20th-century Astronomer Quotes

Fred Hoyle
Gerard Kuiper
Clyde Tombaugh
Bernard Lovell
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
Otto Struve
Eugene Merle Shoemaker

In giving birth to us, the universe has performed its most astonishing creative act. Out of a hot, dense melee of subatomic particles... it has fashioned intelligence and consciousness... Somehow the anarchy of genesis has given way to exquisite, intricate order, so that now there are portions of the universe that can reflect upon themselves..

The world of man lies midway in scale between the inner space of atoms and particles, and the outer space of stars and galaxies. The exploration of both these regions stretches our imagination to its limits.

Yet if we go into space, let us do so humbly, in the spirit of cosmic piety. We know very little. We are face to face with the great unknown and have no right to assume that we are alone in the Solar System.

When theory runs too far ahead of what can be measured, a field becomes more philosophy than science.

A scientist works largely by intuition. Given enough experience, a scientist examining a problem can leap to an intuition as to what the solution 'should look like.'... Science is ultimately based on insight, not logic.

Guy Consolmagno
Guy Consolmagno
To look into space is to look back into time, and telescopes are time machines we can ride nearly all the way back to creation itself.

An astronomical observatory of today looks more like a factory plant than an abode for philosophers. The poetry of constellations has given way to the lure of plate libraries, and the angel of cosmogenic speculation has been caught in a cobweb of facts insistently clamoring for explanations.

Science has a beauty and uplifting spirit which rivals any of the other cultural attainments of humanity. This aesthetic response arose in a recent congressional hearing. When asked how particle physics contributes to the defense of our country, Robert Wilson replied that it makes the country worth defending.

Frank Shu
Frank Shu
We must make it clear that the scientific vision of the world is neither a rival nor an alternative to any other point of view, but is an essential part of learning to be at home in this mysterious universe.

It is no secret that our lives are patterned by personal experience, and by our observations of the experience of others. So it is with the entire human family, staring outward from a place that we know to others that we do not. Our knowledge of home helps us to understand the ways of planets beyond our ken.

The beauty of the night sky can be overwhelming.

The astronomer's rule of thumb: if you don't write it down, it didn't happen.

We should expect to find stars and galaxies in all stages of evolution as they form from existing material and then decay. For stars this is certainly the case.... There may be a similar evolutionary process for galaxies, but at the moment we do not have enough experimental evidence to give us the clues to the evolutionary pattern.

The hypothesis of plant life... appears still the most satisfactory explanation of the various kinds of dark markings and their complex seasonal and secular changes.

Gerard Kuiper
Gerard Kuiper
Among the innumerable celestial objects that may be seen through a telescope, the most beautiful of all is perhaps the planet Saturn. When viewed in the evening twilight while the sky is still bright, the yellow gold ball and its unbelievable rings shimmer in a brilliant blue medium, more like a rare work of art than a natural phenomenon.

Fred Lawrence Whipple
Fred Lawrence Whipple
An erg is a very small amount of energy: it is about the amount that a moderately slow mosquito transfers when it collides with your forehead - and this does not include the sting!

Otto Struve
Otto Struve
Twas brillig and the slithy toves Brought plans of telescopes fair to see. The Jabberwock, he clapped his hands And said, "That's just for me."

Well beyond the tropostrata There is a region stark and stellar Where, on a streak of anti-matter Lived Dr. Edward Anti-Teller.

The old dream of wireless communication through space has now been realized in an entirely different manner than many had expected. The cosmos' short waves bring us neither the stock market nor jazz from distant worlds. With soft noises they rather tell the physicist of the endless love play between electrons and protons.

This possibility of visiting the future is quite awesome to anyone who learns about it for the first time...

Neither rocks nor planets, they are something of Earth and Heaven.

It is a very human tendency to climb a celestial mountain. So it stands for any race, including that of finding individual objects at greater and greater distances.

Our fondness for the stars has touched our souls. We all share the feeling of discovery, whether the object we have found is new to all or new only to us. The thrill penetrates our being, as we try to describe... how we have been changed by the universe sharing a secret with us.

It is a solemn thought that no man liveth unto himself. It is equally true that no star, no atom, no electron, no ripple of radiant energy, exists unto itself. All the problems of the physical universe are inextricably bound up with one another in the relations of space and time.

Needle-like grains tend to spin end-over-end, like a well-kicked American football.