Tidbits:
Stories, Quotes, and FAQs.
The wisdom builder tidbits that feed the columns, articles, and trainer.
ASTRONOMY
Featured Story
Science
Story
13.4 Billion Years Ago
Galaxies are Born
Verified. Empirically supported and rationally deduced.
Expanding Universe
Galaxies formed early in cosmic history, within a few hundred million years of the Big Bang. This shows that structure emerged quickly from an initially simple universe. Observations confirm that gravity wasted little time turning primordial gas into organized systems, even before features we now consider typical. Such as central supermassive black holes commonly found in galaxies.
Featured QUOTE
Philosophy
Quote
“We are all connected to each other biologically, to the Earth chemically, and to the rest of the universe atomically.”
- Carl Sagan
- circa 1980
We Are Stardust
Carl Sagan had many similar quotes to this.
Carl Sagan reminds us that we are intimately connected to the universe. The particles that form our bodies are borrowed from a cosmic pool of just 17 particles and four forces. Even more humbling, the molecules within us were forged in the hearts of stars, linking us directly to the vast cosmos that surrounds us.
Featured FAQ
Critical Thinking
FAQ
Does the Fermi paradox lack good thinking?
The Fermi Paradox.
The Fermi Paradox is a valuable question, not a failed argument. The trouble arises when human expectations are smuggled in as cosmic rules. Good critical thinking means separating evidence from assumption and recognizing how bias, projection, and limited samples distort conclusions about an immense and unfamiliar universe.
Astronomy
“Keep looking up!” --Neil deGrasse Tyson
Space, the final frontier...
“The universe is a self-reconfiguring machine, with nothing being created from the void nor destroyed to nothing. At the core of reality are four forces guiding 17+ particles. We see these particles combine into atoms and molecules. Those molecules bundle into materials, and those materials evolve into life.” –M. A. Prestwood (Paraphrased from chapters 1 & 18 of 30 Philosophers)
Deep-Dive Articles
The Universe Before the Telescope
Before instruments extended our vision, the universe was understood through naked-eye observation—the Sun, Moon, and five wandering planets set against a backdrop of stars that sometimes fell.
The Expanding Universe Explained
ΛCDM remains the leading cosmological model because our current best measurements indicate gravity is not strong enough to stop the universe’s expansion.
Must-Reads
Astronomy
The Expanding Universe Explained
ΛCDM remains the leading cosmological model because our current best measurements indicate gravity is not strong enough to stop the universe’s expansion.
Updated Articles
TST COLUMN
21 Jan 2026
History
Article
The Universe Before the Telescope
Astronomy
Thu 11 Apr 2024
(2 years ago)
Updated 4 months ago.