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
