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Cosmic Transmissions – Small Star Cosmic Transmissions – Small Star
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The first image of exoplanet 2M1207b, VLT, ESO, 2004. Source: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
Outer Space

Cosmic Transmissions – Small Star

Łukasz Kaniewski
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time 6 minutes
Łukasz Kaniewski:
He writes about space, which is where he lives. He has mess on his desk (and likes to rhyme all the time). He uses public transport.

Small Star, Large Problem

Astronomers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias announced that they have discovered two planets orbiting around a star called Gliese 1002—a red dwarf in the Cetus constellation. They are both at least as big as Earth and both travel within the habitable zone of their host star, i.e., within a distance which allows for the presence of liquid water on their surface. Theoretically, then, they could be home to life resembling that on Earth. However, upon further analysis, such hypothetical life would in practice have to overcome many obstacles.

Let’s start with the fact that Gliese 1002 is a small star (12% of the sun’s mass) and it doesn’t emit much energy—any habitable celestial bodies would need to orbit it at quite a small distance. The closeness of the host star means that a phenomenon called tidal locking might occur. This refers to the same side of the planet always being turned

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Łukasz Kaniewski:
He writes about space, which is where he lives. He has mess on his desk (and likes to rhyme all the time). He uses public transport.
Translation: Marta Dziurosz
Publish date: 17.03.2023

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Donato Creti, "Astronomical Observations: The Moon", 1711, Vatican Pinacoteca; photo: public domain
Outer Space

Florence in the Ascendant

Tomasz Wiśniewski
Tomasz Wiśniewski:
a writer (author of the books "O pochodzeniu łajdaków" and "Wstrząsająco przystojny mężczyzna") and editor of the Tall-tales section.

The greatest minds of the Italian Renaissance, such as Giordano Bruno and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, were on the side of magic and astrology. The belief in a deep dependence on cosmic forces was the foundation of understanding the world, and on the other hand, it was a source of great controversy. 

The stereotypical image of modern history presents the European Middle Ages as a time of civilizational stagnation, an “irrational” and “dark” epoch, followed by a kind of breakthrough: the Italian Renaissance—a time of renewal initiating true modernity and everything that is characteristic about it including scientific and technical discoveries, the development of the arts and the beginnings of secularism, and the new position of human beings in the cosmos. The Florentines are partly responsible for this stereotype of the epoch—Petrarch wrote about the Middle Ages as a time of “barbarism” that followed the great Greco-Roman culture. This view was taken up and popularized by nineteenth-century historians, especially Jules Michelet. 

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