1847 Speculation About Extraterrestrials
In general I would be cautious against … plays of fancy and would not make way for their reception into scientific astronomy, which must have quite a different character. Laplace's cosmogenic hypotheses belong in that class. Indeed, I do not deny that I sometimes amuse myself in a similar manner, only I would never publish the stuff. My thoughts about the inhabitants of celestial bodies, for example, belong in that category. For my part, I am (contrary to the usual opinion) convinced ... that the larger the cosmic body, the smaller are the inhabitants and other products. For example, on the sun trees, which in the same ratio would be larger than ours, as the sun exceeds the earth in magnitude, would not be able to exist, for on account of the much greater weight on the surface of the sun, all branches would break themselves off, in so far as the materials are not of a sort entirely heterogeneous with those on earth.
Notes:
On the sun trees would be larger, but would break apart if made of the same material as those on Earth.
Folksonomies: xenobiology
Taxonomies:
/business and industrial/energy/renewable energy/solar energy (0.311885)
/science/physics/space and astronomy (0.272707)
Keywords:
sun trees (0.964793 (negative:-0.315892)), cosmogenic hypotheses (0.794549 (neutral:0.000000)), similar manner (0.670790 (negative:-0.433827)), celestial bodies (0.657444 (neutral:0.000000)), scientific astronomy (0.654772 (neutral:0.000000)), different character (0.652464 (neutral:0.000000)), usual opinion (0.640271 (negative:-0.342648)), cosmic body (0.620648 (neutral:0.000000)), greater weight (0.604191 (neutral:0.000000)), earth (0.383754 (negative:-0.468076)), inhabitants (0.379638 (neutral:0.000000)), example (0.330072 (neutral:0.000000)), Extraterrestrials (0.280217 (negative:-0.315892)), Laplace (0.266297 (neutral:0.000000)), Speculation (0.252940 (negative:-0.315892)), magnitude (0.240688 (neutral:0.000000)), reception (0.226962 (neutral:0.000000)), ratio (0.221780 (neutral:0.000000)), sort (0.220515 (negative:-0.294047)), material (0.212714 (negative:-0.642104)), category (0.206083 (negative:-0.224697)), plays (0.204790 (neutral:0.000000)), way (0.204411 (neutral:0.000000)), class (0.202764 (neutral:0.000000)), branches (0.202142 (negative:-0.481531)), stuff (0.202104 (negative:-0.592293))
Entities:
Laplace:City (0.981073 (neutral:0.000000))
Concepts:
Sun (0.966624): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Planet (0.797157): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Moon (0.738449): dbpedia | freebase
Solar System (0.706586): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Jupiter (0.684599): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc | yago
Earth (0.661869): dbpedia | freebase
Solar wind (0.560011): dbpedia | freebase
Scientific method (0.549183): dbpedia | freebase
Carl Friedrich Gauss: Titan of Science
