MISCONCEPTIONS IN ASTRONOMY: A NEVER-ENDING STORY
Astronomy, it is a word everyone associates with the object in the night sky – stars, galaxy, sun etc. We often learn about it from books, popular TV series, movies, and whatnots. There’s a lot of misconceptions going on, here is a list of some of the commonly misconstrued thoughts in astronomy. And If you see something on this list and think “Hey, that’s what I thought!”, you are not the only one.
1. PLANETS CANNOT BE SEEN WITHOUT TELESCOPE
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn can easily be seen with the naked eye if one knows when and where to look. One way to distinguish stars from planets is that the latter doesn’t twinkle. Planets are closer to the Earth than the distant stars resulting to planets to appear larger in comparison. Since the planets are close to the Earth, the light coming from them doesn’t bend much in the Earth’s atmosphere. Therefore, the light coming from our solar system’s planets doesn’t appear to twinkle.
2. MERCURY IS THE HOTTEST PLANET
Being the closest planet to the Sun doesn’t make Mercury the hottest planet in our Solar System. Mercury doesn’t have atmosphere; it can’t keep or trap any heat coming from the Sun. Venus is the hottest planet in the Solar System – which is the second closest planet to the Sun. Venus’ thick atmosphere is the reason why it is the hottest planet.
3. ALL PLANETS HAVE ROCKY SURFACE
The four closest planets to Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars all have a rocky surface made up of rocks or metals with a hard surface. The outer planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are considered as gas giants which are large planets composed mainly of gases, such as hydrogen and helium.
4. THE CONSTELLATIONS FORM PATTERNS CLEARLY RESEMBLING PEOPLE, ANIMALS, OR OBJECTS
There are 88 constellations recognized by the International Astronomical Union ( IAU). Constellations are patterns in the night sky formed by the most prominent stars to the naked eye. A constellation defines not just the group stars that form their patterns, but also the region of sky in which it rests.
5. POLARIS WILL ALWAYS BE THE NORTH STAR
Our planet spins on its axis and also wobbles like one, completing one cycle in a period of about 26,000 years. At present, our North Star is the Polaris from the constellation of Ursa Minor. However, 5,000 years ago, our considered North Star was Thuban from the constellation of Draco. About 12 years from now, it will be Vega from the constellation of Lyra.
6. THE NORTH STAR IS THE BRIGHTEST STAR IN NIGHT SKY
7. ALL STARS IN A CONSTELLATION ARE NEAR TO EACH OTHER
The constellations are made of a set of stars that appear closeto each other as seen from the Earth. All the constellations are made of stars that are completely unrelated to each other.
8. THE MOON APPEARS LARGER WHEN IT'S ON THE HORIZON RATHER THAN WHEN IT'S DIRECTLY ABOVE A PARTICULAR LOCATION
You may be amazed that the Moon is so big while close to the horizon when actually it’s called the Moon illusion. Your brain is playing a psychological trick on you. When the Moon is rising, your eyes sees the Moon close to some landscapes that contains trees, mountain, or houses which your brain knows that these object indeed look large if they were close to you. This psychological effect is being transferred to the Moon which makes you think that it’s larger than reality by the brain.
9. BLUE MOON IS REALLY BLUE
The Moon doesn’t actually appear as color blue when it’s Blue Moon since the light which we see reflected from its surface is only the sunlight. Another misconception for the Blue Moon is it’s widespread definition that it’s the second full moon in a month. This error first appeared in the late 1940’s and still being misused over the last 50 years. Blue Moon is actually the third full moon in any season that has four full moons.
10. TELESCOPE WAS INVENTED BY GALILEO GALILEI
Telescope was invented by Hans Lippershey, a German- Dutch lensmaker. Although, Galileo Galilei was the first person to use the telescope for astronomical purposes. Galileo improved Lippershey’s work by increasing the magnification of an object by 20 times. Through this, he was able to observe some mountains and craters on the Moon, the rings of Saturn, sunspots, and the four largest moons of Jupiter.
We need to look at everything around us, we need to ask ourselves why we believe what we believe. In the early days, astronomers believed in a geocentric cosmology – they thought that the Earth is the center of the Universe,
because they cannot feel the Earth moving. It seems natural that the massiveness of the Earth would be in place while those little twinkling stars floating in the sky circle around us. Seems natural. . . but it isn’t true.
We would be interested in hearing of misconception you know (or perhaps been guilty of), regarding space, stars, or astronomy in general. Leave your comment here.
