The Astronomer's Chair

Abstract

Such relics are housed in museums visited by thousands every year, for whom these artifacts sparkle with an historical and cultural aura, one related to the status of science in our modern societies. Think also of Stephen Hawking's wheelchair, which, after the celebrated astrophysicist's death in 2018, was initially thought to be bound for the Science Museum in London, but was bought at Christie's auction house in London for $390,000 and ended up in private hands instead. 2 Another iconic chair in private possession is the corner chair made sometime in the early nineteenth century from the wood of the legendary apple tree at Woolsthorpe Manor under which Newton is said to have sat. 3 At all these levels-from the mundane to the iconic, from the physical to the symbolic, the real and mythic-the striking presence of chairs in the history of science needs to be acknowledged and understood. 4 As a historian of science motivated by the work of cultural historians of design and furniture, I take the example of

The multi-wavelength view of shocks in the fastest nova V1674 Her

“…The ejecta are assumed to be in a spherical shell with an inner radius expanding with velocity min and an outer radius expanding with max resulting in ∝ −2 density profile. Assuming the shell ejected at 0 with max = 5000 km s −1 (the maximum velocity reported by Aydi et al 2021) and min = 0.1 max , we find that the (EM) radio constraint corresponds to an ejecta mass of > 10 −7 M ⊙ (if the 13 GHz emission at 0 + 10 is mostly thermal).…”

“…1 http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/unconf/followups/ J18573095+1653396.html Aydi et al (2021) noted dramatic changes in the line profiles over the course of a day -in addition to the initial 3000 km s −1 absorption components, faster components (P Cygni absorptions with troughs at blueshifted velocities > 5000 km s −1 ) appeared in less than a day. Aydi et al (2021) interpreted these two velocity components in the context of multiple outflows described in Aydi et al (2020b). NIR spectroscopic observations were reported by Woodward et al (2021) showing the emergence of coronal lines as early as 0 + 11 d, the earliest onset yet observed for any classical nova.…”

“…Astrometric measurements during the eruption of V1674 Her (e.g. Aydi et al 2021) allow the identification of the nova progenitor as a = 19.95 ± 0.02 star Gaia DR3 4514092717838547584 located at R. A. and Dec. 18:57:30.98324 +16:53:39.5895 equinox J2000.0, mean epoch 2016.0; with the positional uncertainty of 0.6 and 0.8 mas and the proper motion of −4.1 ± 0.7 and −4.7 ± 0.9 mas yr −1 in R.A. and Dec. directions, respectively; there is no measured parallax (Gaia Collaboration et al , 2022.…”

“…The extreme properties of V1674 Her challenge our understanding of nova outflows and specifically the 'slow torus -fast bipolar wind' scenario ( § 1, 4.2). It is tempting to attribute the shock velocity shock ≃ 1700 km s −1 (corresponding to k shock = 4 keV) to the shock between the early 3500 km s −1 and late 5000 km s −1 outflows seen in optical spectra by Aydi et al (2021). Even if the shock is between the 3500 km s −1 outflow and a slower ejecta not seen in spectroscopy, that would still imply the slow torus velocity of > 1000 km s −1 .…”

Introduction to the symposium “What makes a philosopher (good or bad)? Philosophical virtues and vices: Past and present”

“…Despite everything, philosophy is, for better or for worse, a human practice. (Indeed, even armchairs represent one way of philosophizing [see Nasim 2021; Haug 2014]). Like any human activity, philosophy is “never pure”: instead, to quote the historian of science Steven Shapin, it is produced by people with bodies, situated in time, space, culture, and society, and struggling for credibility and authority (Shapin 2010).…”