#astronomy

The history of astronomy is a history of receding horizons. ↗

— Edwin Powell Hubble

#history #horizons #receding #the history of

I turned my attention for a while to gamma ray astronomy and soon began the first in a continous series of experiments at the Savannah River site to study the properties of the neutrino. ↗

— Frederick Reines

#attention #began #experiments #first #gamma

At every level in our inventory, nothing seems special about our Earth, our Sun, our Galaxy, our Local Group. Evidently, mediocrity reigns throughout. Such is our niche in the Universe. ↗

— Eric Chaisson

#earth #galaxy #sun #universe #age

The discovery of a new dish does more for the happiness of the human race than the discovery of a star. ↗

— Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

#astronomy-vs-gastronomy #food #happiness #food

And he, like many jaded people, had few pleasures left in life save good food and drink. ↗

— Honoré de Balzac

#gluttony #happiness #pleasure #food

Recognize that the very molecules that make up your body, the atoms that construct the molecules, are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars that exploded their chemically rich guts into the galaxy, enriching pristine gas clouds with the chemistry of life. So that we are all connected to each other biologically, to the earth chemically and to the rest of the universe atomically. That’s kinda cool! That makes me smile and I actually feel quite large at the end of that. It’s not that we are better than the universe, we are part of the universe. We are in the universe and the universe is in us. ↗

— Neil deGrasse Tyson

#cosmology #life

Every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. And, the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand. It really is the most poetic thing I know about physics: You are all stardust. You couldn’t be here if stars hadn’t exploded, because the elements - the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, all the things that matter for evolution and for life - weren’t created at the beginning of time. They were created in the nuclear furnaces of stars, and the only way for them to get into your body is if those stars were kind enough to explode. So, forget Jesus. The stars died so that you could be here today. ↗

— Lawrence M. Krauss

#life #science #life

Algol is the name of the winking demon star, Medusa of the skies; fair but deadly to look on, even for one who is already dying. Ah, the bright stars of the night. Almost they obliterate the clear white pain. A thousand stars shining in the ether; but no dazzling newcomer. And so little time left, so little time... Yet still two-faced Medusa laughs from behind the clouds, demanding homage. Homage, Medusa, or a sword, a blade sharper than death itself. The wind stirs. Night clouds obscure the universe. A lower music now, a different kind of death. No stars tonight, my love. No Selene. ↗

— Elizabeth Redfern

#murder #stars #death

Before we invented civilization our ancestors lived mainly in the open out under the sky. Before we devised artificial lights and atmospheric pollution and modern forms of nocturnal entertainment we watched the stars. There were practical calendar reasons of course but there was more to it than that. Even today the most jaded city dweller can be unexpectedly moved upon encountering a clear night sky studded with thousands of twinkling stars. When it happens to me after all these years it still takes my breath away. ↗

— Carl Sagan

#exploration #night-sky #nocturnal #skywatcher #space

It's like having astronomy without knowing where the stars are. ↗

— E. O. Wilson

#having #knowing #like #stars #where