Word: ancient
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...revealed that they had discovered an abundance of submicroscopic diamonds in a meteorite that fell in Mexico in 1969. While the impact of a meteor slamming into the earth creates enough pressure to crystallize carbon into diamonds, the tiny samples found by the Chicago team apparently resulted from an ancient supernova. The evidence: they contained atomic forms of the gas xenon different from the kind found on earth or detected...
...shock waves from an ancient supernova sparked the creation of the sun and planets, Anders concludes, "it's very likely that the material from which our solar system was formed was contaminated with these diamonds. The diamonds on earth may well be a mixture of those loaded with xenon and those without...
Fascination with supernovas is hardly confined to modern science. Like today's astrologers, ancient civilizations believed the stars had a direct influence on earthly affairs, and the Chinese, who carefully recorded any changes in the sky, were especially impressed by "guest stars." They regarded such astronomical visitors as omens of important events on earth. What may be the earliest Chinese record of a supernova is an inscription on a bit of bone, dating from about 1300 B.C., that describes a bright star appearing near the star now known as Antares...
While there is some question whether this and several other of the earliest recorded sightings involved actual exploding stars, there is little doubt about the guest star of A.D. 185. "Second year of the Chung-p'ing reign period," reads an ancient Chinese text, "tenth month, day kuei-hai, a guest star appeared within nanmen. It was as large as half a mat; it was multicolored, and it scintillated. It gradually became smaller and disappeared in the sixth month of the year after next." The description, especially concerning the brightness and slow fade of the star, seems to confirm...
...word bagpipes conjures up an image that is, in this case, far off the mark. Unlike their strident, better known and more ancient Scottish cousins, the Irish (or Uilleann) bagpipes are soft and melodic; their construction is different, and no one wears an ethnic costume for performances. Not that the Irish scorn the Highland pipes; they play them too, on occasions like St. Patrick's Day parades, but that is in part because the Irish pipes cannot be played standing up. Besides, they are not very loud. The Scottish variety is challenging enough, but Uilleann pipes are in a class...