Our Sun Is A Star ! Options

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

A very simple topic title because everybody knows that our Sun is a Star ( lectured to 8 year olds all over the world ... )

But which scientist/Astronomer actually found out this 'simple' fact ?
( 17th Century CHristiaan HUYGENS studied the Sun, 19th Century Angelo SECHI even studied Sunspots )

I do know that 20th Century Fred HOYLE did a lot of calculations on the destiny of Stars but we might go back way earlier to know who found out that our Sun is a Star

[dilo]

PhilCo, I think you are talking of Father Angelo SECCHI...

[ljk4-1]

Aristarchus of Samos was one of the first in history to theorize that
the stars are similar to Sol, only very far away. You will recall he
was also among the first to claim that Earth orbited Sol and not
the other way around, like most others thought.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristarchus_of_Samos

http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~h...ristarchus.html

Among the many advanced ideas of Democritus was that the
band of the Milky Way consisted of many stars which were
faint because they were so far away.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democritus

[Guest_Richard Trigaux_*]

Among the many advanced ideas of Democritus was that the
band of the Milky Way consisted of many stars which were
faint because they were so far away.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democritus

DOUBLE WOW
the intuitions of Democritus were incredible, he not only though of the atom, but also for their arrangement into molecules, explainig the variety of differnt matters, solidity, taste, etc...

he even went so far as considering the atoms as being "void" as in the quantum concept... or was he in contact with Buddhist thinkers? There was actual contacts from Buddhism toward Greece, but later, when the India emperor Ashoka sent an ambassy toward Greece (a little known fact, but important for the appearance of certain ideas into Antiquity)

Democritus was also the first to explain that there could be many inhabited worlds..


I noted an article in a french popular science review (sorry don't recall the reference and title) that the 5th century BC was a king of special, witth he appearance of many "modern" great thinkers, including Zoroastre, Pythagore, Buddha, etc. We should add Democritus to the list. So these scientists were asking the question: what happened so special into this century? Why so much intuitions and thinking system appeared at that time, and not further? For about a millenia, Antiquity lived onto these intuitions, without adding really new things, until catholic fanaticism put an end to it in the 5th century, bringing the heaviest setback of human evolution. Why so much progress in this 5th century BC, and not a linear following after the 1000 years it was still possible?