Archivo etiqueta «Astronomía»
By Robert P. Kirshner, a professor of astronomy at Harvard and the author of The Extravagant Universe: Exploding Stars, Dark Energy and the Accelerating Cosmos (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 07/10/11):
Almost every scientific talk or seminar in astronomy today starts from the idea that we live in a universe in which a mysterious force known as dark energy makes up about 70 percent of the total cosmic amount of everything. A mysterious substance known as dark matter makes up about 25 percent. And ordinary matter — the stuff of the periodic table, including interesting assemblies of matter like galaxies, … Seguir leyendo
By James Bullock, a professor of physics and astronomy at UC Irvine and director of the Southern California Center for Galaxy Evolution (LOS ANGELES TIMES, 06/09/11):
Walk through the halls of UC Irvine’s astronomy wing after dinner on a weeknight and you will find roomfuls of young graduate students, crammed into small desks, solving equations, writing computer code and developing innovative ways to analyze data. They do not have to be here. These are people with career options. They are scary-smart, creative and hardworking. Yet they have come here from all over the country and the world to sit … Seguir leyendo
By Michael Byers, the author of the novel Percival’s Planet (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 04/02/11):
Astronomers announced last month that, contrary to previous assumptions, the orbiting body Eris might be smaller than Pluto after all. Since it was the discovery in 2005 of Eris, an object seemingly larger than what had been considered our smallest planet, that precipitated the downgrading of Pluto from full planet to “dwarf,” some think it may be time to revisit Pluto’s status.
Most of us can’t help rooting for Pluto. We liked the idea of a ninth planet, hanging out there like a period … Seguir leyendo
By Brian Greene, a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia and the author of the forthcoming book The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmo (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 16/01/11):
In a great many fields, researchers would give their eyeteeth to have a direct glimpse of the past. Instead, they generally have to piece together remote conditions using remnants like weathered fossils, decaying parchments or mummified remains. Cosmology, the study of the origin and evolution of the universe, is different. It is the one arena in which we can actually witness history.
The pinpoints … Seguir leyendo
By Richard Cohen, the author of Chasing the Sun: The Epic Story of the Star That Gives Us Life (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 20/12/10):
What is the winter solstice, and why bother to celebrate it, as so many people around the world will tomorrow? The word “solstice” derives from the Latin sol (meaning sun) and statum (stand still), and reflects what we see on the first days of summer and winter when, at dawn for two or three days, the sun seems to linger for several minutes in its passage across the sky, before beginning to double back.
Indeed, … Seguir leyendo
By Russell Schweickart, a former astronaut and the co-chairman of the Task Force on Planetary Defense of the NASA Advisory Council (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 26/10/10):
A few weeks ago, an asteroid almost 30 feet across and zipping along at 38,000 miles per hour flew 28,000 miles above Singapore. Why, you might reasonably ask, should non-astronomy buffs care about a near miss from such a tiny rock? Well, I can give you one very good reason: asteroids don’t always miss. If even a relatively little object was to strike a city, millions of people could be wiped out.
Thanks … Seguir leyendo
By Professor Martin Rees, President of the Royal Society and Astronomer Royal (THE TIMES, 31/05/10):
Einstein averred that “the most incomprehensible thing about the Universe is that it is comprehensible”. He was right to be astonished. Our minds evolved to cope with life on the African savannah, but can comprehend a great deal about the counterintuitive microworld of atoms, and about the vastness of the cosmos.
Indeed, Einstein would have been specially gratified at how our cosmic horizons have expanded. Our Sun is one of a hundred billion stars in our galaxy, which is itself one of many billion … Seguir leyendo
Par Richard Weitz, directeur du Centre d’analyse politico-militaire de l’Institut Hudson (LE TEMPS, 22/02/10):
Le monde va devoir prendre une décision importante en 2010. Anatoly Perminov, responsable de l’Agence spatiale russe Roscosmos, propose d’envoyer une mission inhabitée pour détourner un gros astéroïde qui pourrait entrer en collision avec la Terre après 2030.
Avec un diamètre de plus de 360 mètres, l’astéroïde Apophis est douze fois plus gros que l’objet céleste Tunguska (dont on pense que c’était une météorite ou une comète) qui ravageat une grande part de l’est sibérien il y a un siècle. Les recherches ont permis de … Seguir leyendo
Por Jorge Juan Fernández Sangrador, director de la Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos (ABC, 11/10/09):
Sócrates, nacido a finales del siglo IV en Constantinopla, cuenta, en el libro séptimo de su Historia de la Iglesia, lo que le sucedió a la hija de Theon, Hypatía de Alejandría, que, habiendo hecho acopio de gran erudición, superaba con mucho a los filósofos de su tiempo; platónica según la escuela de Plotino, instruía a numerosos estudiantes. Y por su ciencia, autoridad, prestigio y modestia, comparecía en instancias de la administración pública; de ahí el que, a la par que respeto, su proximidad a … Seguir leyendo
Por Jacinto Antón (EL PAÍS, 09/10/09):
Entre Cleopatra y Justine, la antigua reina y el personaje moderno de Lawrence Durrell, está Hypatia, la otra gran alejandrina. Juntas, las tres mujeres representan perfectamente el alma de Alejandría, la capital de los Ptolomeos -con los inigualables Biblioteca y Museo, el alto Faro y el Soma, la resplandeciente tumba del fundador, Alejandro Magno- pero también la ciudad arruinada de innumerables calles en las que se arremolina el polvo de la historia, la ciudad de las rencillas religiosas, la decrépita y melancólica del Viejo (Kavafis), la ciudad recreada por E. M. Forster, la ciudad, … Seguir leyendo
By Christopher Cokinos, a professor of English at Utah State University and the author, most recently, of The Fallen Sky: An Intimate History of Shooting Stars (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 12/08/09):
The Perseid meteor shower is summer’s closing act, arriving in mid-August like clockwork. For centuries, many Christians associated it with the martyred St. Lawrence, whose feast day falls on Aug. 10, so they called the display “the tears of St. Lawrence.” By the mid-1800s, the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli came to understand that meteor showers are really comet dust — the “very minute particles that they have abandoned … Seguir leyendo
Por Cristina Garmendia Mendizábal, ministra de Ciencia e Innovación (ABC, 24/07/09):
Estos días, con motivo del 40 aniversario de la llegada del hombre a la Luna, hemos rememorado momentos de gran belleza, emoción y heroísmo plasmados en las fotografías y secuencias filmadas por las cámaras del Apolo XI. Revisando la prensa de la época, encontramos otras imágenes históricas que retratan el entusiasmo y la expectación generada, en todo el mundo, con motivo de la misión espacial. Una de estas fotografías, publicada en el diario ABC en julio de 1969, nos muestra al Papa Pablo VI observando la luna a … Seguir leyendo
By Johnjoe McFadden, professor of molecular genetics at the University of Surrey and author of Quantum Evolution (THE GUARDIAN, 10/07/07):
Nasa this week unveils a new emissary in the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life. The Phoenix Mars Lander, which launches next month, marks just the latest instalment in a quest that has exercised the imaginations of writers and scientists since long before the adventures of Jules Verne. In the 17th century Johannes Kepler, the architect of our modern understanding of the solar system, imagined a journey to a moon inhabited by serpent-like creatures called Prevlovans who endured the … Seguir leyendo
By Paul Davies, director of Beyond, a research centre at Arizona State University, and author of The Goldilocks Enigma (THE GUARDIAN, 26/06/07):
Scientists are slowly waking up to an inconvenient truth – the universe looks suspiciously like a fix. The issue concerns the very laws of nature themselves. For 40 years, physicists and cosmologists have been quietly collecting examples of all too convenient “coincidences” and special features in the underlying laws of the universe that seem to be necessary in order for life, and hence conscious beings, to exist. Change any one of them and the consequences would be … Seguir leyendo
By Brian Greene, a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia, is the author of “The Elegant Universe” and “The Fabric of the Cosmos” (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 20/10/06):
SEVENTY-FIVE years ago this month, The New York Times reported that Albert Einstein had completed his unified field theory — a theory that promised to stitch all of nature’s forces into a single, tightly woven mathematical tapestry. But as had happened before and would happen again, closer scrutiny revealed flaws that sent Einstein back to the drawing board. Nevertheless, Einstein’s belief that he’d one day complete the unified theory rarely … Seguir leyendo