Abstract: It is argued that Copernican astronomy is a key theme in Michelangelo’s fresco of the Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel, and was incorporated with the knowledge, consent and approval of the Popes concerned. In Christian art, the iconography of the Last Judgment (depicting the three parts of the universe: heaven earth and hell) was traditionally based on a layered structure relating to perceptions of the flat earth covered by the dome of heaven according to biblical cosmology. In Michelangelo’s revolutionary work, Christ is significantly depicted as a beardless Apollonian sun-god, positioned in the centre of a dramatic circular design rather than at the top of a layered format. This appears to relate to the traditional Christian analogy between the deity and the astronomical feature of the sun, the neoplatonic cult of sun-symbolism and sources in Dante. More importantly, the influence of the Copernican theory of heliocentricity is argued, since interest in such ideas in papal circles is demonstrated at exactly the time of the commission of the painting (1533). This provides important evidence of papal support for Copernican heliocentricity as early as the 1530s.Abstract: It is argued that Copernican astronomy is a key theme in Michelangelo’s fresco of the Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel, and was incorporated with the knowledge, consent and approval of the Popes concerned. In Christian art, the iconography of the Last Judgment (depicting the three parts of the universe: heaven earth and hell) was traditionally b...Show More
Abstract: Silicon carbide grains found in meteorites are peculiar in their age and isotopic ratios; they formed before the Sun was born, and their isotopic signature indicates that they come from a different galactic region. This work aims to seek a possible paradigm for such richness and peculiarity through Monte Carlo simulation of scattering of Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars off molecular cloud. Such approach randomly generates AGB stars in regions close to the Galaxy bulge and examines possibility of migration to outer regions by scattering off molecular cloud. A successful explanation to this problem will influence how we think nuclides were formed and then distributed in the Galaxy and will shed new light unto the age and the chemical evolution of the Milky Way Galaxy. Thus, it is important that we know where do they come from and how do they end up in our backyard?Abstract: Silicon carbide grains found in meteorites are peculiar in their age and isotopic ratios; they formed before the Sun was born, and their isotopic signature indicates that they come from a different galactic region. This work aims to seek a possible paradigm for such richness and peculiarity through Monte Carlo simulation of scattering of Asymptotic...Show More