Alan Hirshfeld on the Hunt for Stellar Parallax – Discover Scientific Breakthroughs!

„In Newton’s day, the Ptolemaic system and the Keplerian version of the Copernican system were taught side by side in the universities of the world. But the pendulum of belief had swung irreversibly to the Copernican side. In the minds of most scientists, the heliocentric universe had become fact…Yet there remained a crucial missing element in what was otherwise a complete and compelling picture of the universe: Not one shred of indisputable observational proof existed that the Earth moved through space.Here then was the holy grail of many an astronomer. To prove that the Earth in fact revolved in a wide orbit around the Sun, the parallax of just one star – any star – had to be detected. The hunt for stellar parallax was on.“

Alan HirshfeldDiscover Alan Hirshfeld's insight into the crucial hunt for stellar parallax – a milestone for science and our worldview.
PreviousNext

Alan Hirshfeld is an American science writer and author, specializing in the history of science and astronomy.

This quote vividly illustrates how groundbreaking the search for astronomical proof of Earth's movement was – a milestone in the history of science.


Translation or original: 🇩🇪Click here

Quelle: Hier klicken

i

3.0 / 5

Quote about the hunt for stellar parallax and the shift from Ptolemaic to Copernican systems by Alan Hirshfeld

Alan Hirshfeld is an American science writer focusing on the history of science and astronomy. He is known for his popular science books, particularly on measuring cosmic distances and the development of modern astronomy.

Quote about the relativity of motion by Bertrand RussellCopyright © yoice.net – Quote Artwork
/
0 Comments
"In this respect, it is interesting to contrast Einstein and Copernicus. Before Copernicus, people thought that the earth stood still and the heavens revolved about it once a day. Copernicus taught that “really” the earth rotates once a day, and the daily revolution of sun and stars is only “apparent.” Galileo and Newton endorsed this view, and many things were thought to prove it—for example, the flattening of the earth at the poles, and the fact that bodies are heavier there than at the equator. But in the modern theory the question between Copernicus and his predecessors is merely one of convenience; all motion is relative, and there is no difference between the two statements: “the earth rotates once a day” and “the heavens revolve about the earth once a day.” The two mean exactly the same thing, just as it means the same thing if I say that a certain length is six feet or two yards. Astronomy is easier if we take the sun as fixed than if we take the earth, just as accounts are easier in a decimal coinage. But to say more for Copernicus is to assume absolute motion, which is a fiction. All motion is relative, and it is a mere convention to take one body as at rest. All such conventions are equally legitimate, though not all are equally convenient." Bertrand Russell
Read more
Quote from Dr. Robert Woodhouse on the truth about astronomy and scienceCopyright © yoice.net – Quote Artwork
/
0 Comments
"If we consider that the advocates of the fixed and central position of the Earth can explain the heavenly phenomena as accurately, according to their own understanding, as we do, and that they additionally have the evidence of their senses, the Holy Scripture, and the facts on their side which we do not have, it is not without reason that they claim the superiority of their system. [...] However perfect our theoretical model may appear in our eyes, and however simple and satisfactory the Newtonian hypothesis may appear to us in explaining all celestial phenomena, here we must admit the astonishing truth that if our premises are challenged and our facts questioned, all of astronomy contains no proof of its own accuracy." Dr. Robert Woodhouse
Read more
Quote by Spyridon Kakos about Galileo Galilei and the Copernican principle as a modern dogma challenging mainstream astronomyCopyright © yoice.net – Quote Artwork
/
0 Comments
"For centuries the case of Galileo Galilei has been the cornerstone of every major argument against the church and its supposedly unscientific dogmatism. The church seems to have condemned Galileo for his heresies, just because it couldn’t and wouldn’t handle the truth. Galileo was a hero of science wrongfully accused and now – at last – everyone knows that. But is that true? This paper tries to examine the case from the point of modern physics and the conclusions drawn are startling. It seems that contemporary church was too haste into condemning itself. The evidence provided by Galileo to support the heliocentric system do not even pass simple scrutiny, while modern physics has ruled for a long time now against both heliocentric and geocentric models as depictions of the “truth”. As Einstein eloquently said, the debate about which system is chosen is void of any meaning from a physics’ point of view. At the end, the selection of the center is more a matter of choice rather than a matter of ‘truth’ of any kind. And this choice is driven by specific philosophical axioms penetrating astronomy for hundreds of years now. From Galileo to Hubble, the Copernican principle has been slowly transformed to a dogma followed by all mainstream astronomers. It is time to challenge our dogmatic adherence to the anti-humanism idea that we are insignificant in the cosmos and start making true honest science again, as Copernicus once postulated." Spyridon Kakos
Read more
0 replies

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply

Albert Einstein Quotes: The Power of Perspectives in ScienceQuote by Albert Einstein about coordinate systems and perspectives in scienceCopyright © yoice.net – Quote ArtworkAleister Crowley quote about how names like angels and demons change over timeCopyright © yoice.net – Quote ArtworkAleister Crowley Quote on Angels, Demons, and the Changing of Perspectives