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SN 1006: The Brightest Supernova in Recorded History

James Miller — Wed, 23 May 2018 08:42:10 +0000

The image above shows the extent of the supernova remnant designated SN 1006. In this X-ray image taken with the Chandra space telescope, multi-million-degree gas is shown as red and green, while extremely high-energy electrons ...

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Was Stonehenge an Ancient Observatory?

James Miller — Sat, 10 Mar 2018 13:03:56 +0000

Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England, is just one component of a complex of prehistoric monuments that is covered by the UNESCO World Heritage program, and also includes the village of Avebury and its associated sites. However, ...

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Is the Goseck Circle an Ancient Solar Observatory?

James Miller — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 17:16:47 +0000

Many questions about ancient civilizations remain unanswered, but perhaps the most perplexing of these questions are these: how well did the ancients understand the world they lived in, and how did they express that understanding, ...

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Is the Ach Valley Tusk-fragment an Ancient Star Map?

James Miller — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 16:19:34 +0000

It is said that not everything that glitters is gold, but does this also apply to figurines carved into mammoth ivory fragments during the Ice Age? The Ach Valley tusk fragment that bears the image ...

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10 Top Astronomers from the Ancient World

James Miller — Sun, 14 May 2017 10:10:14 +0000

From the western historical perspective, it is sometimes easy to focus on the astronomical works of early Greek astronomers too tightly, while overlooking the worthy contributions made by earlier philosophers from other cultures that have ...

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Who Discovered the Sun is a Star?

James Miller — Thu, 09 Mar 2017 01:22:26 +0000

In ancient Greece, early scientists such as Thales of Miletus (624-546 BC) first started to suspect that the Sun was not the deity Helios (Apollo) driving his chariot around the Earth, but was instead merely ...

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Megalithic Tombs Used as Ancient Astronomical Tool

James Miller — Sat, 06 Aug 2016 11:54:24 +0000

The first practical telescopes weren’t invented until the early 17th century when European astronomers became eager to study the stars and learn their secrets. Now, there is new evidence to suggest that ancient ancestors spread ...

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Antikythera Mechanism Reveals More Secrets

James Miller — Sat, 02 Jul 2016 12:24:23 +0000

In April 1900, divers exploring the sea near the Greek island of Antikythera came upon a shipwreck and made a remarkable discovery that has since been hailed as one of the greatest wonders of the ...

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The Zodiac: Origins and the Problem with Precession

James Miller — Fri, 18 Mar 2016 17:57:29 +0000

Regardless of what one thinks of astrology as a means to predict the future or to define personality types, it must be stated that modern astronomy has its roots deep in several ancient astrological traditions. ...

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The Babylonians and Geometric Astronomy

James Miller — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 15:49:03 +0000

Historians have long known that ancient civilizations had an interest in outer space, but have held that it wasn’t until the Europeans began seriously studying heavenly bodies during the 14th century that planets were accurately ...

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