![]() ![]() Each of these spheres wheeled grandly around the Earth at its own pace, in a never-ending celestial procession.Īll of this was delivered in the dry manner of a textbook. The Moon, the Sun and the planets each had their own sphere, and beyond them was the firmament, a single sphere studded with all of the stars. The author of the Introduction to Cosmography laid out the organization of the cosmos as it had been described for more than 1,000 years: the Earth sat motionless at the center, surrounded by a set of giant revolving concentric spheres. The word "cosmography" isn't used much today, but educated readers in 1507 knew what it meant: the study of the known world and its place in the cosmos. Dié, a town in eastern France some 60 miles southwest of Strasbourg, in the Vosges Mountains of Lorraine. ![]() But a printer's mark recorded that it had been published in 1507, in St. The book-known today as the Cosmographiae Introductio, or Introduction to Cosmography-listed no author. One hundred and three pages long and written in Latin, it announced itself on its title page as follows:Ī GLOBE AND A FLAT SURFACE WITH THE INSERTION When a few copies began resurfacing, in the 18th century, nobody knew what to make of it. Waters near Florida and the Caribbean reached into the 90s Fahrenheit on July 10 and continued getting warmer, posing a severe threat to coral reefs and other marine life.It was a curious little book. Hot surface air temperatures have been accompanied by marine heat waves, too. The bouts of exceptional warmth are driven by the continued emissions of heat-trapping gases, mainly from the burning of fossil fuels, and in part by the return of El Niño, a cyclical weather pattern that tends to be associated with warmer years globally. Last month was Earth’s warmest June on record, according to researchers at the World Meteorological Organization, and scientists have said that the first two weeks of July have been the hottest since at least 1940, and very likely before that. Though global temperatures tend to peak in late July, the extreme heat engulfing the planet this month is far from normal. That measurement of how hot it really feels outside, known as the heat index, reached “life-threatening” levels in parts of the Middle East.Īnd in the United States, tens of millions of people live in areas expected to experience dangerous levels of heat in the upcoming days, as searing temperatures spread well beyond the Southwest into the Deep South and Southeast. Heat waves have also shattered temperature records across China, where authorities warned that high humidity could make temperatures feel almost 20 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than it actually is. Hot and dry weather has helped fuel wildfires that scorched parts of Croatia, Greece, Switzerland and the Canary Islands of Spain. The scorching conditions have been accompanied by heavy storms in the Balkans and northern Italy that have led to flash flooding and property destruction. In Europe, the extreme heat has prompted officials in Greece, Italy and Spain to activate emergency measures to protect residents and tourists. Source: Climate Reanalyzer, Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, using data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction Global Forecast System ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |