From Martian Canals to Exoplanet Biosignatures: The Historic Scientific Search for Life beyond Earth

From Martian Canals to Exoplanet Biosignatures: The Historic Scientific Search for Life beyond Earth

September 19, 2025

The arc from Lowell’s imagined Martian engineers to Webb’s atmospheric spectroscopy demonstrates not only the persistence of...

Celestial Ledgers: How Babylonian Astronomy Governed Seasons, Taxes, and Empire

August 15, 2025

Babylonian astronomy cannot be fully understood if confined to the history of science. It was, fundamentally, a...

Moisture, Melancholy, and the Moon: Medieval Understandings of Lunar Power

August 15, 2025

For the medieval observer, the moon was a constant companion whose phases ordered the most intimate aspects...

Celestial Engines: The Birth and History of Modern Astrophysics from the 19th Century

August 15, 2025

The history of modern astrophysics is, in many ways, the history of a deepening intimacy with the...

Wan Hu and the Celestial Quest: Dreams of Earth’s Atmospheric Shell in Medieval China

July 8, 2025

By Matthew A. McIntoshPublic HistorianBrewminate Introduction In the vast expanse of Chinese legend, few tales capture the...

Turning the Heavens: How the Renaissance Moved the Earth and Recentered the Sun

July 8, 2025

Heliocentrism’s triumph reshaped the epistemological foundations of knowledge itself. By Matthew A. McIntoshPublic HistorianBrewminate Introduction The intellectual...

The 19th-Century Astronomer Who Used Science Fiction to Imagine Mars

September 18, 2025

In the 19th century, astronomers could see Mars through telescopes, but not clearly. By Dr. Matthew ShindellCurator,...

Race to the Moon: American Space Exploration since 1955

September 18, 2025

After two defeats by the Soviets, the U.S. was desperate for a win. Introduction After World War...

Lunar Standstill: Prehistoric Stonehenge May Have Aligned with Both the Moon and the Sun

June 11, 2024

The monument’s ancient connection to the skies may run even deeper than we realized. Introduction When it...

Stars in Their Eyes: Art and Astronomy in the Medieval World

August 12, 2025

A small sample of the ways the planets and stars were portrayed in medieval manuscripts. After coming...

The ‘System of the World’: Astronomy and Cosmology in Early Modern Europe

August 12, 2025

For decades, historians have grappled with the origins of modern science in early modern Europe. Abstract Historians...

Heavenly Clashes: Ancient Mayan Beliefs and Astronomical Scientific Sophistication

May 23, 2024

The skies and the gods were inseparable in Maya culture. Astronomers kept careful track of events. By...

Astrology in the Ancient Hellenistic World

July 8, 2025

Greco-Roman accounts of the Persian Wars mention astrologers among high-ranking Persian dignitaries. Introduction Hellenistic astrology encompassed various forms...

`Night Skies Getting 9.6% Brighter Yearly as Light Pollution Erases Stars for Everyone

April 8, 2025

A new study measured exactly how much brighter night skies are getting every year. Introduction For most...

Copernicus to Newton: Astronomy in the Scientific Revolution

July 7, 2025

Astronomy had interested many ancient thinkers, but two views of the universe dominated and endured. Introduction The...

Caroline Herschel: First Female Astronomer in the Eighteenth Century

December 14, 2023

Astronomer Caroline Herschel’s work discovering and cataloging astronomical objects is still used in the field today. Introduction...

A History of Western Astrology before the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment

September 18, 2025

By inspiring astronomical inquiry, astrology ultimately helped birth scientific innovations. Introduction Western astrology refers to a form...

Shoot for the Moon: How 19th-Century Astronomers Photographed the Night Sky

August 12, 2025

Early scientists were eager to use photographic technologies to learn more about the moon. You’ve probably seen...

A Closer Look: The Telescope and the Scientific Revolution in the 17th Century

September 8, 2025

The telescope quickly opened up a whole new area of scientific inquiry. Introduction The invention of the...

Historical Account of How the Incas Used Astronomy

July 21, 2023

In the annals of history, one civilization stands out for its remarkable understanding of the cosmos—the mighty...

Beginnings: A History of Humanity’s Effort to Order the Cosmos

August 12, 2025

Astronomy is the oldest of the natural sciences, dating back to antiquity and the beliefs and practices...

Can Cosmology Untangle the Universe’s Most Elusive Mysteries?

March 23, 2023

From the Big Bang to dark energy, knowledge of the cosmos has sped up in the past...

The Drake Equation: Frank Drake and the Probability of Alien Intelligence

October 8, 2023

Research on exoplanets could help us estimate how many intelligent alien civilizations may be in our galaxy....

Billions of Super-Earths, More Common and More Habitable, Being Discovered

January 4, 2023

Newly discovered super-Earths add to the list of planets around other stars that offer the best chance...

The Importance of the Moon in the Medieval World

August 12, 2025

Many believed that celestial bodies exert a strong influence on elements and bodies in the sub-lunar world....

Margaret Hamilton: The Woman behind the Software for the Apollo 11 Moon Mission

July 7, 2025

It was thanks to her engineering and programming expertise that Apollo 11 was able to land on...

HaLuah HaIvri: The Oldest Hebrew Lunisolar Calendar Still in Use

January 6, 2024

The era used for the calendar since the Middle Ages is Anno Mundi (from the creation of...

The Wealthy Are Carving Up Space and Its Riches

January 8, 2025

Powerful nations are defining the rules of resource use in space in ways that make it hard...

Calends: The Adoption and Use of the Julian Solar Calendar in Ancient Rome

December 29, 2023

Julius Caesar sought to create a calendar that remained aligned to the sun without any human intervention....

Corporations Are Looking to Begin Mining in Space

January 8, 2025

There’s a lot of technological progress required before off-Earth mining operations can be considered feasible. Introduction Like...