Paul Nervy Notes
“Jokes, poems, stories, and a lot of philosophy, psychology, and sociology.”


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Science, astronomy.  ---  .This section is about astronomy.  ---  1/24/2006


Science, astronomy.  ---  (1) At what point in history did humans understand the stars to be a two dimensional appearance of a three dimensional universe?  (2) At what point in history did humans see the sun as just another star?  ---  1/31/2004


Science, astronomy.  ---  (1) History: people, concepts, theories, facts, experiments, known facts, unknown theories.  (2) Methods.  Telescopes: light, radio, x-ray.  Spectroscopy: light, radiation.  How built, how work, how invented.  ---  12/30/1992


Science, astronomy.  ---  (1) How old is the universe?  Around 15 billion years is the current best answer.  How long will the universe last?  Another 15 billion  years?  Whatever the answer, this is the amount of time for a civilization to evolve without escaping to another universe.  (2) How long does the average star live?  This is the amount of time for a civilization to evolve without escaping its solar system.  (3) How quickly can life evolve?  How quickly can intelligent life evolve?  How quickly can that intelligent life evolve to the point where it can send and receive messages from other galaxies or universes?  How quickly can intelligent life evolve to the point where it can travel to other galaxies or universes?.  ---  10/5/2002


Science, astronomy.  ---  (1) Solstice: sun is farthest from the equator.  Longest and shortest day and night.  June 21 and December 21.  (2) Equinox: Sun over equator.  Night and day are equal in length.  March 21 and September 21.  (3) Winter, Summer, Spring, and Fall start on these dates.  ---  01/12/1997


Science, astronomy.  ---  (1) What is the fastest moving object in the universe?  What percent of the speed of light?  (2) How fast can a human built spaceship go currently?  What percent of the speed of light?  ---  7/18/2002


Science, astronomy.  ---  (1) Why does the moon rise and set?  Because the earth spins on its axis.  (2) Why does the moon wax and wain?  Because of the moon spins around the earth.  ---  10/30/1994


Science, astronomy.  ---  400 billion stars in a galaxy.  100 billion galaxies in the universe.  Farthest reaches 14 billion light years away.  The observable universe is only part of the total universe?  ---  10/30/1997


Science, astronomy.  ---  April 1994.  Planet spotted outside our solar system.  07/94.  Comet hits Jupiter, earth size explosion.  ---  08/15/1994


Science, astronomy.  ---  Astronomy is a great hobby for insomniacs who live far from bright lights and who enjoy sitting quietly alone in the dark.  ---  9/25/2004


Science, astronomy.  ---  Computers and astronomy.  One can make a searchable, sortable database of every star, galaxy and deep space object.  Include information about its position, distance from earth, magnitude (apparent and absolute).  Then make an engine that graphically renders that information.  ---  1/2/2005


Science, astronomy.  ---  Cosmic rays, radio waves, x rays.  Dust, gas, liquid.  Black holes, pulsars, quasars.  Meteoroids, meteorites, asteroids, comets.  Matter, antimatter.  Solar system.  ---  12/30/1992


Science, astronomy.  ---  Cosmology.  Space, time, matter, energy.  How old, how big.  How many galaxies.  Past, present, future of universe.  Methods: trigonometric, photometric.  Distances, velocities.  Space, void, nothingness.  ---  12/30/1992


Science, astronomy.  ---  Galaxies.  How many, how big, how old, number of.  Distribution of, classification of.  Structure, dynamics: birth, death, decay.  Local groups, milkyway.  ---  12/30/1992


Science, astronomy.  ---  In the world of star constellations there is no top, bottom, left, right, north, south, east, west.  There is only "next to" and "between".  That is an interesting perspective to have on the world.  ---  10/30/2005


Science, astronomy.  ---  Life supporting conditions on other planets.  Life on other planets, even intelligent life.  How much, how far away.  To talk to it, or to visit it.  ---  09/01/1994


Science, astronomy.  ---  Light pollution is getting worse.  Due to light pollution, fewer people can look up from their place of residence and see the Milky Way.  Due to light pollution, astronomy is becoming a commuter pastime where astronomers have to drive further and further to reach dark skies.  If the spread of light pollution continues the endgame is that eventually nobody will be able to see any stars from anywhere on earth.  ---  10/19/2004


Science, astronomy.  ---  Of course Einstein was happy, wouldn't you be if you discovered GTR and STR.  ---  01/01/1993


Science, astronomy.  ---  Solar system: sun and planets.  Speed of rotation, time of rotation.  Speed of revolution, time of revolution.  Distances far and close to sun.  Diameter, mass, gravity (% of earth's), moons.  Date discovered.  ---  12/30/1992


Science, astronomy.  ---  Sometimes astronomy should be called astromania.  ---  11/6/2004


Science, astronomy.  ---  Stars: structure, mechanism, brightness, age, luminosity, constellations, mass, size, distance, location/position/coordinates.  ---  12/30/1992


Science, astronomy.  ---  Terra-forming Mars.  Making it habitable.  ---  12/29/1997


Science, astronomy.  ---  Trends.  (1) Search for killer asteroids that could hit earth.  (2) Universe seen as ever expanding, and facing cold death.  As opposed to contracting into heat death explosion.  (3) Search for life supporting planets outside our solar system.  (4) Search for extra terrestrial life (SETI).  ---  5/20/1998


Science, astronomy.  ---  What if all the UFO sightings reported are not aliens, but rather humans from the future who have traveled back in time, but who do not show themselves because they do not want to interfere with life on earth.  ---  8/27/1998




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Paul Nervy Notes. Copyright 1988-2007 by Paul Nervy.