Early knowledge about the Sun
Before the 1700-hundreds the most important questions within astronomy were about how space was built up, and whether the Sun or the Earth is in the centre of the universe.
Today we know that the Sun is in the centre of the solar system, but not at all in the centre of the universe. |
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| Adoration of the Sun |
| In the past, people had a quite different and closer relationship to nature than we have today. In those days people had to live with nature and understand it in order to survive. |
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| What did we know about the Sun before the telescope was invented? |
Before the days of the telescope people could only study the main features of the Sun. Neither the Sun nor the phenomena on the Sun were understood, but neither was the rest of the universe!
It was not until the telescope was invented that the heliocentric world-view gradually gained ground. |
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| The telescope in astronomy |
| The telescope was invented by Galileo Galilei in 1609. With this invention it was almost as if a new world were opened. |
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| Radiation from the Sun |
| The Sun emits enormous quantities of visible light, but also all other types of radiation that we cannot see with our eyes. |
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| Cosmic radiation and neutrinos |
| The Sun does not only emit light and other electromagnetic radiation, but also atoms and electrons. The atoms are slung out at enormous speed. |
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