Reading | Looking up at the starry sky is the source of all great achievements

In recent years, with the great development of China's aerospace industry, astronomical popular science readings have sprung up like mushrooms, and their styles are also diverse. Some are based on popular hardcore knowledge, and some are combined with the current popular elements, such as explaining in the form of comics, which evoke readers' interest in science and astronomy.

However, no matter what the style is, these books are basically explained around the theory of cosmic evolution, which are currently generally accepted by the scientific community, that is, the theory of Big Bang. And at the end, there are almost the same ending point, that is, from the perspective of the magnificent cosmic scale, where we humans come from and where we go.

According to the Big Bang theory, the universe has a history of 13.8 billion years, which is more than a few more than the geological age of millions of years as a time unit. If this 13.8 billion years is regarded as one year, then human beings are born on the last day of the year, that is, 23:59:46 on December 31. In other words, human history is only 14 seconds. You might as well take three deep breaths now, this is the length of human history. If you think of 13.8 billion years as a football field, then human history is only 0.066 mm. The thickness of a standard 70 gram of A4 paper is 0.088 mm, and human history is thinner than paper. That's why Hawking said: There is a planet in the universe that is not slippery. It turns around an inconspicuous star, and the "chemical residue" on the surface of the planet is us.

▲ The existence of human beings is only a short time in the cosmic scale

At the same time after reading this type of popular science readings, it is inevitable that people are self -confident, because humans are too small.

But there is a astronomical popular science book that gets rid of such a routine. The "Humans Looking up at the Starry Sky" by Joe Marumter is a popular science book infiltrating a strong humanistic feeling between the lines.

"When humans look up at the starry sky: the process of stars, universe and human civilization"

[British] Joe Ma Qinter

Song Yang translated

CITIC Publishing Group Published

Author Joe Massette is a well -known British journalist and writer. He wrote a lot of books and articles to explore the nature of humans and the universe. She obtained a master's degree in the Empire of London. She specializes in scientific communication and is also a dual doctor of genetics and medical microbiology.

Scientific communication is a very interesting major. It is necessary to adopt the form that ordinary people can understand and accept, but also meet a certain professional standard to spread scientific ideas. The relationship between. This book is an embodiment of this effort.

Twelve important moments

The original English title of "Human Humans Looking Up" is Human Cosmos, and the literal translation is "the universe of human beings". The topic sounds a bit mediocre and feels unable to afford any waves in my heart. And compared with the history of 13.8 billion years in the universe, human existence is thinner than paper. So why is the "human" universe?

However, the author has to say that. The implication is: no matter how big the universe, no matter how long history is, it is the "human" universe. It reveals a bit of the taste of "the principle of selection", and also involves the explanation of quantum explanations of the universe.

The book is a total of 12 chapters, which are mythology, land, destiny, belief, time, time, ocean, power, light, art, life, alien, consciousness. At first glance, people murmured a bit: These 12 themes can be said to be unsatisfactory. How did the author combine them together?

The cleverness of this book is here. In fact, the author uses the big theme of "humans to look up in the starry sky" to connect the seemingly scattered in human history in 20,000 years.

Mingli is telling a story: such as Thomas Panne, who has struggled with imperial power and religion for a lifetime, Frank Brown, a biologist who insisted on his opinions, and Richard, a master of the Middle Ages, Richard, the dean of the monastery, known as the "king of the Pacific". Captain Cook, Marxion, a rebel artist, ...

▲ Together with an astronomical hobby, Thomas Panne has embarked on the way to pursue democracy

At the same time, these people, these things, their thoughts, their words and deeds have become a history, telling how human beings develop science and civilization step by step in the process of constantly looking up at the starry sky, and how they are in this process. In the world, from observing the world, to explaining the world, to the opposite of humanity.

Therefore, "looking up at the starry sky" is the starting point of all the curiosity of human beings, and it is also the source of all great achievements of human beings so far.

The original thinking of the ancients, the superb wisdom of ancient civilization miracles, the birth of modern science, and the rapid progress of technology. It became this strange book.

What determines the stars that humans see

Since "looking up at the starry sky", it is natural to mention the stars that humans see in the night sky, or in an astronomical term, called "celestial body". In human history, some celestial bodies have high appearance rates, such as Galaxy, Sun, Moon, Venus, Sirius, Arctic Star and so on. This is because these celestial bodies are the easiest to see with the naked eye.

In fact, most of the celestial bodies visible to the naked eye are stars. The so -called stars are simply a huge glowing air balloon. We now know that the order of stars in the universe is 1022, which is just 100 billion in our galaxy. For the stars visible to the naked eye, we are called a bright star. It is these bright stars that have attracted human eyes and leading human beings to take the first step in knowledge. ▲ From ancient times to the present, the starry sky has inspired human dreams

Since there are countless stars, why are there not many stars that can be easily seen with the naked eye? If the factors of urban light pollution are eliminated, there are two factors that determine the brightness of the star (that is, the stars are in our opinion): one is its brightness (that is, the total amount of visible light), and the other is it with us. distance. Because most stars are too far from the earth, although they are not smaller than the sun and even much larger than the sun, their light becomes weaker and weaker during the interstellar trip to the earth, and it is difficult to be difficult to be being caught. See the naked eye.

The system used to measure the brightness of the star is the star, and its inventor is said to be the ancient Greek astronomy of the ancient Greek astronomy. "Vision" is the perspective of vision, "star" is the star of the starry sky, and "waiting" is level. Among the stars visible to the naked eye, the 6 -class stars are the darkest, and 5 -other stars are lighter. The smaller the value, the brighter the star. As this system becomes more and more accurate, astronomers no longer say a few equal stars, but say that a star's view star is 3.34 or 0.03 (weaver actress). For example, the brightest star in the night sky is Sirius, its viewing star is -1.46, and the Arctic Star is 1.95. Essence Generally, those who are less than 2 can be defined as bright stars.

Taking the earth as an observation point, the brightest star throughout the day is undoubtedly the core of our galaxy -the sun. Its viewing star is -26.74, and the number one bright star Sirius is -1.46. In context, the brightness of the sun is 12.8 billion times that of Sirius.

▲ Vision stars of different celestial bodies and so on

This is why in the early morning and dusk, most of the time during the day, it is difficult for us to see other stars with the naked eye. This is not because the stars are gone, but because the sun is too bright, it covers the light of other stars. Think of Sirius in front of the sun, it is still the light of fireflies, let alone other stars. This is similar to the result of urban light pollution, and the background has brightened.

For the brightest star throughout the day, you must remind you: At any time, remember that at any time, do not use naked eyes to see the sun, let alone optical instruments that have no filtering measures, such as telescopes and cameras. Observation of the sun, it is also not possible to eat during the day. We can observe the sun indirectly: For example, when Galileo discovered the sun sunspots, a thick black filter is added to the telescope. You can also use the principle of small holes to throw the sun on the white paper. When you eat it next day, you may wish to try this simple method.

Source of Life: Sun

The quality of the solar accounts for 99%of the entire solar system, and is the source of all life and energy on the earth.

Our clothing, food and housing can leave the sun. The food we eat, regardless of the vegetarian, cooked, dining snacks, high calories or low cards. As long as we go down the food chain, all energy will eventually rely on the photosynthetic effect of plants to absorb from the sun to absorb from the sun. Come.

What about the clothes? Natural materials such as silk cotton and linen. Needless to say, like food, it is also from the sun. Chemical fiber materials, including various plastic products in our daily life, are chemical products. The raw materials are nothing more than coal, petroleum and natural gas. The solar energy was sealed the year ago. Today we use various methods to release these energy and use it. As for the electricity we use every day, the oil that is driving, all energy is in the final analysis of the sun. Without the sun, humans will no longer exist.

▲ Longhe sunset

Modern science tells us: The sun is a very ordinary star. Do you remember the words that Hawking said? "There is a planet in the universe that is not slippery, turning around a stars around the inconspicuous." The "inconspicuous star" mentioned here is the sun. Like all stars, the main ingredients of the sun are hydrogen and 氦, and the internal nuclear agglomeration generates energy and glows and heats. It also has a life cycle that needs to experience birth, growing, aging, and death. Our sun is 4.6 billion years old. It is a middle -aged star. It is estimated that it still has a life span of 5 billion years.

Nevertheless, from ancient times, humans saw that the sun rose to the west every day, bringing light, warmth, and vitality to the world. Essence Therefore, in the myths around the world, there is a glorious "Sun God", which is mentioned in the book.

For example, the sun god of Egypt traveled to the sea and passed through the sea of ​​the sky. The Roman Sun God "Invincible Sol", driving a four -horse chariot, rising from the ocean. The sun god of the North American Aboriginal Churus lives in the crystal house of the upper world. He holds a torch during the day, naked naked, and wears a hair band made of bird's hair and passes through the sky. In addition, the book also mentioned the Syrian Asia -Pacific Sun God "Elagabaus", the Greek Sun God "Herris", the sun god in the epic in the Babylonian of Babylon is called "Samash", and the Persian Sun god "Mitrara "". There are also plots related to the sun in Chinese mythology. For example, Emperor Jun and Jihe gave birth to ten sons, all of which are the sun. This has the story of Houyi shooting the sun. ▲ The murals of the ancient Egyptian chanting sun god

The deification of human beings has gradually evolved into overwhelming sun worship. The fourth chapter of the book says that the tradition of worship of the sun is so ingrained, so Constantine, who has converted to Christianity, defeated Maxesonius in the Bridge of Milvi Bridge and the unified Roman Empire. Because this is neither realistic nor wise. On the contrary, he cleverly unified the sun worship with Christianity, allowing the pagans and Christians of the Empire to unite around Jesus Christ that collects God and the Sun God. This is indeed a political beauty.

While the solarization is sacred, humans have noticed some long -term laws, and the birth of modern astronomy is the inevitable result of humans' continuous observation and thinking about the solar and solar planets. The second chapter of the book says that the echo of the British boulder in the Neolithic Age is the spectacular scene of the winter solstice and sunset. The laws observed here are the anniversary movement of the sun and the four seasons cycles.

In Chapter 6, Captain Cook of the Pacific Ocean and his "Endeter" to the name of the king to perform an important observation task in Taciti -Venus Ling, in order to improve the distance between the daily land and the place. The value. This value is very critical for determining the size of the solar system. The day and ground distance itself is also a basic unit of astronomy, the scientific name "astronomical unit", an English abbreviation AU, about 150 million kilometers. The size of the solar system is 80-100 astronomical units according to the boundary with the interstellar space.

By the eighth chapter, Fu Lang and Fei, a physicist with the spirit of craftsmen, dared to question Newton's assertion and keenly discovered the 574 dark lines in the solar spectrum. These dark lines were later called Fu Lang and Fei Line. The enthusiastic chemist Ben Sheng had a clever movement, thinking that he determined the sun's components by comparing the launch line of Fu Lang and Fei Line and Earth elements. Kirhof, a humble and shy physicist, boldly inferred that the outer layer of the sun was colder than its core, so when light passed through the cold outer layer and shot towards the earth, some color light was absorbed. In this way, humans unveiled the mystery of the celestial spectrum, and pulled the unreachable stars in front of us.

In Chapter 9, the artist Marleville, who was rebelled, launched an attack on rationality. He first took the sun, because the rationality and logic of the sun deceived us, and let us believe that everything is true. Therefore, human beings must destroy the sun. Therefore, the painter Martini and other vanguard artists jointly created the absurd drama "Charity of the Sun", and the winner inside torn the fireball from the sky.

▲ Max Ledvidic's "Charity of the Sun" stage setting manuscript

Chapter 10 tells the rise and internal fighting of time biology. Everyone may still remember Brown, who is fighting alone. His opponents are based on the study of the sun biological clock. The sun biological clock is also called the rhythm of the day and night, which refers to the cycle of biological activities with the rise and fall of the Sun Sunday. Those who often go abroad must have a deep feeling of this. The so-called inverted time difference is not only to adjust the sleep-awakening cycle. In fact The most difficult event.

The sun not only inspired human exploration and knowledge, but also affected the power structure of human society. In Chapter 7, Copernicus compares the sun to the throne king and rules the planetary family around it. With Copernicus's heart, the voices are getting higher and higher, the Emperor of the European Emperor ripped the banner of the sun. For example, the Philip IV of Spain was the "King of Planets", the French Louis XIV was the "King of the Sun", the British George II and George III were "dazzling monarchs" and "bright princes", which issued "extremely noble light".

Therefore, the sun nourishes us, dominates us, attracts us, and inspires us. We fear it, deified it, observe it, study it, even blame it, attack it. But in any case, after all, because of its light, it allows humans to have that 14 seconds, so that humans can stand here today and ask what the universe is and what we are.

From ancient times to the present, human beings are understanding the universe through observing the stars, and this period of history is long and difficult. Let's follow the "Human Humans to Look up" and sneak into a detailed investigation in the history of the deep universe cognition. It may be able to touch and even pass the borders of the existing worldview.

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Author: Song Yang

Edit: Kim Jiuchao

Editor in charge: Zhu Zilong

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