Stars, wanderers and the cycles of life
Post on 12-Feb-2016
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Stars, wanderers and the cycles Stars, wanderers and the cycles of lifeof life
The patterns of stars in the sky do not change from one generation to the next
Ancient cultures developed stories from the patterns they saw
They gave names to patterns - like Orion and The Seven Sisters
Stars, wanderers and the cycles of Stars, wanderers and the cycles of lifelife
There are just 7 objects that are visible to the naked eye and that move amongst the patterns of the stars
One of them is the Sun
The Sun is so bright to us that other stars become invisible in daylight - but they are still there
Stars, wanderers and the cycles of Stars, wanderers and the cycles of lifelife
The Sun seems to move against a background of fixed stars The sequence of patterns behind the Sun is called the Zodiac The time taken for the Sun to move around the Zodiac is the same as the
time taken for a cycle of the Earth’s seasons You count your age according to these cycles
Stars, wanderers and the cycles of Stars, wanderers and the cycles of lifelife
The Moon is another of the 7 wanderers
Its visible sunlit part changes shape, as seen from where we are, between a bright full circle and a crescent
Our idea of a month comes from the reliable regularity of these cycles of apparent change of shape
Stars, wanderers and the cycles of Stars, wanderers and the cycles of lifelife
As well as yearly cycles of the Sun and cycles of the phases of the Moon, there are cycles of light and dark that give us day and night
Our lives are shaped by these cycles
Stars, wanderers and the cycles of Stars, wanderers and the cycles of lifelife
There are five other wanderers visible to the naked eye - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn
There are the same number of visible wanderers as days of the week
In English, three days are named after these wanderers - Sunday, Monday and Saturday
In some languages, all 7 days match the 7 objects that wander amongst the fixed stars
Stars, wanderers and the cycles of Stars, wanderers and the cycles of lifelife
People have never gone far from the Earth - seen here from the Moon
If we inhabited another planet or moon, the cycles of our lives would need to be very different
Stars, wanderers and the cycles of Stars, wanderers and the cycles of lifelife
image credits Slide 1 - NASA and H Richer (University of British
Columbia) Slide 2 - NASA JPL Slide 3 - Tau ‘olunga Slide 4 - Fekete Csaba Slide 5 - David Brodie Slide 6 - NASA JPL Space Science Institute Slide 7 - NASA
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