Posts tagged as “Astronomy news”

Just as the framework of the known universe is a mind-bending puzzle, so is the elemental force that seems, incongruously, to hold it all together.  But before we get to that, let’s acknowledge that we ordinary stargazing folk are often numbed by the immensity of the space/time/motion continuum. Many of us can barely grasp, if at all, the numbers involved in “measuring” distance. Even when abbreviated, say, to a light-year, or an AU (or au for astronomical unit) for simplicity’s sake, the mind boggles. The former, the distance light travels in an Earth year, is on the far side of six trillion miles. It helps just a tiny bit to realize that practically speaking, the Sun we saw slipping beneath the high peaks really performed…