Neptune’s largest moon Triton is roughly the size of Earth’s moon; it is the coldest object in our solar system ever observed by astronomers. ibid.
The Big Bang singularity gave rise to the entire universe, which includes Space, Time and all the matter that fills it. A similar type of singularity is a white hole – a theoretic object that arises in Einstein’s theory of Gravity. It’s essentially a black hole in reverse. A point of singularity where matter is ejected. Consequently, some scientists have wondered if the universe could have been created from a white hole. The Universe s2e2: Cosmic Holes, 2007
Physicists speculate that if Nature uses white holes then they could have been an important element in the earliest stages in the universe. Perhaps even in the formation of the universe itself. ibid.
Whereas the Big Crunch fits the Christian vision of the end, Science has yet another theory: that it may instead all end in ice. Ultimately, it depends on whether the momentum of the expansion of the universe can overcome the collapsing attraction of Gravity. The Universe s2e18: Cosmic Apocalypse, 2008
Only in the last decade has the very existence of exo-planets gone from theory to reality. The Universe s3e9: Another Earth, 2009
In the vast reaches of Space there exists objects and phenomena that are as bizarre as anything found in science fiction. The Universe s3e10: Strangest Things, 2009
Space is jam-packed with some very weird things. The universe is full of objects and all sorts of mysterious phenomena that we still don’t fully understand. Strange as it may seem astronomers have discovered inter-stellar clouds actually filled with the same kind of alcohol that is found in beer. ibid.
When the particles collide they break open and throw out a shower of even smaller particles .... Within these super-heated collisions a completely new form of matter appears: and this matter contradicts the earlier theories about the nature of the universe: because it’s not a gas but a liquid. Birth of the Universe, National 2006
Finally the universe will die, and all that will be left is cold, dark and lifeless space. ibid.
This is the Hooker Telescope on Mount Wilson, just a couple of hours from Los Angeles. In the 1920s this was the best telescope in the world. And it’s the instrument that Edwin Hubble chose for his survey of galaxies. Hubble’s twin weapons were the sheer volume of data he collected and an ability to cut through it to see what it meant. In the 1920s Hubble helped solve a huge debate about the size of the universe. Using this telescope Hubble proved that the universe was much bigger than anyone had thought, filled with galaxies some of them unimaginable distances from the Earth. Dr Janet Sumner, interview The Cosmos: A Beginner’s Guide
They were discovered accidentally by spy satellites, and are so big, at first they were suspected of breaking the laws of physics. They’re called Gamma Ray Bursts or GRBs. These powerful bangs can be detected only from space as gamma rays don’t reach the ground. Adam Hart-Davis, The Cosmos: A Beginner’s Guide
The Edge of the Universe: 130 billion trillion kilometres. Journey to the Edge of the Universe, National Geographic 2008
It takes two hundred and fifty million years to make just one circuit of the Milky Way. In the entire history of the human race we’ve travelled less than a tenth of one percent of that orbit. Brian Cox, Wonders of the Universe 1/4: Destiny, BBC 2011
Every galaxy Vera [Rubin] looked at gave her the same seemingly crazy results: all the stars all the way to the edge of the galaxies were moving at the same speed, completely different from the way the solar system works. Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman: Beyond the Darkness, Science 2010
Hubble deduced that every galaxy in the universe is actually hurtling away from us. ibid.
In just over five years Saul [Perlmutter] and his team spot thirty-eight different stars in thirty different galaxies called supernova. ibid.
Saul’s team had discovered a totally unexpected and unexplained repulsion between galaxies that is gradually blowing the universe apart: they called it Dark Energy ... It makes up nearly three quarters of the universe. Dark Energy rules the universe. ibid.
There are only certain intervals of time when life of any sort is possible in an expanding universe and we can practise astronomy only during that habitable time interval in cosmic history. John D Barrow, The Book of Universes
With every passing hour our solar system comes forty-three thousand miles closer to globular cluster 13 in the constellation Hercules, and still there are some misfits who continue to insist that there is no such thing as progress. Kurt Vonnegut
To command the professors of astronomy to confute their own observations is ... to command them not to see what they do see, and not to understand what they do understand. Galileo Galilei
The pursuit of the good and evil are now linked in astronomy as in almost all science … The fate of human civilization will depend on whether the rockets of the future carry the astronomer’s telescope or a hydrogen bomb. Bernard Lovell, British astronomer
What grander idea can the mind of man form to itself than a prodigious, glorious and fiery globe hanging in the midst of an infinite and boundless space surrounded with bodies of whom our earth is scarcely any thing in comparison, moving their rounds about its body and held tight to their respective orbits by the attractive force inherent to it while they are suspended in the same space by the Creator’s almighty arm! And then let us cast our eyes up to the spangled canopy of heaven, where innumerable luminaries at such an immense distance from us cover the face of the skies. All suns as great as that which illumines us, surrounded with earths perhaps no way inferior to the ball which we inhabit and no part of the amazing whole unfilled! System running into system, and worlds bordering on worlds! Sun, earth, moon, stars be ye made, and they were made! Edmund Burke, at age 15 praising ‘noble science’ of astronomy
At last he [Keppler] had created a model of the universe that matched the evidence. Keppler had demolished an edifice that had stood for more than 2,000 years. And replaced it with his first law of planetary motion: all planets travel in ellipses around the Sun. Michael Mosley, The Story of Science, BBC series 2010
So there was a camera attached to the telescope. And with it Hubble photographs stars at the far reaches of the Milky Way. At that time the only known galaxy in the universe. On 6th October 1923 Hubble took a photograph that must rank as one of the most significant photographs ever taken. This photograph demonstrated for the first time just how vast the universe truly is. ibid.
My days I devote to reading and experiments in chemistry, and I spend many of the clear nights in the study of astronomy. There is, though I do not know how there is or why there is, a sense of infinite peace and protection in the glittering hosts of heaven. There it must be, I think, in the vast and eternal laws of matter, and not in the daily cares and sins and troubles of men, that whatever is more than animal within us must find its solace and its hope. H G Wells, The Island of Dr Moreau
In very different ways, the possibility that the universe is teeming with life, and the opposite possibility that we are totally alone, are equally exciting. Either way, the urge to know more about the universe seems to me irresistible, and I cannot imagine that anybody of truly poetic sensibility could disagree. Richard Dawkins, Unweaving the Rainbow
3,090. American astronomers say they have made the discovery of the century. They’ve found evidence to confirm how the universe developed. Data from a NASA satellite has revealed immense faint ripples in the level background radiation on the edge of space. (Space & Universe & Astronomy & News) BBC News 23rd April 1992
12,808. Galileo Galilei was one of the most respected scientists. He helped the Vatican set up its first observatory in Rome and taught astronomy at the finest universities in the Catholic world. (Christianity & Enlightenment & Catholicism & Science & Astronomy) Professor Colin Blakemore, Christianity s1e7: A History: God and the Scientists, Channel 4 2009
We as astronomers confront the big questions of wonder every day. Another 50 Renowned Academics Speaking About God, Professor Carolyn Porco
We see I think genuine revolutions in the level, scale and intensity of mathematical astronomy. Professor Simon Schaffer
The book of the courses of the luminaries of the heaven, the relations of each, according to their classes, their dominion and their seasons, according to their names and places of origin, and according to their months, which Uriel, the holy angel, who was with me, who is their guide, showed me; and he showed me all their laws exactly as they are, and how it is with regard to all the years of the world and unto eternity, till the new creation is accomplished which dureth till eternity. And this is the first law of the luminaries: the luminary the Sun has its rising in the eastern portals of the heaven. Enoch: Astronomy 3:72:1&2
And after this law I saw another law dealing with the smaller luminary, which is named the Moon. And her circumference is like the circumference of the heaven, and her chariot in which she rides is driven by the wind, and light is given to her in (definite) measure. And her rising and setting change every month. Enoch 3:73:1&2
Astronomy may be revolutionized more than any other field of science by observations from above the atmosphere. Study of the planets, the Sun, the stars, and the rarefied matter in space should all be profoundly influenced by measurements from balloons, rockets, probes and satellites ... In a new adventure of discovery no one can foretell what will be found, and it is probably safe to predict that the most important new discovery that will be made with flying telescopes will be quite unexpected and unforeseen. Lyman Spitzer, article Bulletin of the Scientists May 1961, ‘Flying Telescopes’