Csillagsors. A csillagvilág jövője az újkori természettudományban és a modern asztrofizikában

Székely, László (2016) Csillagsors. A csillagvilág jövője az újkori természettudományban és a modern asztrofizikában. Pannonhalmi Szemle, XXIV. (4.). pp. 28-43. ISSN 1216-9188

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Abstract

László Székely: Stellar Fate {The Future of Stars in Modem Natura! Philosophy and Astrophysics) Whereas modern physics dismantled the Aristotelian perfectibility and immutability of super lunar spheres, its natural laws inherited the mathematically perfect and eternal character of the Pythagorean, Platonic and Aristotelian celestial bodies. This change displayed an ambiguous character. Whereas Giordano Bruno held celestial bodies theoretically perishable, in his dialogue on the infinity of the universe he still considered them to be eternal; also, a good number of stars had an eternal future even in Descartes’ system. The idea of temporality of stars (their devastation through extinguishing) appeared only in Fontenelle’s and, later, in Kant's theory. The future of the present, starry cosmos has been a central question of cosmology ever since and XIX. century science – following Fontenelle and Kant – tried to solve this problem with the hypothetical renewal of the remnants of “dead” stars. The problem appears also in the context of present-day astrophysics, where, paradoxically, it is precisely the Aristotelian perfect and eternal character of modern physical laws that implies the necessity for stars to perish. If the cosmic expansion never stops, stars will extinguish and our cosmos will merge into eternal darkness. If cosmos contracts in the future, stars will be annihilated by heat. These scenarios are about a future inconceivable for human beings. It still concerns us as cosmologically oriented, questioning beings. (See, for example Fontenelle, Kant, Imre Madách and Teilhard de Chardin.)

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