Poesia e Ciência

Para fecharmos a semana, um poema inspirado pela ciência:

Discovering the Night Sky

Ancient civilisations distinguished between stars and planets,

They understood then, Moon phases and how the Sun rises and sets.

Through joining of the night sky stars they enabled navigations,

Using imaginary lines to make patterns (constellations).

The Egyptians created our calendar of 3 6 5 days,

Greeks discovered that reflected sunlight lit the Moon with bright rays.

Nicolaus Copernicus theorised that planets orbit the Sun,

By studying night skies, many important discoveries were won.

But it was not till Galileo, a famous astronomer,

First used a telescope to see the night sky, clearer than it were.

Then, scientific discoveries could more accurately be made,

And conventional views were challenged, and thus soon began to fade.

Galileo didn't just observe the fascinating night sky,

He also applied scientific methods to find out just why,

Using simple logical thinking and mathematical laws,

With his observations, to help discover the possible cause.

Galileo sighted some darkness on the surface of the Moon,

These dark areas amazingly grew and shrunk back rather soon.

Depending on their true position in relation to the Sun,

He deduced that these were just mere shadows, when next day there were none!

Cast by the Moon's odd-looking surface craters and mountains up high,

This was an important revelation - uncovered with a sigh,

As it was widely believed and also very commonly thought,

That the Moon's surface was quite smooth, as had previously been taught.

Most importantly, Galileo Galilei discovered then,

The four major, visible moons of Jupiter, in 16 10.

He observed that the surrounding moons of planet Jupiter moved,

And with further investigating and calculation he proved,

That around planet Jupiter the large rings actually revolved,

This was a major discovery - a curious mystery solved,

As it was previously truly believed by most common folk,

That all things in the universe revolved around Earth - what a joke!

Galileo's confirmation that planet Earth orbits the Sun,

Meant that the Copemican System's popularity was won.

Furthermore, the rings of Saturn that Galileo uncovered,

Are other fascinating phenomena that he discovered.

His observations motivated people to further explore,

Foremost, Galileo encouraged many people to be sure,

To always apply maths laws and logic to their observations,

In a quest to understand the universe and situations.

Many important, great discoveries were made throughout history,

By studying the night sky for the benefit of you and me.

Today, major advances such as the Hubble Space Telescope,

CCD imaging, observations in infra-red give hope.

Also, improved optical telescopes, ultra-violet, X-rays,

Continue to aid discoveries in more technological ways.

Future generations need no longer yearn or ask to know why -

Most questions can now be answered about the amazing night sky!

Ellysia Oldsen, 14 years

Australia

Fonte: Science Education Review, 10(2), 2011 p.31