and make it beautiful."

"The stars shall be rent into threds of light, And scatter'd like the beards of comets."

"She saw the snowy poles and moons of Mars, That marvellous field of drifted light In mid Orion, and the married stars—"

"But He is risen, a later star of dawn."

"You meaner beauties of the night, That poorly satisfy our eyes More by your number than your light; You common people of the skies,— What are you when the moon shall rise?"

"Looking up at the stars, I know quite well That, for all they care, I can go to hell,"

"How should we like it were stars to burn With a passion for us we could not return?"

"Admirer as I think I am Of stars that do not give a damn, I cannot, now I see them, say I missed one terribly all day.Were all stars to disappear or die, I should learn to look at an empty sky And feel its total dark sublime, Though this might take me a little time."

"So Hector spake; and Trojans roar’d applause; Then loosed their sweating horses from the yoke, And each beside his chariot bound his own; And oxen from the city, and goodly sheep In haste they drove, and honey-hearted wine And bread from out the houses brought, and heap’d Their firewood, and the winds from off the plain Roll’d the rich vapor far into the heaven. And these all night upon the bridge of war Sat glorying; many a fire before them blazed: As when in heaven the stars about the moon Look beautiful, when all the winds are laid, And every height comes out, and jutting peak And valley, and the immeasurable heavens Break open to their highest, and all the stars Shine, and the Shepherd gladdens in his heart: So many a fire between the ships and stream Of Xanthus blazed before the towers of Troy, A thousand on the plain; and close by each Sat fifty in the blaze of burning fire; And eating hoary grain and pulse the steeds, Fixt by their cars, waited the golden dawn."

"Virgo Supercluster, the region where the Milky Way resides,"

"Hydra-Centaurus Supercluster, which contains the Great Attractor, the Laniakea central gravitational point,"

"Pavo-Indus Supercluster."

"The name Laniakea was suggested by Nawa‘a Napoleon, an associate professor of Hawaiian Language and chair of the Department of Languages, Linguistics, and Literature at Kapiolani Community College, a part of the University of Hawaii system. … The name honors Polynesian navigators who used knowledge of the heavens to voyage across the immensity of the Pacific Ocean."

"Astronomers have mapped the cosmic watershed in which our Milky Way Galaxy is a droplet. The massive structure, which the research team dubs the Laniakea Supercluster, extends more than 500 million light-years and contains 100,000 large galaxies. The work, published in the September 4th Nature, is the first to trace our local supercluster on such a large scale. It also provides a physical way to define what a supercluster actually is."

"Scientists previously placed the Milky Way in the Virgo Supercluster, but under Tully and colleagues' definition, this region becomes just an appendage of the much larger Laniakea, which is 160 million parsecs (520 million light years) across and contains the mass of 100 million billion Suns."

"This week, scientists add a new line to our planetary coordinates: the Laniakea galaxy supercluster. Do not bother googling the name. It really is brand new, coined by an international group of astronomers … Our place in the Universe, for so long one of the core mysteries of human existence that scientists and this journal are dedicated to unravelling, just got a little clearer. Laniakea, the scientists write, is our home supercluster, the one in which the Milky Way resides. What kind of home is it? It is big — some 160 million parsecs across. Although not as big as some superclusters, it is the largest in our local neighbourhood, which is surprisingly crowded given the vast emptiness of most of the cosmological void. It is a home that has been hiding in plain sight, colossal and all around us, yet unnoticed by previous astronomical surveys. …The name Laniakea has Hawaiian roots, and roughly translated means spacious heaven. It is a beautiful address to have. And one that comes just in time for the new school year and a new curious generation."

"For the first time, astronomers have outlined and named the network of galaxies that includes the Milky Way, adding a line to our cosmic address and further defining our place in the universe. They call it Laniakea, which is Hawaiian for “immense heaven.”"

"It’s like water dividing at a watershed, where it flows either to the left or right of a height of land."

"We have finally established the contours that define the supercluster of galaxies we can call home … This is not unlike finding out for the first time that your hometown is actually part of much larger country that borders other nations."

"The mass of an object is one of the most fundamental properties of the object. As such, reliable ways to measure mass are exceedingly important. One way is to simply measure the optical emission (luminosity of a galaxy) and to (independently) determine the average mass of a star in the galaxy. This will then lead to an estimate for the mass of the galaxy if all of the luminosity is in fact due to the stars and all material radiates in a similar manner. This method has problems because it is sometimes difficult to know whether all mass produces radiation."

"All objects are in orbit around the center of our Galaxy. To see how this allows us to infer the mass of our Galaxy, consider the Earth in its orbit in our Solar System."

"...the mass where we can see stars is only 1/3 of the mass of the entire Galaxy. This suggests that a lot of mass in the Milky Way is in some form which does not radiate large amounts of light (Dark Matter)."

"Any man that can hitch the length and breadth of the Galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through and still know where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with."

"It's a tough galaxy. If you want to survive, you've gotta know...where your towel is."

"You said it yourself, bitch: We're the Guardians of the Galaxy."

"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire."

"I think that the event which, more than anything else, led me to the search for ways of making more powerful radio telescopes, was the recognition, in 1952, that the intense source in the constellation of Cygnus was a distant galaxy—1000 million light years away. This discovery showed that some galaxies were capable of producing radio emission about a million times more intense than that from our own Galaxy or the Andromeda nebula, and the mechanisms responsible were quite unknown. … The possibilities were so exciting even in 1952 that my colleagues and I set about the task of designing instruments capable of extending the observations to weaker and weaker sources, and of exploring their internal structure."

"For as long as there been humans we have searched for our place in the cosmos. Where are we? Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a hum-drum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people. This perspective is a courageous continuation of our penchant for constructing and testing mental models of the skies; the Sun as a red-hot stone, the stars as a celestial flame, the Galaxy as the backbone of night."

"Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another."

"The universe was made on purpose, the circle said. In whatever galaxy you happen to find yourself, you take the circumference of a circle, divide it by its diameter, measure closely enough, and uncover a miracle — another circle, drawn kilometers downstream of the decimal point. There would be richer messages farther in. It doesn't matter what you look like, or what you're made of, or where you come from. As long as you live in this universe, and have a modest talent for mathematics, sooner or later you'll find it. It's already here. It's inside everything. You don't have to leave your planet to find it."

"Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost between two spiral arms in the outskirts of a galaxy, tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people."

"We have finally established the contours that define the supercluster of galaxies we can call home... This is not unlike finding out for the first time that your hometown is actually part of much larger country that borders other nations."

"As, pricked out with less and greater lights, between the poles of the universe, the Milky Way so gleameth white as to set very sages questioning."

"For the Milky Way, we find that the orbital speed increases and then remains roughly constant. This implies that we are still within the body of the Milky Way, even at the largest distances from the center of the Milky Way. We have not yet located the edge of the Milky Way; the Milky Way extends much further than the edge of the disk of stars (the visible disk)! The mass contained in the Milky Way (in the visible disk) is 2x1011 M(Sun). The mass contained in the Milky Way galaxy (out to as far as we can see HI gas) is 6x1011 M(Sun)."

"...the mass where we can see stars is only 1/3 of the mass of the entire Galaxy. This suggests that a lot of mass in the Milky Way is in some form which does not radiate large amounts of light (Dark Matter)."

"Sjelfva vintergatan är idel verldar, hvilkas sken som knappast räcker til oss."

"Fascinated by its symmetry the geometer may at times have been too exclusively engrossed with his science, forgetful of its applications; he may have exalted it into his idol and worshipped it; he may have degraded it into the toy– when he should have been hard at work with it, using it mankind and the glory of his creator....But ascend with me above the dust, above the cloud, to the realms of the higher geometry, where the heavens are never clouded, where there is no impure vapour and no delusive or imperfect observation, where the new truths are already arisen, while they are yet dimly dawning on the world below, where the earth is a little planet; where the sun has dwindled to a star; where all the stars are lost in the Milky Way to which they belong ; where the Milky Way is seen floating through space, like any other nebula; where the whole great girdle of the nebulae has diminished to an atom and has become as readily and completely submissive to the pen of geometer, and the slave of his formula, as the single drop, which falls from the clouds instinct with all forces of the material world. Try with me the precision of measure with which the universe has been meted out; observe how exactly all the parts are fitted to the whole and to each other, and then declare who was present in the council-chamber when the Lord laid the foundations of the earth."

"It may seem rash indeed to draw conclusions valid for the whole universe from what we can see from the small corner to which we are confined. Who knows that the whole visible universe is not like a drop of water at the surface of the earth? Inhabitants of that drop of water, as small relative to it as we are relative to the Milky Way, could not possibly imagine that beside the drop of water there might be a piece of iron or a living tissue, in which the properties of matter are entirely different."

"Astronomers have mapped the cosmic watershed in which our Milky Way Galaxy is a droplet. The massive structure, which the research team dubs the Laniakea Supercluster, extends more than 500 million light-years and contains 100,000 large galaxies. The work, published in the September 4th Nature, is the first to trace our local supercluster on such a large scale. It also provides a physical way to define what a supercluster actually is."

"We cast the message to the cosmos. It is likely to survive a billion years into our future. When our civilization is profoundly altered and the surface of the Earth may be vastly changed. Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, some — perhaps many — may have inhabited planets and space faring."

"This Voyager spacecraft was constructed by the United States of America. We are a community of 240 million human beings among the more than 4 billion who inhabit the planet Earth. We human beings are still divided into nation states, but these states are rapidly becoming a single global civilization. We cast this message into the cosmos. It is likely to survive a billion years into our future, when our civilization is profoundly altered and the surface of the Earth may be vastly changed. Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, some--perhaps many--may have inhabited planets and space faring civilizations. If one such civilization intercepts Voyager and can understand these recorded contents, here is our message: "This is a present from a small distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts, and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination, and our good will in a vast and awesome universe”."

"Most known extrasolar planets (exoplanets) have been discovered using the radial velocity, or transit methods. Both are biased towards planets that are relatively close to their parent stars, and studies find that around 17–30% of solar-like stars host a planet. Gravitational microlensing, on the other hand, probes planets that are further away from their stars. Recently, a population of planets that are unbound or very far from their stars was discovered by microlensing. These planets are at least as numerous as the stars in the Milky Way."

"It was first surmised by the ancient philosopher, Democritus, that the faintly white zone which spans the sky under the name of the Milky Way, might be only a dense collection of stars too remote to be distinguished. This conjecture has been verified by the instruments of modern astronomers, and some speculation of a remarkable kind have been formed in connection with it."

"I can never look now at the Milky Way without wondering from which of those banked clouds of stars the emissaries are coming. If you will pardon so commonplace a simile, we have set off the fire alarm and have nothing to do but to wait. I do not think we will have to wait for long."

"Galileo claimed to have seen mountains on the Moon, to have proved the Milky Way was made up of tiny stars, and to have seen four small bodies orbiting Jupiter. These last, with an eye to getting a position in Florence, he quickly named 'the Medicean stars'."

"What was observed by us in the third place is the nature or matter of the Milky Way itself, which, with the aid of the spyglass, may be observed so well that all the disputes that for so many generations have vexed philosophers are destroyed by visible certainty, and we are liberated from wordy arguments."

"Space is not space between the earth and the sun to one who looks down from the windows of the Milky Way."

"Scientists previously placed the Milky Way in the Virgo Supercluster, but under Tully and colleagues' definition, this region becomes just an appendage of the much larger Laniakea, which is 160 million parsecs (520 million light years) across and contains the mass of 100 million billion Suns."

"What of the scientists who assumed that continents were stable, that the hereditary material was protein, or that all other galaxies lay within the Milky Way? These false and abandoned efforts were pursued with passion by brilliant and honoura le scientists."

"Exalted Manna, gladness of the best, Heaven in ordinary, man well dressed, The milky way, the bird of Paradise, Church bells beyond the stars heard, the soul's blood, The land of spices something understood."

"As we are used (says he) to call the appearance of the heavens, where it is surrounded with a bright zone, the milky-way, it may not be amiss to point out some other very remarkable nebulae, which cannot well be less, but are probably much larger, than our own system ; and being extended, the inhabitants of the planets that attend the stars which compose them, must likewise perceive the same phenomenon; for which reason that may also be called milky-ways, by way of distinction."

"The Milky Way is a most extensive stratum of stars of various sizes admits no longer of the least doubt and our sun is actually one of the heavenly bodies belonging to it as evident. I have now viewed this shining zone in almost every direction, and find it composed of stars, whose number, by the account of these gages, constantly increases and decreases in proportion to its apparent brightness to the naked eye."

"We may also draw a very important additional conclusion from the gradual dissolution of the Milky Way; for the state into which the incessant action of the clustering power [presumably, gravity] has brought it at present, is a kind of chronometer that may be used to measure the time of its past and future existence; and although we do not know the rate of going of this mysterious chronometer, it is nevertheless certain, that since the breaking up of the parts of the milky way affords a proof that it cannot last for ever, it equally bears witness that its past duration cannot be admitted to the infinite."

"The cosmos is extremely complex....Earth is nothing but a speck of dust, and it is insignificant. Yet within this there are innumerable and complex structures. What are these structures of dimensions like?...Which level of dimension does our humankind live-in ? We live in the surface matter comprised of the biggest layer of molecular particles; we live in between molecules and planets—a planet is also a particle, and within the vast cosmos, it, too, is a trivial speck of dust. The Milky Way Galaxy is also a trivial speck of dust. This universe—the small universe I just described—is also but a trivial speck of dust. The largest particles that our human see are the planets, and the smallest particles visible to humankind are molecules. We humans exist in between the particles of molecules and planets. Being in this dimension, you think it is vast; from a different perspective, it is actually extremely narrow and tiny."

"The nebula is another stellar disc, composed of billions of suns, and constituting the Milky Way of some unknown firmament. Herschel has counted more than two thousand nebulae. Our Milky Way is the dwelling; the nebulae are the city."

"Time will come no doubt, When the sun shall die, the planet will freeze, and The air on them; frozen gases, white flakes of air Will be the dust: which no wind ever will stir; this very dust in dim starlight glistening Is dead wind, the white corpse of wind. Also, the galaxy will die; the glitter of the Milky Way, our universe, all the stars that have names are dead. Vast is the night. How you have grown, dear night, Walking your empty halls, how tall!"

"...the old man looked up At a black eyelet in the white of the Milky Way, and he thought with wonder: "There — or thereabout — Cloaked in thick darkness in his power's dust-cloud, There is the hub and heavy nucleus, the ringmaster. Of all this million-shining whirlwind of dancers, the stars of this end of heaven, it is strange, truly, That great and small, the atoms of grain of sand and the suns of planets, and all the galactic universes. Are organized on one pattern, the eternal roundabout, the heavy nucleus and whirling electrons the leashed, And panting runners going nowhere; frustrated flight, unrelieved of strain endless return – all- -all."

"If you want to see a black hole tonight, tonight just look in the direction of Sagittarius, the constellation. That's the center of the Milky Way Galaxy and there's a raging black hole at the very center of that constellation that holds the galaxy together."

"We come no nearer the infinitude of the creative power of God, if we enclose the space of its revelation within a sphere described with the radius of the Milky Way, than if we were to limit it to a ball an inch in diameter. All that is finite, whatever has limits and a definite relation to unity, is equally far removed from the infinite... Eternity is not sufficient to embrace the manifestations of the Supreme Being, if it is not combined with the infinitude of space."

"The stars are words and all the innumerable worlds in the Milky Way are words, and so is this world too. And I realize that no matter where I am, whether in a little room full of thought, or in this endless universe of stars and mountains, it’s all in my mind."

"God be thanked for the Milky Way that runs across the sky, That's the path that my feet would tread whenever I have to die. Some folks call it a Silver Sword, and some a Pearly Crown, But the only thing I think it is, is Main Street, Heaventown."

"Now, almost one hundred years later [in 1916 when Einstein began to apply his theory to describe the universe as a whole], it is difficult to fully appreciate how much our picture of the universe has changed in the span of a single human lifetime. As far as the scientific community in 1917 was concerned, the universe was static and eternal, and consisted of a one single galaxy, our Milky Way, surrounded by vast, infinite, dark, and empty space This is, after all, what you would guess by looking up at the night sky with your eyes, or with a small telescope, and at the time there was little reason to suspect otherwise."

"A broad and ample road, whose dust is gold, And pavement stars—as starts to thee appear Soon in the galaxy, that Milky Way Which mightily as a circling zone thou seest Powder'd with stars."

"This week, scientists add a new line to our planetary coordinates: the Laniakea galaxy supercluster. Do not bother googling the name. It really is brand new, coined by an international group of astronomers… Our place in the Universe, for so long one of the core mysteries of human existence that scientists and this journal are dedicated to unravelling, just got a little clearer. Laniakea, the scientists write, is our home supercluster, the one in which the Milky Way resides. What kind of home is it? It is big — some 160 million parsecs across. Although not as big as some superclusters, it is the largest in our local neighbourhood, which is surprisingly crowded given the vast emptiness of most of the cosmological void. It is a home that has been hiding in plain sight, colossal and all around us, yet unnoticed by previous astronomical surveys. ...The name Laniakea has Hawaiian roots, and roughly translated means spacious heaven. It is a beautiful address to have. And one that comes just in time for the new school year and a new curious generation."

"Consider now the Milky Way. Here also we see an innumerable dust, only the grains of this dust are no longer atoms but stars; these grains also move with great velocities, they act at a distance one upon another, but this action is so slight at great distances that their trajectories are rectilinear; nevertheless, from time to time, two of them may come near enough together to be deviated from their course, like a comet that passed too close to Jupiter. In a word, in the eyes of a giant, to whom our Suns were what our atoms are to us, the Milky Way would only look like a bubble of gas."

"Lo! the poor Indian! whose untutor’d mind Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind; His soul proud Science never taught to stray Far as the solar walk or milky way. Yet simple nature has given Behind the cloud-topt hill, as humbler Heaven;"

"For the first time, astronomers have outlined and named the network of galaxies that includes the Milky Way, adding a line to our cosmic address and further defining our place in the universe. They call it Laniakea, which is Hawaiian for “immense heaven.”"

"The sun's location near the galactic plane gives rise to the appearance of the Milky Way in the sky. When one looks at the Milky Way one is looking at the plane of the disk where the stars are concentrated. The greatest concentration of stars is in the direction of the galactic center, in the constellation of Sagittarius. Consequently, it might be anticipated that the Milky Way would be brightest in this direction."

"The Milky Way was a familiar sight to all, snaking across the heavens with its light and dark patches forming recognizable shapes. The sky also contained numerous isolated faint and fuzzy objects (nebulae), fixed among the stars, as well as bright wandering stars (planets), and of course the moon, dominating the night sky, lighting the way by night and rendering many of its fainter companions temporarily invisible."

"In the visible world, the Milky Way is a tiny fragment; within this fragment, the solar system is an infinitesimal speck, and of this speck our planet is a microscopic dot. On this dot, tiny lumps of impure carbon and water, of complicated structure, with somewhat unusual physical and chemical properties crawl about for a few years, until they are dissolved again into the elements of which they are compounded."

"The Sun is no lonelier than its neighbors; indeed, it is a very common-place star,—dwarfish, though not minute,—like hundreds, nay thousands, of others. By accident the brighter component of Alpha Centauri (which is double) is almost the Sun's twin in brightness, mass, and size. Could this Earth be transported to its vicinity by some supernatural power, and set revolving about it, at a little less than a hundred million miles' distance, the star would heat and light the world just as the Sun does, and life and civilization might go on with no radical change. The Milky Way would girdle the heavens as before; some of our familiar constellations, such as Orion, would be little changed, though others would be greatly altered by the shifting of the nearer stars. An unfamiliar brilliant star, between Cassiopeia and Perseus would be—the Sun. Looking back at it with our telescopes, we could photograph its spectrum, observe its motion among the stars, and convince ourselves that it was the same old Sun; but what had happened to the rest of our planetary system we would not know."

"But tell me, did you sail across the sun? Did you make it to the Milky Way? to see the lights all faded... And that Heaven is overrated? And tell me, did you fall for a shooting star? One without a permanent scar, and did you miss me While you were looking for yourself out there?"

"Drops of Jupiter, Train (2001)"

"We think it possible that the Milky Way Galaxy is teeming with civilizations as far beyond our level of advance as we are beyond the ants, and paying us about as much attention as we pay to the ants."

"The brain is waking and with it the mind is returning. It is as if the Milky Way entered upon some cosmic dance. Swiftly the head-mass becomes an enchanted loom where millions of flashing shuttles weave a dissolving pattern, always a meaningful pattern though never an abiding one; a shifting harmony of subpatterns."

"The great topmost sheet of the mass, that where hardly a light had twinkled or moved, becomes now a sparkling field of rhythmic flashing points with trains of traveling sparks hurrying hither and thither. The brain is waking and with it the mind is returning. It is as if the Milky Way entered upon some cosmic dance. Swiftly the head mass becomes an enchanted loom where millions of flashing shuttles weave a dissolving pattern, always a meaningful pattern though never an abiding one; a shifting harmony of sub-patterns. Now as the waking body rouses, sub-patterns of this great harmony of activity stretch down into the unlit tracks of the stalk-piece of the scheme. Strings of flashing and travelling sparks engage the lengths of it. This means that the body is up and rises to meet its waking day."

"There is a point of view among astronomical researchers that is generally referred to as the Principle of Mediocrity. … If the Sun and its retinue of worlds is only one system among many, then many other systems will be like ours: home to life. Indeed, to the extent that this is true, we should be prepared for the possibility that, even in the Milky Way galaxy, billions of planets may be carpeted by the dirty, nasty business known as life."

"Astronomy had three great revolutions in the past four hundred years. The first was the Copernican revolution that removed the earth from the center of the solar system and placed it 150 million kilometers away from it; the second occurred between 1920 and 1930 when, as a result of the work of H. Shapley and R.J. Trumpler, we realized that the solar system is not at the center of the Milky Way but about 30,000 light years away from it, in a relatively dim spiral arm; the third is occurring now, and, whether we want it or not, we must take part in it. This is the revolution embodied in the question: Are we alone in the universe?"

"This whole earth which we inhabit is but a point in space. How far apart, think you, dwell the two most distant inhabitants of yonder star, the breadth of whose disk cannot be appreciated by our instruments? Why should I feel lonely? Is not our planet in the Milky Way?"

"A plain, reasonable working man supposes, in the old way which is also the common-sense way, that if there are people who spend their lives in study, whom he feeds and keeps while they think for him—then no doubt these men are engaged in studying things men need to know; and he expects of science that it will solve for him the questions on which his welfare, and that of all men, depends. He expects science to tell him how he ought to live: how to treat his family, his neighbours and the men of other tribes, how to restrain his passions, what to believe in and what not to believe in, and much else. And what does our science say to him on these matters? It triumphantly tells him: how many million miles it is from the earth to the sun; at what rate light travels through space; how many million vibrations of ether per second are caused by light, and how many vibrations of air by sound; it tells of the chemical components of the Milky Way, of a new element—helium—of micro-organisms and their excrements, of the points on the hand at which electricity collects, of X rays, and similar things. “But I don't want any of those things,” says a plain and reasonable man—“I want to know how to live.”"

"We have finally established the contours that define the supercluster of galaxies we can call home … This is not unlike finding out for the first time that your hometown is actually part of much larger country that borders other nations."

"It suggests a nebulous dim puff of star dust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of; but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk."

"The Milky Way is a spiral disk galaxy, similar to many others we see in the sky. This surprisingly beautiful shape is so common among galaxies that the universe almost seems to delight in building them. The end product is especially remarkable in the light of what is believed to be the starting point: nebulous blobs of gas."

"The gas blobs that evolved into the Milky Way consisted merely of hydrogen and helium (and a smattering of lithium), the elements that were created in the Big Bang. All the other elements were literally created by the stars. Unlike the medieval alchemists, the stars can actually transmute one element into another—they are prodigious chemical factories. Nevertheless, even today hydrogen and helium make up about 98 percent of the normal matter in the universe. It’s the distribution of the elements that make up the final 2 percent that makes all the difference to studies of galactic evolution."

"Although the development of new technologies has improved the quality of the observations and so refined the constraints on astronomers’ models, we are still far from a complete understanding of our galaxy’s evolution. Like our galaxy, the field itself is still evolving."

"As we arbitrarily divide the human body into a torso with a head and limbs, so we can conceptually separate the Galaxy into various components. The flying-saucer shape—consisting of the central bulge and the spiral disk—is only the most obvious part of the Galaxy. The spiral disk itself can be subdivided into a thin disk, which rises about 1,000 light-years above and below the galactic mid-plane, and a thick disk, which extends to about 3,500 light-years on either side of the plane. The relative flatness of our galaxy is evident when one considers that the galactic disk is generally thought to be about 120,000 light-years across. Our sun resides in the thin disk about 28,000 light-years from the galactic center... About 200 globular clusters are known, and they appear to be some of the oldest objects in the Galaxy. It took many decades of careful study to tease apart the various regions of the Milky Way, and the process of dissecting out fine-scale subregions continues even today.One of the reasons it’s so difficult is that we cannot measure the properties of all the stars in the Galaxy—they are simply too far away....the different orbits of the stars, their kinematic properties, provide a crucial distinction between stars that belong to different regions of the Galaxy"

"A star’s kinematic properties are one of the ways that astronomers can recognize an interloper from another part of the Galaxy. ...The most metal-poor star ever observed in our galaxy is located in the halo. It is old and has a metallicity [Fe/H] of about -4.0, or about 10,000 times less than the Sun!"

"There is another type of exploding supernova that also seeds the Galaxy with elements. This is the type Iasupernova. This explosion involves a binary system in which a white dwarf star and an intermediate-mass star (a red giant) orbit each other. The two stars are so close to each other that the white dwarf gradually pulls a considerable amount of material from the outer envelope of the expanding red giant. At a certain point the white dwarf will acquire so much mass that it collapses under its own weight and produces an explosion that blasts the bulk of its material into the interstellar medium—mostly in the form of iron, but also some sulfur, silicon and calcium. Such explosions contributed about 70 percent of the iron we see today in the Galaxy....three processes hold an important key to understanding the evolution of the Milky Way precisely because they occur on very different timescales. By measuring specific abundance ratios in stars from different parts of the Galaxy, astronomers can discover how fast the metal enrichment proceeded and the timescale over which the region was formed."

"The granddaddy of galactic-formation models was conceived in the early 1960s by three astronomers: Olin Eggen, Donald Lynden-Bell and Allan Sandage. Their 1962 publication played a seminal role in the field and is now simply referred to by the authors’ initials: ELS....According to ELS, the Milky Way began as a spherical cloud of gas—a protogalaxy—that was born collapsing toward its center.The original gas was poor in metals, and so stars formed as the cloud was collapsing would also be metal poor.These newly made stars maintained the kinematic properties of the gas in the collapsing cloud, and so followed eccentric orbits around the center of the Galaxy, forming the population II stars of the halo and the globular clusters. As the cloud contracted, some of its energy would have been lost to heat in a dissipative collapse;"

"In the decades that followed, a number of observations indicated that the Galaxy could not have formed in such a rapid collapse. The ELS model, as originally proposed,could not be right. One notable alternative was suggested by the American astronomers Leonard Searle and Robert Zinn in 1978… Instead of a single-cloud collapse, Searle and Zinn proposed that the halo of the Milky Way formed by the aggregation of many cloud fragments, each of which may have already formed stars and globular clusters"

"It appears, however, that our galaxy’s formation was neither smooth nor continuous."

"More observations are needed before we can refine our models of the Milky Way’s evolution. For one thing, we are still uncertain about the formation timescale For the thin disk outside the w:Local Interstellar Cloud}solar neighborhood because we lack precise observational constraint."

"The GAIA project, which [was] slated to be launched by the European Space Agency by 2012, holds great promise for our attempts to solve the puzzle of the Milky Way’s formation. The GAIA satellite will be taking a massive stellar census, measuring the positions, motions and chemical compositions of more than a billion stars. It will, in effect, provide a three-dimensional map of our galaxy with unprecedented accuracy and resolution."

"When the equinox entered Pisces, the Savior of the World "appeared as the Fisher of Men.""

"The number of the dead long exceedeth all that shall live. The night of time far surpasseth the day, and who knows when was the Æquinox? Every hour adds unto that current arithmetick, which scarce stands one moment."

"At the equinox when the earth was veiled in a late rain, wreathed with wet poppies, waiting spring The ocean swelled for a far storm and beat its boundary, the ground-swell shook the beds of granite. I gazing at the boundaries of granite and spray, the established sea-marks, felt behind me Mountain and plain, the immense breadth of the continent, before me the mass and double stretch of water."

"I've always assumed that every time a child is born, the Divine reenters the world. Okay? That's the meaning of the Christmas story. And every time that child's purity is corrupted by society, that's the meaning of the Crucifixion story. Your man Jesus stands for that child, that pure spirit, and as its surrogate, he's being born and put to death again and again, over and over, every time we inhale and exhale, not just at the vernal equinox and on the twenty-fifth of December."

"The Bible is like a telescope. If a man looks through his telescope, then he sees worlds beyond; but, if he looks at his telescope, then he does not see anything but that."

"TELESCOPE, n. A device having a relation to the eye similar to that of the telephone to the ear, enabling distant objects to plague us with a multitude of needless details. Luckily it is unprovided with a bell summoning us to the sacrifice."

"Perhaps if we reversed the telescope and looked at man down these long vistas, we should find less time and inclination to plan for our own destruction."

"About ten months ago [1609] a report reached my ears that a certain Fleming [Hans Lippershey] had constructed a spyglass, by means of which visible objects, though very distant from the eye of the observer, were distinctly seen as if nearby... Of this truly remarkable effect several experiences were related, to which some persons gave credence while others denied them. A few days later the report was confirmed to me in a letter from a noble Frenchman at Paris, Jacques Badovere, which caused me to apply myself wholeheartedly to enquire into the means by which I might arrive at the invention of a similar instrument. This I did shortly afterwards, my basis being the theory of refraction. First I prepared a tube of lead, at the ends of which I fitted two glass lenses, both plane on one side while on the other side one was spherically convex and the other concave."

"I have tried to improve telescopes and practiced continually to see with them. These instruments have play'd me so many tricks that I have at last found them out in many of their humours."

"The eye appears to have been designed; no designer of telescopes could have done better."

"Few astronomers could have anticipated that this event—the sudden birth of the Universe—would become a proven scientific fact, but observations of the heavens through telescopes have forced them to that conclusion."

"[The Hubble Space Telescope is] probably the most sophisticated scientific satellite ever built."

"The largest, most complex, and most powerful observatory ever deployed in space."

"The four million lines of computer code needed to command and control it daily—one of the largest codes in the civilian world—is testimony to Hubble’s high degree of complexity."

"The glaring hardware faults on Hubble derive from a case of engineering myopia, a clear and steady failure to heed the bigger picture. For example: telescope optics machined improperly and tested inadequately by overconfident engineers, with no meaningful technical or scientific input from outside the secretive contractor . . . [and] the incorporation into Hubble of used goods, such as decades-old gyroscopes [gyros that had been tested for some 70,000 hours before use in the telescope—‘tested to death,’ as one engineer stated] and memory boards meant for antique space vehicles."

"The widespread notion that the scientific method is unbiased and objective, that scientists are and always have been lacking in human emotion in the course of their work, is a farce. Today’s science endeavor is as value-laden as most things in life."

"Hubble is fixed beyond our wildest expectations."

"Last night I saw the Pleiades again, Faint as a drift of steam From some tall chimney-stack;"

"Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion."

"Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south."

"Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?"

"It behoveth you to seek agreement and to be united; it behoveth you to be in close communion one with the other, at one both in body and soul, till ye match the Pleiades or a string of lustrous pearls."

"Pleiades callin' her home Seven Sisters, she hears her distant Sisters."

"Our shells clacked on the plates. My tongue was a filling estuary, My palate hung with starlight: As I tasted the salty Pleiades Orion dipped his foot into the water."

"Slave of the wheel of labor, what to him Are Plato and the swing of Pleiades?"

"The Pleiades are an extraordinarily beautiful and brilliant star cluster in the constellation of Taurus. I have a large picture of them hanging in my recording studio, and sometimes when I look at this picture, I am inspired to compose a certain kind of music, which is very different from the music I usually compose, and very different from anything I have ever heard before. This album is a collection of those pieces.;"

"Though all I knew of the rote universe were those Pleiades, loosed in December, I promised you I'd set them to verse, so I'd always remember"

"Can I get two maybe even three of these, Comin' from a space to teach you of the Pleiades."

"Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising thro' the mellow shade, Glitter like a swarm of fireflies tangled in a silver braid."

"The ravening clouds shall not long be victorious, They shall not long possess the sky, they devour the stars only in apparition, Jupiter shall emerge, be patient, watch again another night, the Pleiades shall emerge, They are immortal…"

"Something there is more immortal even than the stars, (Many the burials, many the days and nights, passing away,) Something that shall endure longer even than lustrous Jupiter Longer than sun or any revolving satellite, Or the radiant sisters the Pleiades."

"I have no trouble publishing in Soviet astrophysical journals, but my work is unacceptable to the American astrophysical journals."

"The peer review system is satisfactory during quiescent times, but not during a revolution in a discipline such as astrophysics, when the establishment seeks to preserve the status quo."

"Students using astrophysical textbooks remain essentially ignorant of even the existence of plasma concepts, despite the fact that some of them have been known for half a century. The conclusion is that astrophysics is too important to be left in the hands of astrophysicists who have gotten their main knowledge from these textbooks. Earthbound and space telescope data must be treated by scientists who are familiar with laboratory and magnetospheric physics and circuit theory, and of course with modern plasma theory."

"The greatest astronomers of the first half of the 20th century were the astrophysicists. For example, Arthur Eddington, Cecilia Payne, Hans Bethe, and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar elucidated the physical nature of stars using the new quantum theories of atomic, nuclear and particle physics. In recent decades, about half of the prizes of the American Astronomical Society are awarded for work in astrophysics and half in astronomy."

"... The way in which string theory addresses the cosmological constant problem can be summarized as follows: • Fundamentally, space is nine-dimensional. There are many distinct ways (perhaps 10500) of turning nine-dimensional space into three-dimensional space by compactifying six dimensions. ... • Distinct compactifications correspond to different three-dimensional metastable vacua with different amounts of vacuum energy. In a small fraction of vacua, the cosmological constant will be accidentally small. • All vacua are dynamically produced as large, widely separated regions in space-time. • Regions with Λ 1 contain at most a few bits of information and thus no complex structures of any kind. Therefore, observers find themselves in regions with Λ ≪ 1."

"The theoretical view of the actual universe, if it is in correspondence to our reasoning, is the following. The curvature of space is variable in time and place, according to the distribution of matter, but we may roughly approximate it by means of a spherical space. ...this view is logically consistent, and from the standpoint of the general theory of relativity lies nearest at hand [i.e. is most obvious]; whether, from the standpoint of present astronomical knowledge, it is tenable, will not be discussed here. In order to arrive at this consistent view, we admittedly had to introduce an extension of the field equations of gravitation, which is not justified by our actual knowledge of gravitation. It is to be emphasized, however, that a positive curvature of space is given by our results, even if the supplementary term [] is not introduced. The term is necessary only for the purpose of making possible a quasi-static distribution of matter, as required by the fact of the small velocity of the stars."

"Most constants are adjusted with a deviation of one percent, which means that if the value differs by one percent everything collapses. Physicists can certainly claim that this is a fluke, but it must be acknowledged that this cosmological constant is adjusted to an accuracy of 1/10120. No one thinks that this is solely a fluke. It is the most extreme example of hyperfine regulation... (Leonard Susskind)"

"Much later, when I was discussing cosmological problems with Einstein, he remarked that the introduction of the cosmological term was the biggest blunder he ever made in his life."

"After putting the finishing touches on general relativity in 1915, Einstein applied his new equations for gravity to a variety of problems. ... Despite the mounting successes of general relativity, for years after he first applied his theory to the most immense of all challenges—understanding the entire universe—Einstein absolutely refused to accept the answer that emerged from the mathematics. Before the work of Friedmann and Lemaître... Einstein, too, had realized that the equations of general relativity showed that the universe could not be static; the fabric of space could stretch or it could shrink, but it could not maintain a fixed size. This suggested that the universe might have had a definite beginning, when the fabric was maximally compressed, and might even have a definite end. Einstein stubbornly balked at this... because he and everyone else "knew" that the universe was eternal and, on the largest scales, fixed and unchanging. Thus, notwithstanding the beauty and successes of general relativity, Einstein reopened his notebook and sought a modification of the equations... It didn't take him long. In 1917 he achieved the goal by introducing a new term... the cosmological constant."

"The miracle of physics that I'm talking about here is something that was actually known since the time of Einstein's general relativity; that gravity is not always attractive. Gravity can act repulsively. Einstein introduced this in 1916... in the form of the cosmological constant, and the original motivation of modifying the equations of general relativity to allow this was because Einstein thought that the universe was static, and he realized that ordinary gravity would cause the universe to collapse if it was static. ...The fact that general relativity can support this gravitational repulsion, still being consistent with all the principles that general relativity incorporates, is the important thing which Einstein himself did discover.."

"In 1917 de Sitter showed that Einstein's field equations could be solved by a model that was completely empty apart from the cosmological constant—i.e. a model with no matter whatsoever, just dark energy. This was the first model of an expanding universe. although this was unclear at the time. The whole principle of general relativity was to write equations for physics that were valid for all observers, independently of the coordinates used. But this means that the same solution can be written in various different ways... Thus de Sitter viewed his solution as static, but with a tendency for the rate of ticking clocks to depend on position. This phenomenon was already familiar in the form of gravitational time dilation... so it is understandable that the de Sitter effect was viewed in the same way. It took a while before it was proved (by Weyl, in 1923) that the prediction was of a redshifting of spectral lines that increased linearly with distance (i.e. Hubble's law). ..."

"Even today, our picture of a world woven together by a gravitational force, and electromagnetic force, a strong force, and a weak force may be incomplete. Astronomers are gathering evidence that an additional fundamental interaction, a repulsive effect opposite to gravity, may be at work over vast distances and possibly changing with time."

"In Einstein's scheme there was no end, no outside. Shoot an arrow or a light beam infinitely far in any direction and it would come back and hit you in the butt. ...But there was a problem with the curved-back universe. Such a configuration was unstable, it would fly apart or collapse. Einstein didn't know about galaxies. He thought, and was reassured as much by the best astronomers of the time, that the universe was a static cloud of stars. To explain why his curved universe didn't collapse like a struck tent, therefore, he fudged his equations with a term he called the cosmological constant, which produced a long-range repulsive force to counteract cosmic gravity. It made the equations ugly and he never really liked it. That was in 1917, twelve years before Hubble showed that the universe was full of galaxies rushing away from each other."

"When the Higgs field froze and symmetry broke, Tye and Guth knew, energy had to be released... Under normal circumstance this energy went into beefing up the masses of particles like the weak force bosons that had been massless before. If the universe supercooled, however, all this energy would remain unreleased... according to Einstein, it was the density of matter and energy in the universe that determined the dynamics of space-time. ...The issue of vacuum energy had been a tricky problem for physics ever since Einstein. According to quantum theory, even the ordinary "true" vacuum should be boiling with energy—infinite energy... due to the the so-called s that produced the transient dense dance of s. This energy... could exert a repulsive force on the cosmos just like the infamous cosmological constant... quantum theories had reinvented it in the form of vacuum fluctuations. The orderly measured pace of the expansion of the universe suggested strongly that the cosmological constant was zero, yet quantum theory suggested it was infinite. Not even Hawking claimed to understand the cosmological constant problem... a trapdoor deep at the heart of physics."

"It's a term that Einstein recognized as allowed by his theory — he threw it in and then, in disgust, threw it out again ... It's back!"

"[Einstein's cosmological constant] is a name without any meaning. ...We have, in fact, not the slightest inkling of what it's real significance is. It is put in the equations in order to give the greatest possible degree of mathematical generality."

"There is no direct observational evidence for the curvature [of space], the only directly observed data being the mean density and the expansion, which latter proves that the actual universe corresponds to the non-statical case. It is therefore clear that from the direct data of observation we can derive neither the sign nor that value of the curvature, and the question arises whether it is possible to represent the observed facts without introducing the curvature at all. Historically the term containing the 'cosmological constant λ' was introduced into the field equations in order to enable us to account theoretically for the existence of a finite mean density in a static universe. It now appears that in the dynamical case this end can be reached without the introduction of λ."

"It was early 1932, when Einstein and I both were at the California Institute of Technology in Pasedena, and we just decided to look for a simple relativistic model that agreed reasonably well with the known observational data, namely, the Hubble recession rate and the mean density of matter in the universe. So we took the space curvature to be zero and also the cosmological constant and the pressure term to be zero, and then it follows straightforwardly that the density is proportional to the square of the Hubble constant. It gives a value for the density that is high, but not impossibly high. That's about all there was to it. It was not an important paper, although Einstein apparently thought that it was. He was pleased to have a simple model with no cosmological constant. That's it."

"String theory seems to be incompatible with a world in which a cosmological constant has a positive sign, which is what the observations indicate."

"The most far-reaching implication of general relativity... is that the universe is not static, as in the orthodox view, but is dynamic, either contracting or expanding. Einstein, as visionary as he was, balked at the idea... One reason... was that, if the universe is currently expanding, then... it must have started from a single point. All space and time would have to be bound up in that "point," an infinitely dense, infinitely small "singularity." ...this struck Einstein as absurd. He therefore tried to sidestep the logic of his equations, and modified them by adding... a "cosmological constant." The term represented a force, of unknown nature, that would counteract the gravitational attraction of the mass of the universe. That is, the two forces would cancel... it is the kind of rabbit-out-of-the-hat idea that most scientists would label ad-hoc. ...Ironically, Einstein's approach contained a foolishly simple mistake: His universe would not be stable... like a pencil balanced on its point."

"Our particular laws are not at all unique. ...they could change from place to place and from time to time. The Laws of Physics are much like the weather... controlled by invisible influences in space almost the same way as that temperature, humidity, air pressure, and wind velocity control how rain and snow and hail form. ...The Landscape... is the space of possibilities... all the possible environments permitted by the theory. ...[T]heoretical physicists ...have always believed that the laws of nature are the unique, inevitable consequence of some elegant mathematical principle. ...the empirical evidence points much more convincingly to the opposite conclusion. The universe has more in common with a Rube Goldberg machine than with a unique consequence of mathematical symmetry. ...Two key discoveries are driving the paradigm shift—the success of inflationary cosmology and the existence of a small cosmological constant."

"At about the time of Malcadena's discovery, physicists started to become convinced (by cosmologists) that we live in a world with a nonvanishing cosmological constant [footnote: 10-23 in Planck units...[t]he incredible smallness... had fooled almost all physicists into believing that it didn't exist.], smaller by far than any other physical constant... the main determinant of the future history of the universe... also known as ... a thorn in the side of physicists for almost a century. ...If \Lambda is positive, the cosomological term creates a repulsive force that increases with distance; if it is negative, the new force is attractive; if \Lambda is zero, there is no new force and we can ignore it."

"The cosmological constant['s]... most important consequence: the repulsive force, acting at cosmological distances, causes space to expand exponentially. There is nothing new about the universe expanding, but without a cosmological constant, the rate of expansion would gradually slow down. Indeed, it could even reverse itself and begin to contract, eventually imploding in a giant cosmic crunch. Instead, as a consequence of the cosmological constant, the universe appears to be doubling in size about every fifteen billion years, and all indications are that it will do so indefinitely."

"The models of Einstein and de Sitter are static solutions of Einstein's modified gravitational equations for a world-wide homogeneous system. They both involve a positive cosmological constant λ, determining the curvature of space. If this constant is zero, we obtain a third model in classical infinite Euclidean space. This model is empty, the space-time being that of Special Relativity. It has been shown that these are the only possible static world models based on Einstein's theory. In 1922, Friedmann... broke new ground by investigating non-static solutions to Einstein's field equations, in which the radius of curvature of space varies with time. This Possibility had already been envisaged, in a general sense, by Clifford in the eighties."

"It is quite easy to include a weight for empty space in the equations of gravity. Einstein did so in 1917, introducing what came to be known as the cosmological constant into his equations. His motivation was to construct a static model of the universe. To achieve this, he had to introduce a negative mass density for empty space, which just canceled the average positive density due to matter. With zero total density, gravitational forces can be in static equilibrium. Hubble's subsequent discovery of the expansion of the universe, of course, made Einstein's static model universe obsolete. ...The fact is that to this day we do not understand in a deep way why the vacuum doesn't weigh, or (to say the same thing in another way) why the cosmological constant vanishes, or (to say it in yet another way) why Einstein's greatest blunder was a mistake."

"De Sitter proposed three types of nonstatic universes: the oscillating universes and the expanding universes of the first or second kiind. The main characteristic of the expanding "family" of the first kiind is that the radius is continually increasing from a definite initial time when it had the value zero. The universe becomes infinitely large after an infinite time. In the second kind... the radius possesses at the initial time a definite minimum value... in the Einstein model... the cosmological constant is supposed to be equal to the reciprocal of R2, whereas de Sitter computed for his interpretation the constant to be equal to 3/R2. Whitrow correctly points out the significant fact that in special relativity the cosmological constant is omitted..."

"A star does not evolve over its lifetime through each spectral type, as Russell once thought; rather, each star experiences its own distinct history, based on its mass at birth. Smaller stars, such as tiny s, will never reach the red-giant stage but just dully burn away like red-hot ovens. Stars that are born with appreciably more mass than our Sun, such as the white-hot O and B stars, will burn swiftly and eventually blow up, leaving behind a city-sized or even a black hole, a gravitational pit from which no light or matter can escape. ...the term black hole wasn't even coined until 1968. Yet the first tentative steps toward understanding this great metamorphosis, the distinct and striking stages in a star's life, were taken at the turn of the century. The elements in the stars themselves were telling the tale in the spectral messages they were telegraphing throughout the cosmos."

"After the nuclear fuel is used up, the star goes into a state of gravitational collapse. All parts of the star fall more or less freely inward... [Y]ou would imagine that the freefall could not continue... because the falling material would... arrive at the center... But Einstein's equations have the peculiar consequence... permanent freefall without ever reaching the bottom... what we call a black hole. ...[T]he space ...is so strongly curved that space and time become interchanged... time becomes space and... space becomes time. More precisely, if you observe... from the outside, you see... motion slow down and stop because the direction of time inside... is perpendicular to the direction of time as seen from the outside. The collapsing star can continue to fall freely forever..."

""Schwarzschild's solution"—revealed a stunning implication of general relativity. He showed that if the mass of a star is concentrated in a small enough spherical region, so that it's mass divided by its radius exceeds a particular critical value, the resulting space-time warp is so radical that anything, including light, that gets too close to the star will be unable to escape its gravitational grip. ...John Wheeler ...called them black holes—black because they cannot emit light, holes because anything getting too close falls into them, never to return. The name stuck."

"Black holes have the universe's most inscrutable poker faces. ...When you've seen one black hole with a given mass, charge, and spin (though you've learned these thing indirectly, through their effect on surrounding gas and stars...) you've definitely seen them all. ...black holes contain the highest possible ...a measure of the number of rearrangements of an object's internal constituents that have no effect on its appearance. ...Black holes have a monopoly on maximal disorder. ...As matter takes the plunge across a black hole's ravenous , not only does the black hole's entropy increase, but its size increases as well. ...the amount of entropy ...tells us something about space itself: the maximum entropy that can be crammed into a region of space—any region of space, anywhere, anytime—is equal to the entropy contained within a black hole whose size equals the region in question."

"A natural guess is that... a black hole's entropy is... proportional to its volume. But in the 1970s and Stephen Hawking discovered that this isn't right. Their... analyses showed that the entropy... is proportional to the area of its event horizon... less than what we'd naïvely guess. ...Berkenstein and Hawking found that... each square being one by one Planck length... the black hole's entropy equals the number of such squares that can fit on its surface... each Planck square is a minimal unit of space, and each carries a minimal, single unit of entropy. This suggests that there is nothing, even in principle, that can take place within a Planck square, because any such activity could support disorder and hence the Planck square could contain more than a single unit of entropy... Once again... we are led to the notion of an elemental spatial entity."

"[F]or a physicist, the upper limit to entropy... is a critical, almost sacred quantity. ...the Bekenstein and Hawking result tells us that a theory that includes gravity is, in some sense, simpler than a theory that doesn't. ...If the maximum entropy in any given region of space is proportional to the region's surface area and not its volume, then perhaps the true, fundamental degrees of freedom—the attributes that have the potential to give rise to that disorder—actually reside on the region's surface and not within its volume. Maybe... the universe's physical processes take place on a thin, distant surface that surrounds us, and all we see and experience is merely a projection of those processes. Maybe... the universe is rather like a hologram."

"The subject of this book is the structure of space-time on length-scales from 10-13 cm, the radius of an elementary particle, up to 1028 cm, the radius of the universe. ...we base our treatment on Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. This theory leads to two remarkable predictions about the universe: first, that the final fate of massive stars is to collapse behind an event horizon to form a 'black hole' which will contain a singularity; and secondly, that there is a singularity in our past which constitutes, in some sense, a beginning to the universe."

"So Einstein was wrong when he said, "God does not play dice." Consideration of black holes suggests, not only that God does play dice, but that he sometimes confuses us by throwing them where they can't be seen."

"I'm sorry to disappoint science fiction fans, but if information is preserved, there is no possibility of using black holes to travel to other universes. If you jump into a black hole, your mass energy will be returned to our universe but in a mangled form which contains the information about what you were like but in a state where it can not be easily recognized. It is like burning an encyclopedia. Information is not lost, if one keeps the smoke and the ashes. But it is difficult to read. In practice, it would be too difficult to re-build a macroscopic object like an encyclopedia that fell inside a black hole from information in the radiation, but the information preserving result is important for microscopic processes involving virtual black holes."

"Black holes ain't as black as they are painted. They are not the eternal prisons they were once thought. Things can get out of a black hole, both to the outside, and possibly to another universe. So if you feel you are in a black hole, don't give up. There's a way out."

"It is hard to understand how this infinitely dense singularity can evaporate into nothing. For matter inside the black hole to leak out into the universe requires that it travel faster than the speed of light."

"Is the reader feeling confused about the status of the black hole information paradox and black holes in general? So am I!"

"Experimentalists dream of some spectacular discovery such as the proof of the existence of black holes to justify the more than eight billion dollars it has cost to build the LHC."

"A large part of the relativity community is in denial - refusing even to contemplate the idea that black holes may not exist in nature, or seriously consider the idea that any kind of new matter such as the new putative dark energy can play a fundamental role in gravity theory."

"Hawking's intitial foray into quantum gravity was more modest than Wheeler's and other[s]... a sneak approach. He first wanted to know what the effect was of an ordinary, classic, curved-space gravitational field on a quantum system. He called this the semiclassical approach. Until that day, most quantum calculations had been done as if gravity didn't exist—they were hard enough without it in normal flat space-time... [Hawking accomplished this by] envisioning an "atom" whose nucleus was a catastrophically powerful black hole... Starobinsky ventured the opinion that rotating black holes would spray elementary particles. ...It was known from Penrose's work, among others, that you could extract energy from the spin of a black hole just like any other dynamo... in particles and radiation just like it did from a particle generator. ...But Hawking ...resolved to redo the calculation for himself ...he decided to warm up first, by calculating the rate of emission from a nonrotating quantum hole. He knew the answer should be no emission. ...his results were embarrassing. His imaginary black hole was spewing matter and radiation... he was reluctant to tell anybody but his closest friends; he was afraid Bekenstein would hear about it. ...It meant that holes had temperatures, just as Bekenstein's work implied."

"Even though a black hole is practically invisible, astronomers can infer its presence from the effects it has on spacetime itself. ...Andrea Ghez... uses s to study the motions of stars near the center of our galaxy. By watching how these stars move, she is really measuring the curvature of spacetime—the strength of gravity—in the heart of the Milky Way. ...Ghez realized that the stars are wheeling about an invisible, supermassive object that weighs more than two and a half million times as much as our sun. The black hole... dubbed ... cannot be seen directly, but Ghez was able to find it because of the effect it has on spacetime, on the stars orbiting it. Ghez's technique is quite similar to what Vera Rubin did when she made the first compelling case for ."

"I was very fortunate to know the great astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar during his last years. Chandra, as we called him, was the first to discover that general relativity implied that stars above a certain mass would collapse into what we now call a black hole. Much later, he wrote a beautiful book describing the different solutions of the equations of general relativity that describe black holes. As I got to know him, Chandra shocked me by speaking of a deep anger toward Einstein. Chandra was upset that Einstein, after inventing general relativity, had abandoned this masterpiece, leaving it to others to struggle through it."

"There is no shortage of candidates for... baryonic . It may come in many forms—clouds of gas or dust, large planetlike objects, various forms of degraded stars, and black holes. ...MACHOS could include black holes and burned-out stars, such as s or s... Black holes are perhaps the most intriguing, and the most difficult to detect and quantify. As far back as the eighteenth century, scientists speculated about worlds so massive that nothing escaped their gravitational grip, not even light. In the early twentieth century, J. Robert Oppenheimer used Einstein's general theory of relativity to explain how a black hole might form: The black hole would warp adjacent space so deeply that the would exceed the speed of light... hence nothing... could leave... The center of the Milky Way emits intense gamma radiation—the death cry, perhaps, of stars falling into a black hole. Black holes may also be distributed in galactic halos, where they might constitute a substantial fraction of baryonic dark matter."

"According to Newton's law of gravity, every object in the universe attracts every other object... with a gravitational force... F = \frac{m M G}{R^2}... almost as famous as E = mc^2... On the left side is the force, F, between two masses... On the right side, the bigger mass is M and the smaller mass is m. ...The last symbol... G, is a numerical constant called Newton's constant. ...Ironically, Newton never knew the value of his own constant. ...G was too small to measure until the end of the eighteenth century. ...Cavindish found that the force between a pair of one-kilogram masses separated by one meter is approximately 6.6 x 10-11 newtons. (The Newton is... about one-fifth of a pound.) ...Newton had one lucky break... the special mathematical properties of the inverse square law. ...[B]y the miracle of mathematics, you can pretend that the entire mass is located at a single point. This... allowed Newton to calculate the ... Escape \; velocity = \sqrt{2MG/R} ... the bigger the mass [M] and the smaller the radius R, the larger the escape velocity. ...to compute the R_s... plug in the speed of light for the escape velocity... R_s = \frac{2MG}{c^2}... is proportional to the mass. That's all there is to dark stars... at the level that Laplace and Michell were able to understand them."

"[A]round 1967, Wheeler became very interested in the gravitationally collapsed objects that had described in 1917. At the time they were called black stars or dark stars. ...Wheeler began calling them black holes. At first the name was blackballed by the... '. ...the term ...was deemed obscene! But John fought it... Amusingly, John's next coinage was the saying "Black holes have no hair." ...he was making a very serious point about black hole horizons. ...[Each a] smooth ...perfectly regular, featureless sphere. Apart from their mass and rotational speed, every black hole was exactly like every other. Or so it was thought."

"Theory of relativity"

"Fundamental to the idea of MOND is that it is an 'effective' theory, playing a role similar to Kepler's laws (as stressed by Felten 1984). The proponents of MOND have yet to develop the analogue of Newtonian mechanics to explain the effective theory. The absence of a full theory seriously limits the predictive power of MOND, and leads various authors to disagree as to what the observational consequences of this revision will be."

"... Milgrom and those few who work on it, are quite aware of the pressing need to have a fully consistent theory that goes beyond the Newtonian non-relativistic limit to a theory that can be applied to cosmology. They don't have one. They fully admit it and they agree that this is a big gap, big lack in the theory. There it is. They do insist that on the scales of galaxies and smaller where it is intended to apply it works remarkably well, and they're right. There are just a few people working on this theory. The most active of the young people is Stacy McGaugh at the University of Maryland. If you ever get a chance you might be amused to talk to him."

"MOND is so successful that, as a minimum, it is telling us the exact functional form of the force in galaxies. Any theory of galaxy and structure formation must therefore be able to reproduce the MOND phenomenology."

"I've had conversations about MOND with several of the most imaginative theorists I know. Often it went like this: We would be talking about some sober mainstream problem and one of us would mention galaxies. We would look at each other with a glint of recognition and one of would say, "So you worry about MOND, too," as if admitting a secret vice. Then we would share our crazy ideas — because all ideas about MOND that are not immediately wrong turn out to be crazy."

"In matter of fact, whether MOND is a fundamental theory or not, the very special and central role the constant a0 plays in galaxy dynamics is well established and is here to stay. For instance, you will find it everywhere in the data itself. All round systems, from giant molecular clouds, through globular clusters and elliptical galaxies, to clusters of galaxies lie, in the mass-radius plane, near the line with constant M/R2. The value of this ratio when multiplied by G gives a0. Another example: the baryonic Tully-Fisher relation agrees well (over many orders of magnitude in mass) with a relation of the form α M = V–4. The proportionality constant α has dimensions of G times acceleration and when divided by G gives a0 (this is independent of the previous appearance as it refers to asymptotic regions in the galaxies)."

"Today we can probe regions of physics where space-time curvature is extremely small finding that, again, Newtonian mechanics fails. This may mean that the Theory of General Relativity needs an extension or that we do not yet understand what “space-time” and “mass” are nor how they are fundamentally related. Perhaps it just boils down to the problem of us not understanding the vacuum."

"Mild failures aside, it is clear that there is a broad range of masses, 106 — 1011 M☉, in which systems adhere to MOND in their systematics. This must be telling us something; logically there are the following possibilities. a) MOND is merely an efficient summary of the way DM is distributed in the said systems? b) MOND reveals the dependence of inertia on acceleration for small accelerations? c) MOND betrays hitherto unknown forces particularly effective at astronomical scales? d) MOND encapsulates departures from standard Newtonian-Einsteinian gravity theory at the mentioned scales?"

"Ten years ago, it was perfectly respectable to speculate that there was no such thing as dark matter, just a modification of gravity. (It couldn’t have been MOND alone, which was ruled out by clusters, but it could have been some more elaborate modification.) That’s no longer true. The Bullet Cluster and the CMB both provide straightforward evidence that there is gravity pointing in the direction of something other than the ordinary matter. The source for that gravity is “dark matter.” It could be simple, like an axion or a thermal relic, or it could be quite baroque, like TeVeS + sprinkles of other dark matter as required, but it’s definitely there."

"Viewed simply, MOND is an algorithm that, with one additional fundamental parameter having units of acceleration, allows calculation of the distribution of the effective gravitational force in astronomical objects from the observed distribution of baryonic dark matter — and it works remarkably well. This is evidenced primarily by the use of the MOND algorithm in the determination of rotation curves of disk galaxies where the agreement with observed rotation curves is often precise, even in details. The existence of such an algorithm is problematic for CDM because this is not something that dissipationless dark matter on the scale of galaxies can naturally do; it would seem to require a coupling between dark matter and baryonic matter which is totally at odds with the perceived properties of CDM."

"We do not know to what extent and how MOND affects nongravitational phenomena such as electromagnetism (EM). For example, if there is a consistent way to extend and apply the basic tenets to nongravitational physics."

"Another crucial point is that MOND as we know it now is arguably only an approximate 'effective field theory' that approximates some more fundamental scheme at a deeper stratum — some 'FUNDAMOND' — conceptually, in a similar way to thermodynamics being an approximation of the statistical-mechanics, microscopic description."

"... one really has to stand on one's head to reconcile MOND with what is well-established about relativistic physics, and the results are pretty obscure and far-fetched looking."

"We have in MOND a formula that has had repeated predictive successes. Many of these have been true a priori predictions, like the absolute nature of the Tully-Fisher relation, the large mass discrepancies evinced by low surface brightness galaxies, and the velocity dispersions of many individual dwarf spheroidal galaxies like Cluster 2. I don't see how this can be an accident. But what we lack is an underlying theoretical basis for the observed MONDian phenomenology: Why does this happen?"

"I think the existence of (something like) dark matter is incontrovertible. It would be nice to understand why Modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) works so well."

"The key appeal of MOND is that we only need ordinary matter, the matter we can actually see, to explain the universe. But opponents are not happy with the ad-hocness of aspects of the theory, the messiness of the underlying mathematics, and the tweaking of parameters required to make MOND work. Most cosmologists would bet on dark matter, but MOND advocates show little sign of slowing down."

"Milgromian theorists have understood for a long time that there is just no way that a formless entity such as dark matter can spontaneously rearrange itself – and keep rearranging itself – so as to produce the striking regularities that we observe in the kinematics of nearby galaxies."

"... the interpretation of MOND as modified inertia (MI) ... ... Who is afraid of modified inertia? The interpretation of MOND as MI was on the table from the very inception of MOND ..."

"Well, this mission's always been about delayed gratification. It took us 12 years to sell it, it took us 5 years to build it, it took us 9 years just to get to the first target. So 'course you are gonna have to wait just a little bit."

"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. We propose to accelerate the development of the appropriate lunar space craft. We propose to develop alternate liquid and solid fuel boosters, much larger than any now being developed, until certain which is superior. We propose additional funds for other engine development and for unmanned explorations-explorations which are particularly important for one purpose which this nation will never overlook: the survival of the man who first makes this daring flight. But in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the Moon-if we make this judgment affirmatively, it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there."

"Columbus's reputation, in turn, would hardly have been what it was had it not been for the decision of the Hongxi emperor, in 1424, to suspend China's far more costly and ambitious program of maritime exploration, thus leaving the great discoveries to the Europeans. A strange decision, one might think, until one recalls the costly and ambitious American effort to outdo the Soviet Union by placing a man on the moon, completed triumphantly on July 20, 1969. It had been, President Nixon extravagantly boasted, "the greatest week in the history of the world since the Creation." But then, after only five more moon landings over the next three and a half years, Nixon suspended the manned exploration of space altogether, leaving future discoveries to be postponed indefinitely. Which emperor's behavior will seem stranger 500 years hence? It is difficult to say."

"To blame the computer for the Apollo 11 problems is like blaming the person who spots a fire and calls the fire department. Actually, the computer was programmed to do more than recognize error conditions. A complete set of recovery programs was incorporated into the software. The software's action, in this case, was to eliminate lower priority tasks and re-establish the more important ones. The computer, rather than almost forcing an abort, prevented an abort. If the computer hadn't recognized this problem and taken recovery action, I doubt if Apollo 11 would have been the successful Moon landing it was."

"This is the LM pilot. I'd like to take this opportunity to ask every person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his or her own way."

"Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon, July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind."

":Nixon: Hello, Neil and Buzz. I'm talking to you by telephone from the Oval Room at the White House. And this certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made. I just can't tell you how proud we all are of what you've done. For every American, this has to be the proudest day of our lives. And for people all over the world, I am sure they too join with Americans in recognizing what an immense feat this is. Because of what you have done, the heavens have become a part of man's world. And as you talk to us from the Sea of Tranquillity, it inspires us to redouble our efforts to bring peace and tranquillity to Earth. For one priceless moment in the whole history of man, all the people on this Earth are truly one: one in their pride in what you have done, and one in our prayers that you will return safely to Earth."

"... The Saturn V rocket which put us in orbit is an incredibly complicated piece of machinery, every piece of which worked flawlessly ... We have always had confidence that this equipment will work properly. All this is possible only through the blood, sweat, and tears of a number of people ... All you see is the three of us, but beneath the surface are thousands and thousands of others, and to all of those, I would like to say, "Thank you very much.""

"The Skylab 4 experience raises a number of issues. The first is identifying an optimal balance between work and nonwork activities for missions of varying lengths. To reduce the threat of overprogramming, mission planners and managers, first, might maintain a high degree of sensitivity to the socioemotional requirements of prolonged space flights. Second, planners and managers might incorporate principles or organizational self-design by further involving experienced astronauts in the planning of tasks and activities and by incorporating scheduling flexibility so that crews can readily modify their timetables on the basis of conditions encountered in space. Third, it might prove useful to conduct a path analysis of attitudes toward supplies, equipment, and living conditions on the one hand, and attitudes toward mission planners and managers on the other. It is not clear whether opinions regarding supplies and equipment are causes of, or symptoms of, spacecrew/mission-control conflicts."

"We swallowed a lot of problems for a lot of days because we were reluctant to admit publicly that we were not getting things done right. That's ridiculous, [but] that's human behavior."

"The Hindu systems of astronomy are by far the oldest, and that from which the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and even the Jews derived Hindus their knowledge."

"That Hindu astronomical lore about ancient times cannot be based on later back-calculation, was also argued by Playfair’s contemporary, the French astronomer jean-Sylvain Bailly: “The motions of the stars calculated by the Hindus before some 4500 years vary not even a single minute from the [modern] tables of Cassini and Meyer. The Indian tables give the same annual variation of the moon as that discovered by Tycho Brahe - a variation unknown to the school of Alexandria and also the Arabs.”"

"The Hindu religion is the only one of the world’s great faiths dedicated to the idea that the Cosmos itself undergoes an immense, indeed an infinite, number of deaths and rebirths. It is the only religion in which the time scales correspond to those of modern scientific cosmology. Its cycles run from our ordinary day and night to a day and night of Brahma, 8.64 billion years long. Longer than the age of the earth or the Sun and about half the time since the Big Bang."

"“The observations on which the astronomy of India is founded, were made more than three thousand years before the Christian era. (…) Two other elements of this astronomy, the equation of the sun’s centre and the obliquity of the ecliptic (…) seem to point to a period still more remote, and to fix the origin of this astronomy 1000 or 1200 years earlier, that is, 4300 years before the Christian era”."

"All this at least on the assumption that Playfair’s, Bailly’s and Rajaram’s claims about the Hindu astronomical tables are correct. Disputants may start by proving them factually wrong, but should not enter the dispute arena without a refutation of the astronomers’ assertions. It is something of a scandal that Playfair’s and Bailly’s findings have been lying around for two hundred years while linguists and indologists were publishing speculations on Vedic chronology in stark disregard for the contribution of astronomy.... One of the earliest estimates of the date of the Vedas was at once among the most scientific. In 1790, the Scottish mathematician John Playfair demonstrated that the starting-date of the astronomical observations recorded in the tables still in use among Hindu astrologers (of which three copies had reached Europe between 1687 and 1787) had to be 4300 BC. His proposal was dismissed as absurd by some, but it was not refuted by any scientist."

"Since the 1780s, Western researchers (Playfair, Bailly, Jacobi) have noticed data in Indian astronomy, both astronomical tables and stray astronomical references in religious and epic texts, which, through the millennial clock of the precession, indicate a surprisingly high chronology for Vedic civilization... Against the consistent and straightforward high-chronology interpretation of the astronomical evidence, the AIT has never offered a consistent interpretation of these data supporting its own low chronology. All we have is piecemeal attempts to deconstruct one datum or another, weakening its logical impact or dismissing it as imprecise.... In spite of this poverty in alternative explanations, nobody seems to be bothered by this inability to refute the stubborn astronomical evidence or to domesticate it somehow into the prevalent paradigm....Disputants may start by trying to prove Playfair and Bailly factually wrong. Indeed, I think it is high time to recheck their argumentation on the basis of all their original data. Meanwhile , it remains something of a scandal that Playfair's and Bailly's findings have been lying around for two hundred years while linguists and Indologists were publishing speculations on Vedic chronology in stark disregard for the contribution of astronomy."

"The astronomical lore in Vedic literature provides elements of an absolute chronology in a consistent way. Moreover, it is encouraging to note that the astronomical evidence is free of contradictions. There would be a real problem if the astronomical indications had put the Upanishads earlier than the Rg-Veda, or Kalidasa earlier than the Brahmanas, but that is not the case: the astronomical evidence is consistent. Inconsistency would give support to the predictable objection that these astronomical references are but poetical fabulation without any scientific contents. However, the facts are just the opposite. To the extent that there are astronomical indications in the Vedas, these form a consistent set of data detailing an absolute chronology for Vedic literature in full agreement with the known relative chronology of the different texts of this literature. They contradict the hypothesis that the Vedas were composed after an invasion in ca. 1500 BC. Not one of the astronomical data in Vedic literature confirms the AIT-based low Vedic chronology.... Indeed, the whole corpus of astronomical evidence is hard to reconcile with the AIT, and has been standing as a growing challenge to the AIT for two centuries, i.e. from before the AIT had even been thought up. A convincing refutation would require an alternative but consistent (philogically as well as astronomically sound) interpretation of the existing astronomical indications that brings Vedic literature down to a much later age. But so far, such a reading of those text passages has not been offered. There is as yet no astronomical information which puts the Vedas at an AIT-compatible date."

"“By adding the hymn counts of the ten books of the Rig-Veda in different combinations, we obtain numbers that are factors of the sidereal periods and the five synodic periods (…) The probability of this happening is about one in a million. Hence whoever arranged the Rig-Veda encoded into it not only obvious numbers like the lunar year but also hidden numbers of great astronomical significance.”"

"If we exclude the possibility of every astronomical notice in Vedic literature being a record of ancient tradition, which is extremely unlikely, we can say that there is strong astronomical evidence that the Vedas are older than B.C. 2500. They might be as old as B.C. 4000. There is some support for this date, but it is not convincing."

"Whither by day depart the constellations that shine at night, set high in heaven above us? Varuṇa's holy laws remain unweakened, and through the night the Moon moves on in splendor."

"Urge thou these heroes on to slay the enemy, brave Thunderer! in the fight with swords. Even when hid among the tribes of Sages numerous as stars."

"Like a dark steed adorned with pearl, the Fathers have decorated heaven With constellations. They set the light in day, in night the darkness. Bṛhaspati cleft the rock and found the cattle."

"Sage Maruts, may we be the drivers of the car of riches ful I of life that have been given by you. O Maruts, let that wealth in thousands dwell with us which never vanishes like Tisya from the sky."

"May those five Bulls which stand on high full in the midst of mighty heaven, Having together swiftly borne my praises to the Gods, return. Mark this my woe, ye Earth and Heaven."

"They yoke the red horse who moves around those who stand. The lights (or constellations) shine in Heaven (1.6.1)."

"With the Maruts, Indra, let your friendship be. Then you will defeat all enemies. The three times sixty Maruts, increasing you, are holy like a mass of rays (or stars) (VIII.96.7-8)."

"The Maruts are visible from afar, like the heavenly ones with the stars (I.166.11)."

"Like Heaven with the stars, Agni appears along both firmaments (II.2.5).7"

"Agni is first established here by the ordainers, the holy invoker, to be worshipped in the sacrifices. The bearer of truth, most wise, he appears as Heaven with the stars (IV.7.1,3)."

"They gleam with armlets as the heavens are decked with stars, like cloud-born lightnings shine the torrents of their rain. Since the strong Rudra, O Maruts with brilliant chests, sprang into life for you in Pṛśni's radiant lap."

"The seers of ten rays first thought out the sacrifice. May they direct us in the breaking of the dawn. The dawn opens up the night with her red horses, with the great light of the luminous sea of milk (II.34.12)."

"Seven yoke the chariot that has one wheel. One horse conveys it who has seven names (I.164.3)."

"Our fathers who drove up the wealth made of light, by Indra at the end of the year they destroyed Vala. By the truth they made the Sun rise in Heaven (X.62.2- 3)."

"Pushan was born in the start of the path, in the path of Heaven, in the path of the Earth. Both beloved stations he circles to and from with knowledge (X.17.6)."

"May Mitra, Varuna, the sun, the destroyer, the portents from the earth and the atmosphere, and the planets moving in the sky (divicarā grahāh) bring well-being to us. (AV 19.9.7)"

"May the planets belonging to the moon, the sun, and Rāhu bring well-being. May the deadly comets and the Rudras of the keen brightness bring well-being. (AV 19.9.10)"

"A heightened control of the affects, developed in society and learned by the individual, and above all a heightened degree of autonomous affect control, was needed in order for the world-picture centred on the earth and the people living on it to be overcome by one which, like the heliocentric world-picture, agreed better with the observable facts but was at first far less satisfying emotionally; for it removed human beings from their position at the centre of the universe and placed them on one of many planets circling about the centre."

"The development of the idea that the earth circles round the sun in a purely mechanical way in accordance with natural laws—that is, in a way not in the least determined by any purpose relating to mankind, and therefore no longer possessing any great emotional significance for people—presupposed and demanded at the same time a development in human beings themselves towards increased emotional control, a greater restraint of their spontaneous feeling that everything they experience and everything that concerns them takes its stamp from them, is the expression of an intention, a destiny, a purpose relating to themselves. Now, in the age that we call "modern", people have reached a stage of self-detachment that enables them to conceive of natural processes as an autonomous sphere operating in a purely mechanical or causal way without intention or purpose or destiny, and having a meaning or purpose for themselves only if they are in a position, through objective knowledge, to control it and thereby to give it a meaning and a purpose."

"He that would appear wise will not be satisfied with anything that others do; he must do something for himself, and that must be better than anything. This fool (Copernicus) wants to overturn the whole science of astronomy. But, as the holy Scriptures tell us, Joshua told the sun to stand still, and not the earth."

"The Universe is in fact observed not only through the different windows of the electromagnetic spectrum, but also through other cosmic messengers, i.e. through cosmic rays (CRs), neutrinos and gravitational waves (GWs). In general, gamma rays are the perfect companions for multi-messenger astronomy ... gamma-ray production is intimately related to the production of CRs. The latter are charged particles, mainly protons, whose energy spectrum covers a very wide range in energy and flux. Many questions regarding CRs are still open, especially looking at the most energetic ones above 1015 eV (1 PeV). The CR spectrum is approximately described by a power law: dN/dE ∼ E−Γ , where Γ is the spectral index. Γ is not constant, indicating a change in the properties of CRs, like their acceleration sites and chemical composition. For energies around ∼ 4 × 1015 eV, the flux starts to decrease more steeply: Γ changes from about 2.7 to about 3. This feature, marked with the term knee, is thought to indicate the maximum acceleration energy of Galactic sources ..."

"When I began life as a particle physicist fifty years ago, most of the major discoveries were made in Europe by people studying the cosmic rays that bombard the earth from outer space. Particle physics was done by observing the debris produced by cosmic rays as they pass through the atmosphere and the experimental apparatus. The debris consists of particles with short lifetimes and unfamiliar names. ... Three young Italians, Conversi, Pancini, and Piccioni, working with home-made particle counters in the chaos of postwar Italy, discovered that the common cosmic ray particle, later called the muon, had only weak interactions with matter. Cecil Powell, working with microscopes and photographic plates at Bristol in England, discovered the strongly interacting cosmic ray particle, which he called the pion. Other strange new particles were discovered by Rochester and Butler using old-fashioned cosmic ray cloud-chambers in Manchester."

"Why does the atmosphere have conductivity? Here and there among the air molecules there is an ion—a molecule of oxygen, say, which has acquired an extra electron, or perhaps lost one. These ions do not stay as single molecules; because of their electric field they usually accumulate a few other molecules around them. Each ion then becomes a little lump which, along with other lumps, drifts in the field—moving slowly upward or downward—making the observed current. Where do the ions come from? It was first guessed that the ions were produced by the radioactivity of the earth. (It was known that the radiation from radioactive materials would make air conducting by ionizing the air molecules.) Particles like β-rays coming out of the atomic nuclei are moving so fast that they tear electrons from the atoms, leaving ions behind. This would imply, of course, that if we were to go to higher altitudes, we should find less ionization, because the radioactivity is all in the dirt on the ground—in the traces of radium, uranium, potassium, etc. ... To test this theory, some physicists carried an experiment up in balloons to measure the ionization of the air (Hess, in 1912) and discovered that the opposite was true—the ionization per unit volume increased with altitude! ... This was a most mysterious result—the most dramatic finding in the entire history of atmospheric electricity. It was so dramatic, in fact, that it required a branching off of an entirely new subject—cosmic rays."

"We seem to live in a remarkably economical X-ray universe, in that the observed cosmic X-ray background (CXRB) is produced with almost the least cosmic effort possible. It is not dominated by luminous obscured quasars thundering out huge amounts of power at z ≈ 2–4 but rather by moderate-luminosity, obscured AGNs at z ≈ 0.5–2."

"LOFAR is a new European radio interferometer operating at frequencies 15–240 MHz (van Haarlem et al., 2013) and represents a milestone in terms of radio survey speed compared to existing telescopes. The LOFAR Surveys Key Science Project aims to carry out a tiered survey. ... These surveys will open the low-frequency electromagnetic spectrum for exploration, allowing unprecedented studies of the radio population across cosmic time and opening up new parameter space for searches for rare, unusual objects such as high-z radio quasars in a systematic way. Perhaps, one of the most tantalizing prospects are the 21 cm absorption line measurements using LOFAR along sight lines toward z > 6 radio quasars."

"The continuum spectrum of a quasar can often be described, over a broad frequency range, by a power law of the form S\nu \propto \nu–\alpha ... where \alpha is the spectral index. \alpha = 0 corresponds to a flat spectrum, whereas \alpha = 1 describes a spectrum in which the same energy is emitted in every logarithmic frequency interval."

"Quasars were several hundred times more numerous when the universe was much younger. They were most numerous when the universe was about twenty percent of its current age, a time in the history of the universe sometimes called "cosmic noon"."

"General relativity"

"In this paper it is shown that a star must experience dynamical friction, i.e., it must suffer from a systematic tendency to be decelerated in the direction of its motion. This dynamical friction which stars experience is one of the direct consequences of the fluctuating force acting on a star due to the varying complexion of the near neighbors. From considerations of a very general nature it is concluded that the coefficient of dynamical friction, \eta, must be of the order of the reciprocal of the time of relaxation of the system. Further, an independent discussion based on the two-body approximation for stellar encounters leads to the following explicit formula for the coefficient of dynamical friction: \eta = 4\pi m_1 (m_1 + m_2)G^2/v^3 log_e [D_0\overline {|u|^2}/G(m_1+m_2)] \int_{0}^{v} N(v_1) \,dv_1, where m_l and m_2 denote the masses of the field star and the star under consideration, respectively; G, the constant of gravitation; D_0 the average distance between the stars; \overline {|u|^2}, the mean square velocity of the stars; N(v_1) dv_1, the number of field stars with velocities between v_1 and v_1 + dv_1; and, finally, v, the velocity of the star under consideration. It is shown that the foregoing formula for η is in agreement with the conclusions reached on the basis of the general considerations. Finally, some remarks are made concerning the further development of these ideas on the basis of a proper statistical theory."

"We investigate dynamical friction on a test object (such as a bar or satellite) which rotates or revolves through a spherical stellar system. We find that frictional effects arise entirely from near-resonant stars and we derive an analog to Chandrasekhar's dynamical friction formula which applies to spherical systems. We show that a formula of this type is valid so long as the angular speed of the test object changes sufficiently rapidly. If the angular speed is slowly changing two new effects appear: a reversible dynamical feedback which can stabilize or destabilize the rotation speed, and permanent capture of near-resonant stars into librating orbits. We discuss orbital decay of satellites in the light of these results."

"A test particle traveling through a collisionless gravitating background suffers a dissipative drag force known as dynamical friction. As with other dissipative forces, this friction must be related to fluctuations in the underlying medium (fluctuation-dissipation theorem). However, this long recognized aspect of the force did not easily yield to analysis until now, and Chandrasekhar’s celebrated formula was obtained by considering momentum exchanges resulting from encounters between a test particle and field particles which were ideal- ized as occurring sequentially. In this paper we return to the underlying basic physics and develop a theory of the interaction of the test particle with the stochastic force of the background. This enables us to derive in a unified way the Chandrasekhar formula for the friction (for the full range of m/M) and the heating of the particle by background fluctuations."

"... It was impossible, on first witnessing an appearance so similar to a sudden conflagration, not to expect a considerable result in the way of alteration of the details of the group in which it occurred; and I was certainly surprised, on referring to the sketch which I had carefully and satisfactorliy (and I may add fortunately) finished before the ocurrence, at finding myself unable to recognise any change whatever as having taken place. The impression left upon me is, that the phenomenon took place at an elevation considerably above and over the great group in which it was seen projected."

"Without warning, two beads of searing white light, bright as forked lightning but rounded rather than jagged and persistent instead of fleeting, appeared over the monstrous sunspot group. Momentarily taken by surprise, Carrington assumed that a ray of sunlight had found its way through the shadow-screen attached to the telescope. He reached out and jiggled the instrument, expecting the errant ray to zip wildly across the image. Instead, it stayed doggedly fixed in its position on the sunspot group. Whatever it was, it was not some stray reflection; it was coming from the Sun itself. As he stared, dumfounded, the two spots of light intensified and became kidney shaped."

"... In the case of the Carrington event of 1859, the most severe coronal mass ejection known to have occurred, the propagation time between the Sun and the Earth, at a speed of 2,300 kilometres per second, was seventeen and a half hours. The way to avert the most serious impacts would be to make adjustments to the operation of the electricity grids before the storm struck (see Space Studies Board 2008, Chapter 7). The necessary actions would have to be taken very quickly and in a coordinated way in order to be effective, so they would have to be carefully planned in advance, preferably in an international context."

"A lot of these allegations crop up again and again over history. I think it's statistically unrealistic to think it isn't given the vastness of the universe."

"AARO has found no credible evidence thus far of extraterrestrial activity, off-world technology, or objects that defy the known laws of physics. In the event sufficient scientific data were ever obtained that a UAP encounter can only be explained by extraterrestrial origin, we are committed to working with our interagency partners at NASA."

"AARO is working with the military departments and the joint staff to normalize, integrate, and expand UAP reporting beyond the aviators to all service members, including mariners, submariners, and our space guardians. AARO is working to take in more UAP reporting and analysis from the interagency, FAA, NOAA Coast Guard and the Department of Energy to name a few."

"The China adversary is not waiting. They are advancing and they are advancing quickly. They are less risk averse at technical advancement than we are. They are just willing to try things and see if it works."

"Both ancient and medieval observers had noted that in many respects nature appeared to be governed by the principle of simplicity, and they had recorded the substance of their observations to this effect in the form of proverbial s which had become currently accepted bits of man's conception of the world. That falling bodies moved perpendicularly towards the earth, that light travelled in straight lines, that projectiles did not vary from the direction in which they were impelled, and countless other familiar facts of experience, had given rise to such common proverbs as: 'Natura semper agit per vias brevissimas'; 'natura nihil facit frustra'; 'natura neque redundat in superfluis neque deficit in necessariis' [Nature always acts by the shortest path; nature does nothing in vain; nature never overflows into the unnecessary, nor is she deficient in what is necessary]. This notion, that nature performs her duties in the most commodious fashion, without extra labour, would have tended to decrease somewhat the repulsion which most minds must have felt at Copernicus; the cumbrous epicycles had been decreased in number, various irregularities in the Ptolemaic scheme were eliminated... That such a tremendous shift in the point of reference could be legitimate was a suggestion quite beyond the grasp of people trained for centuries to think in terms of a homocentric philosophy and a geocentric physics. ...Copernicus could take the step because... he had definitely placed himself in... [the] dissenting Platonic movement. ...It was no accident that he became familiar with the remains of the early Pythagoreans, who almost alone among the ancients had ventured to suggest a non-geocentric astronomy."

"Ptolemy... against the champions of this or that cosmology of the heavens... had dared to claim that it is legitimate to interpret the facts of astronomy by the simplest geometrical scheme which will 'save the phenomena,' no matter whose metaphysics might be upset. His conception of the physical structure of the earth, however, prevented him from carrying through in earnest this principle of relativity, as his objections to the hypothesis that the earth moves amply show."

"Galileo had the experience of beholding the heavens as they actually are for perhaps the first time, and wherever he looked he found evidence to support the Copernican system against the Ptolemaic, or at least weaken the authority of the ancients. This shattering experience—of observing the depths of the universe, of being the first mortal to know what the heavens are actually like—made so deep an impression... that it is only by considering the events of 1609... that one can understand the subsequent direction of his life."

"The Greek philosopher, Plato, in the fourth century B.C. asked his students if they could devise a theory or explanation to explain this erratic planetary motion using some form of circular motion. Being keen observers, the Greeks came up with the most logical and obvious conclusions; namely, that the earth was the center about which the sun, the moon, planets, and the stars rotated. This model of the universe is called a geocentric or earth-centered model. It satisfactorily explained the daily motion of the stars and sun by assuming that they were attached to invisible crystalline spheres that rotated about the earth. The axis of the sphere of the sun was tilted with respect to that of the stars to account for the variation of the sun's height at with the various seasons. Since the sun appears to move through the stars and was brighter, it was assumed to be nearer to the earth than the stars. The spheres of the Moon, Mercury, and Venus were placed within the sphere of the sun while those of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were placed outside the sphere of the sun but within the sphere of the stars."

"The fundamental core of contemporary Darwinism, the theory of DNA-based reproduction and evolution, is now beyond dispute among scientists. It demonstrates its power every day, contributing crucially to the explanation of planet-sized facts of geology and meteorology, through middle-sized facts of ecology and agronomy, down to the latest microscopic facts of genetic engineering. It unifies all of biology and the history of our planet into a single grand story. Like Gulliver tied down in Lilliput, it is unbudgable, not because of some one or two huge chains of argument that might — hope against hope — have weak links in them, but because it is securely tied by thousands of threads of evidence anchoring it to virtually every other area of human knowledge. New discoveries may conceivably lead to dramatic, even "revolutionary" shifts in the Darwinian theory, but the hope that it will be "refuted" by some shattering breakthrough is about as reasonable as the hope that we will return to a geocentric vision and discard Copernicus."

"The present revolution of scientific thought follows in natural sequence on the great revolutions at earlier epochs in the history of science. Einstein's special theory of relativity, which explains the indeterminateness of the frame of space and time, crowns the work of Copernicus who first led us to give up our insistence on a geocentric outlook on nature; Einstein's general theory of relativity, which reveals the curvature or non-Euclidean geometry of space and time, carries forward the rudimentary thought of those earlier astronomers who first contemplated the possibility that their existence lay on something which was not flat. These earlier revolutions are still a source of perplexity in childhood, which we soon outgrow; and a time will come when Einstein's amazing revelations have likewise sunk into the commonplaces of educated thought."

"Fundamental changes in science have always been accompanied by deeper digging toward the philosophical foundations. Changes like the transition from the Ptolemaic to the Copernican system, from Euclidean to non-Euclidean geometry, from Newtonian to relativistic mechanics... have brought about a radical change in our common-sense explanation of the world. From all these considerations everyone who is to get a satisfactory understanding of twentieth century science will have to absorb a good deal of philosophical thought. But he will soon feel the same thing holds for a thorough understanding of the science which originated in any period of history."

"Persisting in their original resolve to destroy me and everything mine by any means they can think of, these men are aware of my views in astronomy and philosophy. They know that as to the arrangement of the parts of the universe, I hold the sun to be situated motionless in the center of the revolution of the celestial orbs while the earth revolves about the sun. They know also that I support this position not only by refuting the arguments of Ptolemy and Aristotle, but by producing many counter-arguments; in particular, some which relate to physical effects whose causes can perhaps be assigned in no other way. In addition there are astronomical arguments derived from many things in my new celestial discoveries that plainly confute the Ptolemaic system while admirably agreeing with and confirming the contrary hypothesis."

"It may be true that and (not science and evolution) are among the causes of atheism and materialism. It is at least equally true that biblical literalism, from its earlier flat-earth and geocentric forms to its recent young-earth and flood-geology forms, is one of the major causes of atheism and materialism. Many scientists and intellectuals have simply taken the literalists at their word and rejected biblical materials as being superseded or contradicted by modern science. Without having in hand a clear and persuasive alternative, they have concluded that it is nobler to be damned by the literalists than to dismiss the best testimony of research and reason. Intellectual honesty and integrity demand it."

"The odd thing about this story is that the heliocentric view was known in Europe long before Copernicus but, for various reasons, was totally ignored by the "established" dogma... All this time all kinds of absurdities were written about the heavens, the celestial spheres, the Empyrean and so on, which constituted the “established” view. And all the time the real knowledge was there and all those schoolmen, could, with some practical observation and sensible application of Mathematics, have found out that the Ptolemaic system was not true. But they did not: they preferred to argue about such weighty matters as how many angles could sit on the point of a pin. And when the proofs were presented to them in black and white, hard and irrefutable mathematical demonstrations, they still rejected them preferring the comforts of the ‘‘established” dogma. Theology (and Church interests) decided what was acceptable, not Mathematics."

"I shall try to sum up the main obstacles which arrested the progress of science for such an immeasurable time. The first was the splitting of the world into two spheres, and the mental split which resulted from it. The second was the geocentric dogma, the blind eye turned on the promising line of thought which had started with the Pythagoreans and stopped abruptly with Aristarchus of Samos. The third was the dogma of uniform motion in perfect circles. The fourth was the divorcement of science from mathematics. The fifth was the inability to realize that a body at rest tended to stay at rest, a body in motion tended to stay in motion. The main achievement of the first part of the scientific revolution was the removal of these five cardinal obstacles. This was done chiefly by three men: Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo. After that, the road was open to the Newtonian synthesis; from there on the journey led with rapidly gaining speed to the atomic age."

"Joseph Ratzinger has stood still because as a Bavarian Catholic in the Hellenistic tradition, interpreted in Roman terms, he wanted to stand still. To this degree he represented and represents a different basic model of theology and church, as different from mine as in astronomy Ptolemy's geocentric picture of the world is different from Copernicus' heliocentric picture."

"Let us... examine the point on which Newton, apparently with sound reasons, rests his distinction of absolute and relative motion. If the earth is affected with an absolute rotation about its axis, centrifugal forces are set up in the earth: it assumes an oblate form, the acceleration of gravity is diminished at the equator, the plane of Foucault's pendulum rotates, and so on. All these phenomena disappear if the earth is at rest and the other heavenly bodies are affected with absolute motion round it, such that the same relative rotation is produced. This is, indeed, the case, if we start ab initio from the idea of absolute space. But if we take our stand on the basis of facts, we shall find we have knowledge only of relative spaces and motions. Relatively, not considering the unknown and neglected medium of space, the motions of the universe are the same whether we adopt the Ptolemaic or the Copernican mode of view. Both views are, indeed, equally correct; only the latter is more simple and more practical. The universe is not twice given, with an earth at rest and an earth in motion; but only once, with its relative motions, alone determinable. It is, accordingly, not permitted us to say how things would be if the earth did not rotate. We may interpret the one case that is given us, in different ways. If, however, we so interpret it that we come into conflict with experience, our interpretation is simply wrong. The principles of mechanics can, indeed, be so conceived, that even for relative rotations centrifugal forces arise."

"Talk of the sublime, the exalted, the eternal, the passionate, of glory, challenge, or majesty fills some of us with bewilderment, discomfort, and embarrassment; others with sour resentment or scornful disbelief. To reinstate such values seems to us like trying to reinstate Ptolemaic astronomy—equally misguided, incomprehensible, and inimical to our perceived interests."

"It became clear that our Galaxy is only one system among many, and that the universe is far vaster than the particular stellar system to which the Sun and planets belong. Since then developments have been more rapid than at any time since the days of Copernicus, Digges and Bruno when the geocentric hypothesis of the cosmos received its death-blow."

"These seven bodies were the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, all of which were documented by the Babylonians over three thousand years ago. Until the sixteenth century, the most commonly held view was that the Earth was at the centre of the Universe and that the seven bodies revolved around the Earth."

"The winter solstice has always been special to me as a barren darkness that gives birth to a verdant future beyond imagination, a time of pain and withdrawal that produces something joyfully inconceivable, like a monarch butterfly masterfully extracting itself from the confines of its cocoon, bursting forth into unexpected glory."

"Each solstice shows us that we can choose. We cannot stop the winter or the summer from coming. We cannot stop the spring or the fall or make them other than they are. They are gifts from the Universe that we cannot refuse. But we can choose what we will contribute to Life when each arrives."

"The texts are most probably from Babylon, although their exact is unknown ... All concern luni-solar phenomena with the exception of a text on the last visibility of , which is found on one side of a tablet whose other side deals with lunar eclipse magnitudes and longitudes. The texts fall into two groups. One comprises what we have called "Saros Cycle Texts," which give the months of eclipse possibilities arranged in consistent cycles of 223 months (or 18 years). Three of the four texts in this group concern lunar eclipse possibilities; the other treats solar eclipse possibilities analogously. Included in this group is B.M. 34597, known as the "Saros Canon," which we republish to correct several errors in previous publications, and to clarify its structure. The second group of texts contains astronomical functions."

"This article presents a new concept to illustrate the chain of solar eclipses in accordance with the Saros cycle. Eclipses in a Saros cycle are placed in a circle depending on the calendar date. By concentrically placing several Saros circles in chronological order, we notice that the Saros series appear in the form of spirals that resemble a . In an entire Saros series we can easily notice where it begins and ends. By analyzing within the rosette representation the chain of eclipses – circular, radial, and spiral – we can highlight several cycles of eclipses. A correlation between the Saros cycle and the s of repeating eclipses is also illustrated."

"The discovery and use of the Saros, a lunar cycle of 18 years and 10 or 11 days, is reviewed from its earliest origins two millennia ago to the present day, when it is known with precision and enables the accurate prediction of both time and type of solar and lunar eclipses. The theoretical basis for the Saros is discussed, along with . The geometry of the Sun-Moon-Earth system is found to repeat itself after one Saros, not only at eclipses but also at any phase of the cycle, indicating that the Moon moves in a nearly periodic orbit. The search for periodic orbits using the Saros has led to the discovery of a set of eight periodic orbits of period equal to one Saros whose time evolutions closely resemble that of the real Moon. Finally, the potential of the Saros in studying the dynamics and stability of the Earth-Moon system is examined and the existence of other Saros-like cycles of longer periods in the present, past and future of the Earth-Moon-Sun system is explored."

"This circumstance of an expanding universe is irritating. ...To admit such possibilities seems senseless to me."

"If a distant galaxy is moving relative to us, its entire is Doppler-shifted in frequency. Its s are displaced relative to those of stationary light sources. Thanks to this effect, we know that distant galaxies recede from the solar system at speeds proportional to their distances from us. That's the effect that told us of the expanding universe, and of its birth, long ago, in the Big Bang."

"All kinds of questions remain. Many have to do with cosmology. How did the universe originate? How did the galaxies become distributed in space like the suds in the kitchen sink..? Why is the cosmological constant apparently very tiny but non-zero and has a peculiar value that leads the universe to expand more rapidly?"

"All of this picture of the expansion is exciting, pleasant, coherent, well in order. But what if the s are not to be interpreted by the Doppler-Fizeau law in the classical mechanical view, or general relativistically, by the fact that the ratio of the of a photon (as measured by a co-moving observer) to the space radius of curvature is independent of ? Not speaking of quasars, the first indications for non-Doppler redshifts for a galaxy have been provided... What if not all galaxies were formed at the dawn of the Big Bang; what if some are being formed now? Then, at least, the can be anything larger than the age of our own Galaxy..."

"Red-shifts are produced either in the nebulae, where the light originates, or in the intervening space through which the light travels. If the source is in the nebulae, then red-shifts are probably velocity-shifts and the nebulae are receding. If the source lies in the intervening space, the explanation of red-shifts is unknown, but the nebulae are sensibly stationary."

"A book, too, can be a star, explosive material, capable of stirring up fresh life endlessly, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe."

"The definition of inflation is extraordinarily simple: it is any period of the Universe's evolution during which the scale factor, describing the size of the Universe, is accelerating. This leads to a very rapid expansion of the Universe, though perhaps a better way of thinking of this is that the characteristic scale of the Universe, given by the Hubble length, is shrinking relative to any fixed scale caught up in the rapid expansion. In that sense, inflation is actually akin to zooming in on a small part of the initial Universe."

"One of the few authors to have explicitly connected the physical issue of the expansion of the universe with the philosophical topic of the metaphysical status of space is Gerald James Whitrow."

"In 1917 de Sitter showed that Einstein's field equations could be solved by a model that was completely empty apart from the cosmological constant—i.e. a model with no matter whatsoever, just . This was the first model of an expanding universe. although this was unclear at the time. The whole principle of general relativity was to write equations for physics that were valid for all observers, independently of the coordinates used. But this means that the same solution can be written in various different ways... Thus de Sitter viewed his solution as static, but with a tendency for the rate of ticking clocks to depend on position. This phenomenon was already familiar in the form of gravitational ... so it is understandable that the de Sitter effect was viewed in the same way. It took a while before it was proved (by Weyl, in 1923) that the prediction was of a redshifting of spectral lines that increased linearly with distance (i.e. ). ..."

"This model of the expanding universe I shall call the substratum. It achieves in the private Euclidean space of each fundamental observer the objects for which Einstein developed his closed spherical space. Although it is finite in volume, in the measures of any chosen observer, it has all the properties of an infinite space in that its boundary is forever inaccessible and its contents comprise an infinity of members. It is also homogeneous in the sense that each member stands in the same relation to the rest. This description of the substratum holds good in the scale of time in which the galaxies or fundamental particles are receding from one another with uniform velocities. This choice of the scale of time, together with the theory of equivalent time-keepers... makes possible the application of the Lorentz formulae to the private Euclidean spaces of the various observers. It thus brings the theory of the expanding universe into line with other branches of physics, which use the Lorentz formulæ and adopt Euclidean private spaces. ...[T]here is no more need to require a curvature for space itself in the field of cosmology than in any other department of physics. The observer at the origin is fully entitled to select a private Euclidean space in which to describe phenomena, and when he concedes a similar right to every other equivalent observer and imposes the condition of the same world-view of each observer, he is inevitably led to the model of the substratum which we have discussed."

"The ideas that prove to be of lasting interest are likely to build on the framework of the now standard world picture, the hot big bang model of the expanding universe. The full extent and richness of this picture is not as well understood as I think it ought to be, even among those making some of the most stimulating contributions to the flow of ideas."

"We should, of course, expect that any universe which expands without limit will approach the empty de Sitter case, and that its ultimate fate is a state in which each physical unit—perhaps each nebula or intimate group of nebulae—is the only thing which exists within its own observable universe."

"If the general picture, however, of a Big Bang followed by an expanding Universe is correct, what happened before that? Was the Universe devoid of all matter and then the matter suddenly somehow created? How did that happen? In many cultures, the customary answer is that a God or Gods created the Universe out of nothing. But if we wish to pursue this question courageously, we must of course ask the next question: where did God come from? If we decide that this is an unanswerable question, why not save a step and conclude that the origin of the Universe is an unanswerable question? Or, if we say that God always existed, why not save a step, and conclude that the Universe always existed? That there's no need for a creation, it was always here. These are not easy questions. Cosmology brings us face to face with the deepest mysteries, questions that were once treated only in religion and myth."

"The most far-reaching implication of general relativity... is that the universe is not static, as in the orthodox view, but is dynamic, either contracting or expanding. Einstein, as visionary as he was, balked at the idea... One reason... was that, if the universe is currently expanding, then... it must have started from a single point. All space and time would have to be bound up in that "point," an infinitely dense, infinitely small "singularity." ...this struck Einstein as absurd. He therefore tried to sidestep the logic of his equations, and modified them by adding... a "cosmological constant." The term represented a force, of unknown nature, that would counteract the gravitational attraction of the mass of the universe. That is, the two forces would cancel... it is the kind of rabbit-out-of-the-hat idea that most scientists would label ad-hoc. ...Ironically, Einstein's approach contained a foolishly simple mistake: His universe would not be stable... like a pencil balanced on its point."

"The cosmological constant['s]... most important consequence: the repulsive force, acting at cosmological distances, causes space to expand exponentially. There is nothing new about the universe expanding, but without a cosmological constant, the rate of expansion would gradually slow down. Indeed, it could even reverse itself and begin to contract, eventually imploding in a giant cosmic crunch. Instead, as a consequence of the cosmological constant, the universe appears to be doubling in size about every fifteen billion years, and all indications are that it will do so indefinitely."

"De Sitter proposed three types of nonstatic universes: the oscillating universes and the expanding universes of the first or second kiind. The main characteristic of the expanding "family" of the first kiind is that the radius is continually increasing from a definite initial time when it had the value zero. The universe becomes infinitely large after an infinite time. In the second kind... the radius possesses at the initial time a definite minimum value... in the Einstein model... the cosmological constant is supposed to be equal to the reciprocal of R2, whereas de Sitter computed for his interpretation the constant to be equal to 3/R2. Whitrow correctly points out the significant fact that in special relativity the cosmological constant is omitted..."

"[W]e stress... the wide range of validity exhibited by s in theoretical physics. ...[I]t has ...been demonstrated how they can be employed to derive equations of optics, dynamics of particles and rigid bodies, and electromagnetism. In addition, physicists have succeeded in formulating the laws of elasticity and hydrodynamics as variational principles, and even Einstein's law of gravitation was included in this category by Hilbert, who found a scaler function... for which \partial\int\mathfrak{h}\,dx_0\,dx_1\,dx_2\,dx_3=0 is equivalent to Einstein's law. This function has been called the "curvature," an identification which induced Whittaker to describe Hilbert's principle in the laconic words, "gravitation simply represents a continual effort of the universe to straighten itself out.""

"The general theory of relativity considers physical space-time as a four-dimensional manifold whose line element coefficients g_{\mu \nu} satisfy the differential equationsG_{\mu \nu} = \lambda g_{\mu \nu} \qquad .\;.\;.\;.\;.\;.\; (1)in all regions free from matter and electromagnetic field, where G_{\mu \nu} is the contracted Riemann-Christoffel tensor associated with the fundamental tensor g_{\mu \nu}, and \lambda is the ."

"An "empty world," i.e., a homogeneous manifold at all points at which equations (1) are satisfied, has, according to the theory, a constant Riemann curvature, and any deviation from this fundamental solution is to be directly attributed to the influence of matter or energy."

"In considerations involving the nature of the world as a whole the irregularities caused by the aggregation of matter into stars and stellar systems may be ignored; and if we further assume that the total matter in the world has but little effect on its macroscopic properties, we may consider them as being determined by the solution of an empty world."

"The solution of (1), which represents a homogeneous manifold, may be written in the form:ds^2 = \frac{d\rho^2}{1 - \kappa^2\rho^2} - \rho^2 (d\theta^2 + sin^2 \theta \; d\phi^2) + (1 - \kappa^2 \rho^2)\; c^2 d\tau^2, \qquad (2)where \kappa = \sqrt \frac{\lambda}{3}. If we consider \rho as determining distance from the origin... and \tau as measuring the proper-time of a clock at the origin, we are led to the de Sitter spherical world..."

"O. Heckmann has pointed out that the non-static solutions of the field equations of the general theory of relativity with constant density do not necessarily imply a positive curvature of three-dimensional space, but that this curvature may also be negative or zero. There is no direct observational evidence for the curvature, the only directly observed data being the mean density and the expansion, which latter proves that the actual universe corresponds to the non-statical case. It is therefore clear that from the direct data of observation we can derive neither the sign nor that value of the curvature, and the question arises whether it is possible to represent the observed facts without introducing the curvature at all. Historically the term containing the "cosmological constant" λ was introduced into the field equations in order to enable us to account theoretically for the existence of a finite mean density in a static universe. It now appears that in the dynamical case this end can be reached without the introduction of λ."

"The determination of the coefficient of expansion h depends on the measured red-shifts, which do not introduce any appreciable uncertainty, and the distances of the extra-galactic nebulae, which are still very uncertain. The density depends on the assumed masses of these nebulae and on the scale of distance, and involves, moreover, the assumption that all the material mass in the universe is concentrated in the nebulae. It does not seem probable that this latter assumption will introduce any appreciable factor of uncertainty."

"Although... the density... corresponding to the assumption of zero curvature and to the coefficient of expansion... may perhaps be on the high side, it... is of the correct order of magnitude, and we must conclude that... it is possible to represent the facts without assuming a curvature of three-dimensional space. The curvature is, however, essentially determinable, and an increase in the precision of the data derived from observations will enable us in the future to fix its sign and to determine its value."

"Why should not the space be there already, and the material system expand into it..? ...[I]f the speed of recession continues to increase outwards, it will ere long approach the speed of light, so that something must break down. The result is that the system becomes a ... such a system cannot expand without the space also expanding. ...[E]xpansion of space has often been given too much prominence ...and readers have been led to think that it is more directly concerned in the explanation of the motions of the nebule than is... the case. ...If we adopt open space we encounter certain difficulties (not necessarily insuperable) which closed space entirely avoids; and we do not want... speculation as to the solution of difficulties which need never arise. If we wish to be noncommittal, we shall naturally work in terms of a closed universe of finite radius R, since we can at any time revert to an infinite universe by making R infinite."

"The immediate results of introducing the cosmical term into the law of gravitation was the appearance... of two universes—the Einstein universe and the de Sitter universe. Both were closed spherical universes; so that a traveller going on and on in the same direction would at last find himself back at the starting-point... Both claimed to be static universes... thus they provided a permanent framework within which the small-scale systems—galaxies and stars—could change and evolve. ...[H]owever ...in de Sitter's universe there would be an apparent recession of remote objects ...At that time only three radial velocities were known, and these ...lamely supported de Sitter ...2 to 1. ...But in 1922 ...V. M. Sipher furnished me ...measures of 40 spiral nebulæ for ...my book Mathematical Theory of Relativity. ...[T]he majority had become 36 to 4 ..."

"The situation has been summed up in the statement that Einstein’s universe contains matter but no motion and de Sitter’s contains motion but no matter. ...[T]he actual universe containing both matter and motion does not correspond exactly to either... Which is the better choice for a first approximation? Shall we put a little motion into Einstein’s world of inert matter, or... a little matter into de Sitter’s ?"

"The choice between Einstein’s and de Sitter’s models... [W]e are not now restricted to these... extremes; we have... the whole chain of intermediate solutions between motionless matter and matterless motion... [W]e can pick... the right proportion of matter and motion to correspond with what we observe. ...[E]arlier... it was the preconceived idea that a static solution was a necessity... an unchanging background of space. ...[T]his ...should strictly have barred... de Sitter’s solution, but ...it was the precursor of the other non-static solutions..."

"[I]nvestigation of non-static solutions was carried out by A. Friedmann in 1922. His solutions were rediscovered in 1927 by Abbé G. Lemaître, who brilliantly developed the astronomical theory... and... remained unknown until 1930... In the meantime the solutions had been discovered... by H. P. Robertson, and through him... interest was... realised. The astronomical application, stimulated by Hubble and Humason’s observational work on the spiral nebule, was also being rediscovered, but it had not been carried so far as in Lemaître’s paper."

"The intermediate solutions of Friedmann and Lemaitre are "expanding universes." Both the material system and the closed space, in which it exists, are expanding. At one end we have Einstein’s universe with no motion and therefore in equilibrium. Then... we have model universes showing more and more rapid expansion until we reach de Sitter’s... The rate of expansion increases all the way along the series and the density diminishes; de Sitter’s universe is the limit when the average density of celestial matter approaches zero. The series of expanding universes then stops... but because there is nothing left to expand."

"[T]he most satisfying theory would be one which made the beginning not too unæsthetically abrupt. This... can only be satisfied by an Einstein universe with all... major forces balanced. Accordingly, the primordial state of things... is an even distribution of s and electrons, extremely diffuse and filling all (spherical) space, remaining nearly balanced for an exceedingly long time until its inherent instability prevails. ...[T]he density of this distribution can be calculated ...[at] about one proton and electron per litre. ...[S]mall irregular tendencies accumulate, and evolution gets under way. ...[T]he formation of condensations ultimately ...become the galaxies; this ...started off an expansion, which ...automatically increased in speed until ...now manifested ...in the recession of the spiral nebulae. As the matter drew closer... in the condensations... evolutionary processes followed—evolution of stars... of... more complex elements... of planets and life."

"Within the galaxy the average world-curvature is... thousands of times greater than Lamaître's average for the universe... his formulæ are inapplicable. The result... only the intergalactic distances expand. The galaxies... are unaffected... —s, stars, human observers and their apparatus, atoms—are entirely free from expansion. Although the cosmical repulsion or expansive tendency is present in all of these... it is checked by much larger forces... [T]he demarcation between permanent and dispersing systems is... abrupt. It corresponds to the distinction between periodic and aperiodic phenomena."

"If you think... the shattering of the bubble universe is... tragic... [W]hen the worst has happened our galaxy... will be left intact. ...not so bad a prospect."

"All change is relative. The universe is expanding relatively to our common material standards; our material standards are shrinking relatively to the size of the universe. The theory of the "expanding universe" might also be called the theory of the "shrinking atom". ...[T]ake the... universe as our standard of constancy... he sees us shrinking... only the intergalactic spaces remain the same. The earth spirals round the sun in an ever‑decreasing orbit. ...Our years will ...decrease in geometrical progression in the cosmic scale of time. ... Owing to the property of geometrical progressions an infinite number of our years will add up to a finite cosmic time; so that what we should call the end of eternity is an ordinary finite date in the cosmic calendar. But on that date the universe has expanded to infinity in our reckoning, and we have shrunk to nothing in the reckoning of the cosmic being. ...When the last act opens the curtain rises on midget actors rushing through their parts at frantic speed. Smaller and smaller. Faster and faster. One last microscopic blurr of intense agitation. And then nothing."

"If the astronomers are right, it is a straightforward conclusion from the observational measurements that the system of galaxies is expanding—or, since the system of the galaxies is all we know—that the universe is expanding. There is no subtlety or metaphysics about it ...But are we sure of the observational facts? Scientific men are rather fond of saying pontifically that one ought to be quite sure of one's observational facts before embarking on theory. Fortunately those who give this advice do not practice what they preach. Observation and theory get on best when they are mixed together, both helping one another in the pursuit of truth. It is a good rule not to put overmuch confidence in a theory until it has been confirmed by observation. I hope I shall not shock the experimental physicists too much if I add that it is also a good rule not to put overmuch confidence in the observational results that are put forward until they have been confirmed by theory. So in starting to theorise about the expanding universe I am not taking it for granted that the observational evidence which we have been considering is entirely certain."

"It is scarcely true... that we observe these velocities of recession. We observe a shift of the spectrum to the red; and although such... is usually due to recession... it is not inconceivable that it should arise from another cause."

"[I]t was theory that first suggested a systematic recession of the spiral nebulae and so led to a search for this effect. The theoretical possibility was first discovered by W. de Sitter in 1917. Only three radial velocities were known at that time, and they... lamely supported his theory by... 2 to 1. Since then... support is far more unanimous... mainly due to V. M. Slipher... and M. L. Humason... The linear law of proportionality between speed and distance was found by E. H. Hubble. Meanwhile the theory has also developed, and... taken the form... associated with... A. Friedman and G. Lemaître."

"The theory of relativity predicts... a... force... we call the cosmical repulsion... directly proportional to the distance... It is so weak... we can leave it out of... motions of the planets... or any motion within... our... galaxy. ...[S]ince it increases... to the distance we... if we go far enough, find it significant."

"I have said the repulsion is proportional to the distance... Distance from what? From anywhere you like. ...Cosmical repulsion is a dispersing force tending to make a system expand uniformly—not diverging from any centre in particular, but such that all internal distances increase at the same rate. That corresponds precisely to the kind of expansion we observe in the system of the galaxies."

"I have said that relativity theory predicts a force of cosmical repulsion. ...[R]elativity theory does not talk of anything so crude as force; it describes... curvature of space-time. But for practical purposes... nearly equivalent to the Newtonian force of gravitation... [T]he actual relativity effect is represented with sufficient accuracy by a force of cosmical repulsion... up to the greatest distances... we... observe."

"The galaxies exert on one another their ordinary gravitational attraction approximately according to Newton's law. This makes them tend to cling together. So we... have a contest of two forces, Newtonian attraction... and cosmical repulsion... If our theory is right cosmical repulsion must have got the upper hand... Having got the advantage, cosmical repulsion will keep it; because, as the nebulae become further apart, their mutual attraction will become weaker..."

"is a congruence geometry, or equivalently the space comprising its elements is homogeneous and isotropic; the intrinsic relations between... elements of a configuration are unaffected by the position or orientation of the configuration. ...[M]otions of are the familiar translations and rotations... made in proving the theorems of Euclid."

"[O]nly in a homogeneous and isotropic space can the traditional concept of a rigid body be maintained."

"That the existence of these motions (the "axiom of free mobility") is a desideratum, if not... a necessity, for a geometry applicable to physical space, has been forcefully argued on a priori grounds by von Helmholtz, Whitehead, Russell and others; for only in a homogeneous and isotropic space can the traditional concept of a rigid body be maintained."

"Euclidean geometry is only one of several congruence geometries... Each of these geometries is characterized by a real number K, which for Euclidean geometry is 0, for the hyperbolic negative, and for the spherical and elliptic geometries, positive. In the case of 2-dimensional congruence spaces... K may be interpreted as the ' of the surface into the third dimension—whence it derives its name..."

"[W]e propose... to deal exclusively with properties intrinsic to the space... measured within the space itself... in terms of... inner properties."

"Measurements which may be made on the surface of the earth... is an example of a 2-dimensional congruence space of positive curvature K = \frac{1}{R^2}... [C]onsider... a "small circle" of radius r (measured on the surface!)... its perimeter L and area A... are clearly less than the corresponding measures 2\pi r and \pi r^2... in the Euclidean plane. ...for sufficiently small r (i.e., small compared with R) these quantities on the sphere are given by 1):L = 2 \pi r (1 - \frac{Kr^2}{6} + ...), A = \pi r^2 (1 - \frac{Kr^2}{12} + ...)"

"In the sum \sigma of the three angles of a triangle (whose sides are arcs of s) is greater than two right angles [180°]; it can... be shown that this "spherical excess" is given by 2)\sigma - \pi = K \deltawhere \delta is the area of the spherical triangle and the angles are measured in s (in which 180° = \pi [radians]). Further, each full line (great circle) is of finite length 2 \pi R, and any two full lines meet in two points—there are no parallels!"

"[T]he space constant K... "" may in principle at least be determined by measurement on the surface, without recourse to its embodiment in a higher dimensional space."

"These formulae [in (1) and (2) above] may be shown to be valid for a circle or a triangle in the hyperbolic plane... for which K < 0. Accordingly here the perimeter and area of a circle are greater, and the sum of the three angles of a triangle are less, than the corresponding quantities in the Euclidean plane. It can also be shown that each full line is of infinite length, that through a given point outside a given line an infinity of full lines may be drawn which do not meet the given line (the two lines bounding the family are said to be "parallel" to the given line), and that two full lines which meet do so in but one point."

"The value of the intrinsic approach is especially apparent in considering 3-dimensional congruence spaces... The intrinsic geometry of such a space of curvature K provides formulae for the surface area S and the volume V of a "small sphere" of radius r, whose leading terms are 3)S = 4 \pi r^2 (1 - \frac{Kr^2}{3} + ...), V = \frac{4}{3} \pi r^3 (1 - \frac{Kr^2}{5} + ...)."

"In all these congruence geometries, except the Euclidean, there is at hand a natural unit of length R = \frac{1}{K^\frac{1}{2}}; this length we shall, without prejudice, call the "radius of curvature" of the space."

"We have merely (!) to measure the volume V of a sphere of radius r or the sum \sigma of the angles of a triangle of measured are \delta, and from the results to compute the value of K."

"What is needed is a homely experiment which could be carried out in the basement with parts from an old sewing machine and an Ingersoll watch, with an old file of Popular Mechanics standing by for reference! This I am, alas, afraid we have not achieved, but I do believe that the following example... is adequate to expose the principles..."

"Let a thin, flat metal plate be heated... so that the temperature T is not uniform... clamp or otherwise constrain the plate to keep it from buckling... [and] remain [reasonably] flat... Make simple geometric measurements... with a short metal rule, which has a certain coefficient of expansion c... What is the geometry of the plate as revealed by the results of those measurements? ...[T]he geometry will not turn out to be Euclidean, for the rule will expand more in the hotter regions... [T]he plate will seem to have a negative curvature K... the kind of structure exhibited... in the neighborhood of a ".""

"What is the true geometry of the plate? ...Anyone examining the situation will prefer Poincaré's common-sense solution... to attribute it Euclidean geometry, and to consider the measured deviations... as due to the actions of a force (thermal stresses in the rule). ...On employing a brass rule in place of one of steel we would find that the local curvature is trebled—and an ideal rule (c = 0) would... lead to Euclidean geometry."

"In what respect... does the general theory of relativity differ...? The answer is: in its universality; the force of gravitation in the geometrical structure acts equally on all matter. There is here a close analogy between the gravitational mass M...(Sun) and the inertial mass m... (Earth) on the one hand, and the heat conduction k of the field (plate)... and the coefficient of expansion c... on the other. ...The success of the general relativity theory... is attributable to the fact that the gravitational and inertial masses of any body are... rigorously proportional for all matter."

"The field equation may... be given a geometrical foundation, at least to a first approximation, by replacing it with the requirement that the mean curvature of the space vanish at any point at which no heat is being applied to the medium—in complete analogy with... the general theory of relativity by which classical field equations are replaced by the requirement that the Ricci contracted curvature tensor vanish."

"Now it is the practice of astronomers to assume that brightness falls off inversely with the square of the "distance" of an object—as it would do in Euclidean space, if there were no absorption... We must therefore examine the relation between this astronomer's "distance" d... and the distance r which appears as an element of the geometry."

"All the light which is radiated... will, after it has traveled a distance r, lie on the surface of a sphere whose area S is given by the first of the formulae (3). And since the practical procedure... in determining d is equivalent to assuming that all this light lies on the surface of a Euclidean sphere of radius d, it follows...4 \pi d^2 = S = 4 \pi r^2 (1 - \frac{K r^2}{3} + ...);whence, to our approximation 4)d = r (1- \frac{K r^2}{6} + ...), or r = d (1 + \frac{K d^2}{6} + ...)."

"[T]he astronomical data give the number N of nebulae counted out to a given inferred "distance" d, and in order to determine the curvature... we must express N, or equivalently V, to which it is assumed proportional, in terms of d. ...from the second of formulae (3) and... (4)... to the approximation here adopted, 5)V = \frac{4}{3} \pi d^2 (1 + \frac{3}{10} K d^2 + ...);...plotting N against... d and comparing... with the formula (5), it should be possible operationally to determine the "curvature" K."

"This... is an outrageously over-simplified account of the assumptions and procedures..."

"The search for the curvature K indicates that, after making all known corrections, the number N seems to increase faster with d than the third power, which would be expected in a Euclidean space, hence K is positive. The space implied thereby is therefore bounded, of finite total volume, and of a present "radius of curvature" R = \frac{1}{K^\frac{1}{2}} which is found to be of the order of 500 million light years. Other observations, on the "red shift" of light from these distant objects, enable us to conclude with perhaps more assurance that this radius is increasing..."

"Hubble was inclined, from about 1936, to reject the Doppler-effect interpretation of the red shifts and to regard the nebulae as stationary; but theoretical cosmologists, notably McVittie... and Heckmann... severely criticized Hubble’s method...and disputed his conclusions. Although these criticisms... came to be generally accepted, it still seemed that the available data were open to rival interpretations, depending on the method of analysis..."

"At last, in 1949, the... ... was ready... Humason... succeeded in photographing the spectra of two remote galaxies in the . These exhibited red-shifts which, on the Doppler interpretation, indicated... one-fifth of the velocity of light. [I]n 1956, with... photoelectric equipment attached... [W. A.] Baum obtained a red-shift... recessional velocity of about two-fifths of the velocity of light."

"[I]n... 1952, Baade... announced that Hubble’s entire distance scale was in error... According to Baade, the distances formerly assigned to all extragalactic objects must be multiplied by a factor of about two. Later it was generally accepted that this... was probably nearer three. ...[I]t followed that the sizes of all such objects had been underestimated. ...Therefore ...this nebula must be... twice as far away... [T]he average absolute magnitude at maximum brightness of novae... in the Milky Way attain on the average... 7.4, whereas those... in the Andromeda... 5.7... [T]he apparent anomaly could be removed by placing... Andromeda... rather more than twice as far as previously. ...[[w:Distance measure|[E]xtragalactic distances]] had ...been underestimated because of an error in converting... relative distances of s into an absolute scale. ...Baade's revision ...applied only to extragalactic objects... [and] had momentous consequences concerning the size and , for the scale of both was correspondingly increased."

"An important new survey of the law relating red-shifts and magnitudes published in 1956 by Humason, Mayall and Sandage suggested... that the expansion of the universe may have been faster in the past... so that its age may be somewhat less than that estimated on the hypothesis of uniform expansion. But... caution, for a recent review (1958) by Sandage of Hubble's criteria for constructing the extragalactic distance-scale has revealed that, not only must his Cepheid criterion be corrected but also... the brightest star criterion..."

"As for Hubble’s brightest star criterion, Sandage... has shown that objects in the of galaxies which Hubble believed to be highly luminous stars are... regions of glowing of intrinsic luminosity... two magnitudes brighter... If Sandage’s result is accepted, then the distances of all galaxies beyond those in which Cepheids can be detected... must be augmented by a factor... between 5 and 10... with the result that the rate of increase of velocity with distance will be reduced to between 5O and 100 kilometres per second per megaparsec. Consequently, taking 80 as a rough average... the , if it has expanded uniformly, will have to be increased to about 13-5 thousand million years. If... it was expanding more rapidly in the past... this... might be reduced to about 9 thousand million years."

"But Pallas now Tydides’ soul inspires, Fills with her force, and warms with all her fires, Above the Greeks his deathless fame to raise, And crown her hero with distinguish’d praise. High on his helm celestial lightnings play, His beamy shield emits a living ray; The unwearied blaze incessant streams supplies, Like the red star that fires the autumnal skies, When fresh he rears his radiant orb to sight, And, bathed in ocean, shoots a keener light."

"Great Hector, cover’d with his spacious shield, Plies all the troops, and orders all the field. As the red star now shows his sanguine fires Through the dark clouds, and now in night retires, Thus through the ranks appear’d the godlike man, Plunged in the rear, or blazing in the van; While streamy sparkles, restless as he flies, Flash from his arms, as lightning from the skies."

"Him, as he blazing shot across the field, The careful eyes of Priam first beheld. Not half so dreadful rises to the sight, Through the thick gloom of some tempestuous night, Orion’s dog (the year when autumn weighs), And o’er the feebler stars exerts his rays; Terrific glory! for his burning breath Taints the red air with fevers, plagues, and death. So flamed his fiery mail."

"Still from the living root the mantling green Against the Dog-star spreads a leafy screen."

"Looking upward, I saw through a sudden rift in the clouds Aldebaran and the Hyades! In all this there was a hint of night—the lynx, the man with the torch, the owl. Yet I saw—I saw even the stars in absence of the darkness."

"Songs that the Hyades shall sing, Where flap the tatters of the King, Must die unheard in Dim ."

"Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades Vext the dim sea."

"Here Pharnaces... broke in... you are not going to draw me on... to answer your charges against the Stoics, unless we first get an account of your conduct in turning the universe upside." Lucius smiled : "Yes, my friend," he said, "only do not threaten us with... heresy, such as used to think that the Greeks should have had served upon Aristarchus of Samos, for shifting the hearth of the Universe, because that great man attempted 'to save phenomena' with his hypothesis that the heavens are stationary, while our earth moves round in an oblique orbit, at the same time whirling about her own axis. ...[W]hy are those who assume that the moon is an earth turning things upside down, any more than you who fix the earth where she is, suspended in mid air, a body considerably larger than the moon? At least mathematicians tell us so, calculating the magnitude of the obscuring body from... eclipses, and from the passages of the moon through the shadow. For the shadow of the earth is less as it extends, because the illuminating body is greater, and its upper extremity is fine and narrow, as even Homer... did not fail to notice. He called night 'pointed' because of the sharpness of the shadow. Such... is the body by which the moon is caught in her eclipses, and yet she barely gets clear by a passage equal to three of her own diameters. Just consider how many moons go to make an earth, if the earth cast a shadow as broad at its shortest as three moons. Yet you have fears for the moon lest she should tumble, while as for our earth, Aeschylus has perhaps satisfied you that Atlas'Stands, and the pillar which parts Heaven and Earth His shoulders prop, no load for arms t' embrace!'Then you think that under the moon there runs light air, quite inadequate to support a solid mass, while the earth, in Pindar's words, 'is compassed by pillars set on adamant.' And this is why Pharnaces has no fear... of the earth's falling, but pities those who lie under the orbit of the moon... Yet the moon has that which helps her against falling, in her very speed and the swing of her passage round, as objects placed in slings are hindered from falling by the whirl of the rotation. For everything is borne on in its own natural direction unless this is changed by some other force. Therefore the moon is not drawn down by her weight, since that tendency is counteracted by her circular movement. ...[B]ut the earth, being destitute of any other movement, might naturally be moved by its own weight; being heavier than the moon not merely in proportion to its greater bulk, but because the moon has been rendered lighter by heat and conflagration. It would actually seem that the moon, if she is a fire, needs earth all the more, a solid substance whereon she moves and to which she clings, so feeding and keeping up the force of her flame. For it is impossible to conceive fire as maintained without fuel. But you Stoics say that our earth stands firm without foundation or root." "Of course," said Pharnaces, "it keeps its proper and natural place, as being the essential middle point, that place around which all weights press and bear, converging towards it from all sides. But all the upper region, even if it receive any earth-like body thrown up with force, immediately thrusts it out hitherward, or rather lets it go, to be borne down by its own momentum.""

"Reason may be employed in two ways to establish a point: firstly, for the purpose of furnishing sufficient proof of some principle... Reason is employed in another way, not as furnishing a sufficient proof... but... confirming an already established principle, by showing the congruity of its results, as in astronomy the theory of eccentrics and epicycles is considered as established, because thereby the sensible appearances of the heavenly movements can be explained [saved] (possunt salvari apparentia sensibilia); not, however, as if this proof were sufficient, forasmuch as some other theory might explain them."

"[I]t does not follow that because heaven moves in a circle that the earth or something else rests at its center... because circular movement... does not require... any body at rest at the center... [I]t is possible to imagine that the earth moves with heaven in its daily movement... [A]ssuming that the earth moves with or contrariwise to heaven, it does not follow... that celestial movement would stop; so... this circular movement of heaven does not require that the earth should remain motionless at the center of the world. ...[I]t is not impossible that the whole earth moves, with a different movement or in another way... For otherwise the parts near the center would never reach the place where they are destroyed and would be perpetual... Against this objection and against the principal argument is the manifest evidence of heaven itself, for to save appearances and from our observations of celestial movements... there are spherical bodies called epicycles in heaven, and that each epicycle has its own proper circular movement about its center... different from the... heavenly sphere... [I]t is impossible... that any body should be at rest in the center of this epicycle."

"The first book contains the general description of the universe and the foundations by which he undertakes to save the appearances and the observations of all ages. He adds as much of the doctrine of sines and plane and spherical triangles as he deemed necessary to the work."

"For it is now clear to me that there are no solid spheres in the heavens... But there really are not any spheres in the heavens.... and those which have been devised by the authors to save the appearances exist only in the imagination, for the purpose of permitting the mind to conceive the motion which the heavenly bodies trace in their course and, by the aid of geometry, to determine the motion numerically through the use of arithmetic... Of course, almost the whole of antiquity and also very many recent philosophers consider as certain and unquestionable the view that the heavens are made of a hard and impenetrable substance, that it is divided into various spheres, and that the heavenly bodies, attached to some of these spheres, revolve on account of the motion of these spheres. But this opinion does not correspond to the truth of the matter..."

"Now, so far as appearances go, it... the same thing whether the heavens, that is, all space with its contents, revolve round a spectator at rest in the earth's centre, or whether that spectator... turn round in the opposite direction in his place, and view them in succession. The aspect of the heavens, at every instant, as referred to his horizon (which must be supposed to turn with him), will be the same in both suppositions. And since... appearances are also, so far as the stars are concerned, the same to a spectator on the surface as to one at the centre, it follows that, whether we suppose the heavens to revolve without the earth, or the earth within the heavens, in the opposite direction, the diurnal phenomena, to all its inhabitants, will be no way different. The Copernican astronomy adopts the latter as the true explanation of these phenomena, avoiding... the necessity of otherwise resorting to the cumbrous mechanism of a solid but invisible sphere, to which the stars must be supposed attached, in order that they may be carried round the earth without derangement of their relative situations inter se [among themselves]. Such a contrivance would..., suffice to explain the diurnal revolution of the stars, so as to "save appearances;" but the movements of the sun and moon, as well as those of the planets, are incompatible with such a supposition... On the other hand, that a spherical mass of moderate dimensions (or, rather, when compared with the surrounding and visible universe, of evanescent magnitude), held by no tie, and free to move and to revolve, should do so, in conformity with those general laws which, so far as we know, regulate the motions of all material bodies, is so far from being a postulate difficult to be conceded, that the wonder would rather be should the fact prove otherwise. As a postulate, therefore, we shall henceforth regard it... The earth's rotation on its axis so admitted, explaining, as it evidently does, the apparent motion of the stars in a completely satisfactory manner, prepares us for... its motion, bodily, in space... to explain... the apparently complex and enigmatical motions of the sun, moon, and planets. The Copernican astronomy adopts this idea in its full extent, ascribing to the earth, in addition to its motion of rotation about an axis, also one of translation or transference through space, in such a course or orbit, and so regulated in direction and celerity, as, taken in conjunction with the motions of the other bodies of the universe, shall render a rational account of the appearances they successively present... [i.e.,] an account of which the several parts, postulates, propositions, deductions, intelligibly cohere, without contradicting... experience. In this view of the Copernican doctrine it is rather a geometrical conception than a physical theory, inasmuch it simply assumes the requisite motions, without attempting to explain their mechanical origin, or assign them any dependence on physical causes. The Newtonian theory of gravitation supplies this deficiency, and, by showing that all the motions required by the Copernican conception must, and that no others can, result from a single, intelligible, and very simple dynamical law, has given a degree of certainty to this conception, as a matter of fact, which attaches to no other creation of the human mind."

"The system of Anaxagoras, like that of Empedokles, aimed at reconciling the Eleatic doctrine that corporeal substance is unchangeable with... a world which... presents the appearance of coming into being and passing away. The conclusions of Parmenides are... accepted and restated. Nothing can be added to all things; for there cannot be more than all, and all is always equal... Nor can anything pass away. What men commonly call coming into being and passing away is... mixture and separation... This... reads almost like a prose paraphrase of Empedokles (fr. 9); and it is... probable... Anaxagoras derived his theory... from his younger contemporary, whose poem was most likely published before his own treatise. ...Empedokles sought to save the world of appearance by maintaining that the opposites—hot and cold, moist and dry—were things, each...real in the Parmenidean sense. Anaxagoras regarded this as inadequate. ...[T]hings of which the world is made are not "cut off with a hatchet" ...the true formula must be: There is a portion of everything in everything."

"The language... as to the Moon's movements and the Epicyclic Theory... settled later on by Ptolemy... deserve careful examination... Astronomy had... become... technical and mathematical, sharply distinguished from general physical enquiry. Even Hipparchus... "though he loved truth above everything," yet was not versed in "natural science," and was content to explain the motions of the heavenly bodies by an hypothesis mathematically consistent, without care for its physical truth... Take the case of the Moon. Ptolemy was content to "save the phenomena"... by a system which admirably accounted for her very complex movements, but which involved the consequence that her distance from us at the nearest must he half that at the farthest, and her angular diameter therefore double!"

"When Copernicus, instead of leaving the earth at rest in the center of the world, gave it not only two rotations on its own center, but... an annual revolution around the sun, astronomers were able to maintain that these hypotheses are not... realities, that it suffices for them to be fictions by which the phenomena are saved in a simpler... more exact manner than... Ptolemy's devices. But physicists did not willingly use this loophole; they not only saw in the system of Copernicus a model enabling them to construct new tables of celestial movements, they also imagined something... that claims to reveal a truth. They imagined that the earth is a planet of the same nature as Venus, Mars, or Jupiter. The problem... can each of the... wandering stars be a world similar to the world in which we are living, having at its center an earth covered by water, surrounded by air?"

"Rosen quotes various passages from De Revolutionibus in which Copernicus uses without distinction, the terms: principle, assumption and hypothesis, for fundamental s: "Furthermore astronomy, that divine rather than human science, which inquires into the loftiest things, is not free from difficulties. Especially with regard to its principles (principia) and assumptions (assumptiones), which the Greek call 'hypotheses' (hypotheses)..." These axioms, in order to be recognized as true, must satisfy two conditions: 1) apparentias salvare (save the appearances): "the results deduced from them must agree with the observed phenomena within satisfactory limits of error."..: 2) aequalitatem tueri [to protect equality]: "They must be consistent with certain preconceptions, called 'axioms of physics,' such as that every celestial motion is circular, every celestial motion is uniform, and so forth.""

"Let us define the job of the astronomer in the classical phrase as "saving the appearances" of the celestial movements. ...[A]n astronomical theory must "save" in the sense of "preserve"– ...[i.e.,] it must not deny any of the apparent celestial movements as appearances, and in this bare sense, it might merely comprise a record of observed positions... [I]n order to take into account all the apparent movements, it must... predict apparent movements in the future from those observed in the past. ...[T]o be able to look backwards and forwards beyond recorded positions of the planets, it must arrange the celestial movements in a pattern of orderly recurrence. ...[B]y setting up this pattern of order, it saves... in a second sense... [I]t gives them salvation... by making them intelligible and... explicating them in terms of a permanent order."

"When Newton wrote his Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy and System of the World, he distinguished the phenomena to be saved from the reality he postulated. He distinguished the "absolute magnitudes" that appear in his axioms from their "sensible measures" which are determined experimentally. He discussed carefully the ways in which, "the true motions of particular bodies [may be determined] from the apparent," via the assertion that "the apparent motions... are the differences of true motions.""

"Greek astronomers observed intricate motions of the sun, moon, and planets on the two-dimensional sky. They explained them—saved the appearances—by positing simple regular motions... in three dimensions. The success... [was] brought to a triumphant conclusion by Kepler..."

"In the 1590s... Kepler adopted the ideas of Copernicus. In the heliocentric model... the simultaneous motion of the earth around the sun and about its own axis explained the observed motion of the planets and stars. Kepler set out to prove that this... hypothesis... an attempt to "save the appearances", did... correspond with reality. In doing so, however, he noticed that the circular orbits... proposed by Copernicus were not in keeping with his... observations. ...Kepler wanted... to glorify God, who... was responsible for the harmonious arrangement of the universe... This aim is... in the... first lines of the preface to The Secret of the Cosmos: "It is my intention... to show... that the most great and good Creator, in the creation of this moving universe and the arrangement of the heavens, looked to these five regular solids... so celebrated from the time of Pythagoras and Plato... and that he fitted to the nature of those solids the number of the heavens, their proportions and the law of their motions.""

"The statement of Diogenes, that Herakleides attended the Pythagorean schools is of... importance... as it is... likely... their influence (which is also perceptible in his ideas about atoms, which he calls masses...), tended to convince him of the truth of the... simple explanation of the daily motion of the stars proposed by Hiketas and Ekphantus. ... He first alludes to Herakleides when discussing the chapter in which Aristotle considers the motion of the starry vault. Aristotle... remarks that, taking for granted that the earth is at rest, the starry sphere... and the planets might either both be at rest, or both be in motion, or one be at rest and the other in motion. And these cases he considers (says Simplicius) "on account of there being some, among whom were Herakleides of Pontus and Aristarchus, who believed they could save the phenomena (account for the observed facts) by making the heavens and the stars be immovable, but making the earth move round the poles of the equator... from the west, each day one revolution as near as possible; but 'as near as possible' is added on account of the [daily] motion of the sun of one part (degree); so that, if then the earth does not move, which presently he (Aristotle) is going to show, the hypothesis of both being at rest cannot possibly save the phenomena.""

"In his commentary to the Physics of Aristotle, Simplicius gives us an interesting quotation from a commentary to the Meteorology of Posidonius, written by ... Dealing with the difference between physics and astronomy, Geminus says... to the former... belongs the examination of the nature, power, quality, birth, and decay of the heavens and the stars, but astronomy does not attempt... this, it makes known the arrangement of the heavenly bodies, it investigates the figure and size and distance of earth and sun and moon, the eclipses and conjunctions of stars and the quality and quantity of their motions... with help from arithmetic and geometry. But although the astronomer and the physicist often prosecute the same research... they do not proceed in the same manner, the latter seeking for causes and moving forces, while the astronomer finds certain methods, adopting which the observed phenomena can be accounted for. "For why do sun, moon, and planets appear to move unequally? Because, when we assume their circles to be excentric or the stars to move on an epicycle, the appearing anomaly can be accounted for.., and it is necessary to investigate in how many ways the phenomena can be represented, so that the theory of the wandering stars may be made to agree with the ... Therefore also... Herakleides of Pontus... said that also when the earth moved... and the sun stood still.., could the irregularity observed relatively to the sun be accounted for. ...[I]t is not the astronomer's business to see what by its nature is immovable and of what kind the moved things are, but framing hypotheses as to some things being in motion and others being fixed, he considers which hypotheses are in conformity with the phenomena in the heavens. He must accept as his principles from the physicist, that the motions of the stars are simple uniform, and regular, of which he shows that the revolutions are circular, some along parallels, some along oblique circles." This... distinguishes clearly between the physically true causes of observed phenomena and a mere mathematical hypothesis which (whether true or not) is able to "save the phenomena." This expression is ... a favourite... with Simplicius, who doubtless had it from the authors long anterior to himself, from whose works he derived his knowledge. It means that a certain hypothesis is able to account for the apparently irregular phenomena revealed by observation, which at first sight are puzzling and seem to defy all attempts to make them agree with the assumed regularity of all motions, both as to velocity and direction. In this passage Geminus points out that an astronomer's chief duty is to frame a theory which can represent the observed motions and make them subject to calculation, while it is for this purpose quite immaterial whether the theory is physically true or not."

"[I]n Plutarch's book On the face in the disc of the Moon...[o]ne of the persons in the dialogue, being called to account for turning the world upside down, says that he is quite content so long as he is not accused of impiety, "like as Kleanthes held that Aristarchus of Samos ought to be accused of impiety for moving the hearth of the world.., as the man in order to save the phenomena supposed... that the heavens stand still and the earth moves in an oblique circle at the same time as it turns round its axis.""

"[T]he principal reason why the heliocentric idea fell perfectly flat, was the rapid rise of practical astronomy, which had commenced from the time when the Alexandrian Museum became a centre of learning in the Hellenistic world. Aristarchus had no other phenomena to "save" except the stationary points and retrograde motions of the planets as well as their change of brilliancy; he may even have neglected the inequality of the sun's apparent motion originally discovered by Euktemon and recognized by Kalippus. But when similar and much more marked inequalities began to be perceived in the motions of the other planets, the hopelessness of trying to account for them by the beautifully simple idea of Aristarchus must have given the deathblow to his system, which thereby even among mathematicians lost its only claim to acceptance, that of being able to "save the phenomena." Most likely, as we have already said, these new inequalities had already more or less dimly commenced to make themselves felt in the days of Apollonius... and in that case we can understand why he did not feel disposed to simplify the system of movable excentrics by gathering the reins of all the unruly planetary steeds into one mighty hand, that of ."

"While knowledge of the dimensions of the universe had... advanced, philosophers found it... difficult to agree with regard to the physical constitution of... heavenly bodies, though all acknowledged that they were of a fiery nature, the Stoics in... supposing them... of... pure fire or ether, which pervaded... upper regions of space. ...[T]he peculiar appearance of the "face of the moon" pointed to its being... different... and... Anaxagoras and Demokritus... recognized... it was a solid mass having mountains and plains, while Plato held it to be chiefly... earthlike matter. ...[In] Plutarch "On the face in the disc of the moon"... opinion of the Stoics [that the moon is a mixture of air and gentle fire] is refuted, since the moon ought not... be invisible at new moon if it did not borrow all its light from the sun; and this... proves... it is not... a substance like glass or crystal, since s would... be impossible. The manner in which the sunlight is reflected... and... absence of a bright, reflected image of the sun and... earth, prove... the substance of the moon is not polished but is like... earth. ...Plutarch ...to combat the idea that the moon cannot be like the earth since it is not in the lowest place ...asserts ...it is not proved ...earth is in the centre of the universe, as space is infinite and therefore has no centre; ...if everything heavy and earthy were crowded together ...we should expect all ...fiery bodies ...likewise brought together."

"[T]he heliocentric idea of Aristarchus might just as well have sprung out of the epicyclic theory as from that of movable excentrics... But with regard to the curious dependence of each planet on the sun in the Ptolemaic system.., the zodiacal inequality of the planets showed that in any case a simple circular motion would not "save the phenomena"; while the discovery of a strongly marked inequality of the moon, depending on its position with regard to the sun, confirmed the notion that the sun was mixed up in the theories of all the celestial bodies alike. ...For more than fourteen hundred years it remained the Alpha and Omega of theoretical astronomy, and whatever views were held as to the constitution of the world, Ptolemy's system was almost universally accepted as the foundation of astronomical science."

"He gives the Greek text of the Placita Philosophorum... about Philolaus, Herakleides and Ekphantus, and continues: " Occasioned by this I also began to think of a motion of the earth, and although the idea seemed absurd, still, as others before me had been permitted to assume certain circles in order to explain the motions of the stars, I believed it would readily be permitted me to try whether on the assumption of some motion of the earth better explanations of the revolutions of the heavenly spheres might not be found. And thus I have, assuming the motions which I in the following work attribute to the earth, after long and careful investigation, finally found that when the motions of the other planets are referred to the circulation of the earth and are computed for the revolution of each star, not only do the phenomena necessarily follow therefrom, but the order and magnitude of the stars and all their orbs and the heaven itself are so connected that in no part can anything be transposed without confusion to the rest and to the whole universe." According to this statement, Copernicus first noticed how great was the difference of opinion among learned men as to the planetary motions; next he noticed that some had even attributed some motion to the earth, and finally he considered whether any assumption of that kind would help matters. ...It must then have struck him as a strange coincidence that the revolution of the sun round the and the revolution of the epicycle-centres of Mercury and Venus round the zodiac should take place in the same period, a year, while the period of the three outer planets in their epicycles was the synodic period, i.e. the time between two successive oppositions to the sun. This curious relationship between the sun and the planets must have struck scores of philosophers, but at last the problem was taken up by a man of a thoroughly unprejudiced mind and with a clear mathematical head. Probably it suddenly flashed on him that perhaps each of the deferents of the two inner planets and the epicycles of the three outer ones simply represented an orbit passed over by the earth in a year, and not by the sun! His emotion on finding that this assumption would really "save the phenomena," as the ancients had called it, that it would explain why Mercury and Venus always kept near the sun and why all the planets annually showed such strange irregularities in their motions, his emotion on finding this clear and beautifully simple solution of the ancient mystery must have been as great as that which long after overcame Newton when he discovered the law of universal gravitation. But Copernicus is silent on this point. This may have been the way followed by Copernicus, but we cannot be sure..."

"A hundred to you, ten thousand years, two Yugas, three Yugas, four we make."

"The Aitareya Brāhmana (VII.15.4), describing the merits of exertion, has the picturesque phrases: "A man while lying is the Kali; moving himself he is the Dvāpara; rising, he is the Tretā; walking, he becomes the Krita.'""

"The waning strength and stability of Dharma in the four yugas is graphically depicted by representing it as a majestic bull which stood firm on its four legs in the golden age of the world (krtayuga) and lost one of its legs to [ either of] the succeeding two yugas, Tretā and Dvāpara, to stand tottering on a single leg during the present kaliyuga."

"In the great philosophy of Brahma, such violent turns of the scale are quite unknown. It embraces vast stretches of time, cycles of human ages, whose successive lives gravitate in concentric circles, and travel ever slowly towards the center...."

"The Hindu religion is the only one of the world’s great faiths dedicated to the idea that the cosmos itself undergoes an immense and indeed an infinite number of deaths and rebirths. It is the only religion in which the time scales correspond […] to those of modern scientific cosmology."

"Having fixed a pole, on a level piece of ground, and having described a circle by a cord attached to the pole, one should mark the points with pegs, where the shadow of the top of the pole touches the circle. The line joining these pegs is the West to East line. Having increased the length of the cord (which is equal to the distance of the two pegs fixed in the East West line) by itself, one should provide two slings at each end of the cord. Fix the slings on the two pegs (already fixed) stretch the cord with its mid point towards the south and fix a peg at the place, where the mid point of the cord touches the ground. He should similarly proceed towards the North. The line joining these pegs will be the South to North line."

"The gods living in the north at the Meru mountain (i.e., at the north pole) see the Sun, after it has risen, for half a solar year; so is done by the demons too [who live at the south pole]."

"On any day calculate the longitude of the Sun and the Moon for sunrise or sunset without applying the longitude correction, and therefrom find the time (since sunrise or sunset), in ghatis, of rising or setting of the Moon; and having done this, note the corresponding time in ghatis from the water clock. From the difference, knowledgeable astronomers can calculate the local longitude in time."

"In making his own calculation, however, Christopher Columbus preferred the values given by the medieval Persian geographer, Alfraganus: one degree (at the equator) is equal to 56.67 miles. That was Columbus’s first error, which he compounded with a second: he assumed that the Persian was using the 4 856-foot Roman mile; in fact, Alfraganus meant the 7 091-foot Arabic mile.Taken together, the two miscalculations effectively reduced the planetary waistline to 16,305 nautical miles, down from the actual 21,600 or so, an error of 25 percent."

"You climb a mountain situated close to the sea or a level plain, and then observe the setting of the sun and find out the dip of the horizon... [Then] find the value of the perpendicular of the mountain. You multiply this height into the sine of the complementary angle of the dip, and divide the total by the versed sine of this dip itself. Then multiply (twice) the quotient into 22 and divide the result by 7. You will get the... earth's circumference (in the same units) in which the height of the mountain has been found."

"It is worth quoting Anthony Grafton’s summation of Scaliger’s assault on the prisca theologia presumptions of his contemporaries here, as Scaliger’s position strongly foreshadows the nineteenth-century philhellenist view of cultural relations in the ancient world: “In astronomy and astrology, it had been the Greeks, not the Babylonians and the Egyptians, who performed most of the observations and, above all, tabulated and systematized the results. The ancient Near East had been not a world of gold, populated by calm sages, but a world of iron, haunted by superstitious fears and only fitfully illuminated by the work of certain science- minded priests — themselves prone to spin out unfounded speculations.”’"

"The first Graeco-Egyptian astrologists did not invent the discipline they claimed to teach the Hellenic world. They used Egyptian sources going up to the Persian period which were themselves at least partially derived from ancient Chaldaean documents. Traces of this primitive substratum still survive in our much later texts, erratic blocks transported on to more recent soil. When we find mentions there of ‘the king of kings’ or ‘satraps’ we are no longer in Egypt but in the ancient Orient … We limit ourselves to noting that in all appearances, the priests who were the authors of Egyptian astrology stayed relatively faithful to the ancient Oriental tradition."