"[T]he fixed stars... are the visible Armies of God"
May 18, 2016 5:32 AM Subscribe
Christopher M. Graney on the problem of what to do in 1629 if you're a Copernican and the data suggests that most stars are larger than the span of Earth's orbit.
[From the blog of the Vatican Observatory — previously]
[From the blog of the Vatican Observatory — previously]
To a person with excellent vision, stars appear as small, round dots of differing apparent sizes, or magnitudes. Magnitude means bigness.
Huh, I never thought about that. Reading it now it still seems hard to believe. Stars are point sources of light, of course they are! But that's a modern view. (See also: List of stars with resolved images.)
posted by Nelson at 8:56 AM on May 18, 2016 [2 favorites]
Huh, I never thought about that. Reading it now it still seems hard to believe. Stars are point sources of light, of course they are! But that's a modern view. (See also: List of stars with resolved images.)
posted by Nelson at 8:56 AM on May 18, 2016 [2 favorites]
"Visible Armies of God" is Latin for "Holy shit, bud, the universe is huge!"
posted by clawsoon at 9:59 AM on May 18, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by clawsoon at 9:59 AM on May 18, 2016 [1 favorite]
"O Lord, ooh, You are so big, so absolutely huge. Gosh, we're all really impressed down here, I can tell you. Forgive us, O Lord, for this, our dreadful toadying and bare-faced flattery, but You are so strong, and, well, just so super fantastic. Amen."
posted by headnsouth at 10:39 AM on May 18, 2016
posted by headnsouth at 10:39 AM on May 18, 2016
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Yeah, they might be "feeble," but I bet even the notably-pugnacious Brahe would thing twice before taking one on in a fight....
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:56 AM on May 18, 2016 [2 favorites]