Tag: Owen Gingerich

  • Nation & World

    Pluto’s demotion debated

    In 2006, the International Astronomical Union demoted Pluto from its rank as a planet. But after an hourlong debate between planetary science experts on what constitutes a planet, an audience packed into Harvard’s Phillips Auditorium voted to restore it to its place.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    The last dance between Venus and the sun

    Before 2004, the most recent Venus transit occurred more than a century ago, in 1882, and was used to compute the distance from the Earth to the sun. On June 5, 2012, another Venus transit will occur. Scientists with NASA’s Kepler mission hope to discover Earth-like planets outside our solar system by searching for transits…

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Gingerich awarded Janssen Prize

    Owen Gingerich, professor of astronomy and of the history of science emeritus, has been awarded the 2006 Janssen Prize by the Société Astronomique de France (French Astronomical Society).

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Harvard science historian publishes results of unprecedented 30-year census of Copernican masterpiece

    First published in 1543, Nicholas Copernicus’ De revolutionibus orbium coelestium introduced the world to the concept of a sun-centered universe. In it, Copernicus detailed how the motions of the sun,…

    1 minute