Quotes About Astronomy

it was a clear night, with crickets and a million stars

It has been noted that one needs only 39 digits of Pi to make a circle the size of the observable universe accurate to one atom of hydrogen.

GMT was originally defined by the transit

While we speak, new worlds are sparkling forth--suns are throwing off their nebulae--nebulae are hardening into worlds.

Father, are we late enough to kill astronomers?

Above us, the constellations spun, and the moon paved her weary course.

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.

Prior to then it was believed that black holes were just cosmic cookie monsters, swallowing everything that came within their gravitational clutches.

There are about one hundred billion galaxies within this visible universe and the average density of material within a galaxy is about one million times greater than that in the visible universe as a whole, and corresponds to about one atom in every cubic centimetre.

A black hole with the mass of the Sun would take 1066 years for this to occur, even if it never swallowed any outside matter along the way. A black hole with the mass of a galaxy will evaporate in 1099 years, and even a hole containing the mass of a supercluster of galaxies – the biggest ever likely to form – will be gone in 10117 years. That

pair of globes, one astronomical and the other terrestrial.

Astronomers have recently discovered a massive amount of alcohol in our region of the Milky Way. The giant cloud of methanol measures 288 billion miles across. Although the alcohol we like to drink is grain alcohol (otherwise known as ethyl alcohol or ethanol) and methanol would poison us, the discovery goes some way to supporting the theory that the universe is here so that we can drink it.

The sea is not all that responds to the moon. Twice a day the solid earth bobs up and down, as much as a foot.

I was raised a Southern Baptist, and my whole family were Christians. However, my Dad was really into science and astronomy, so I felt very balanced. I still had respect for faith.

Empirically speaking, we are made from star stuff. Why aren't we talking more about that? Materials never leave this world. They just keep recycling, recombining. That's what you kept telling me when we met--that in a real, material sense, what is made from where . I didn't have a clue what you were talking about, but I could see you burned for it. I wanted to be near that burning. I still don't understand, but at least now my fingers ride the lip.

Astrology is a disease, not a science.

You will certainly not doubt the necessity of studying astronomy and physics, if you are desirous of comprehending the relation between the world and Providence as it is in reality, and not according to imagination.

Herodotus relates that when Cambyses entered the temple of the Cabiri he was unable to restrain his mirth at seeing before him the figure of a man standing upright and, facing the man, the figure of a woman standing on her head. Had Cambyses been acquainted with the principles of divine astronomy, he would have realized that he was then in the presence of the key to universal equilibrium.

The unfolding of man's spiritual nature is as much an exact science as astronomy, medicine or jurisprudence.

What if the Sun Be centre to the World, and other stars..... The planet earth, so steadfast though she seem, In sensibly three different motions move?

Never forget to factor in the Oort cloud

That's a distinction that's going to make a lot of difference to the ninety percent of humanity that doesn't know the difference between astrology and astronomy

I guess the two things I was most interested in were telescopes and steam engines. My father was an engineer on a threshing rig steam engine and I loved the machinery.

Since railways came into existence, the necessity of not missing the train has taught us to take account of minutes whereas among the ancient Romans, who not only had a more cursory science of astronomy but led less hurried lives, the notion not of minutes but even of fixed hours barely existed.