onifre writes:
Today, since our consciousness was raised about stars 200,000 years ago(assumed time), we know what they are made of, how long the last, how old they are etc, etc. But had we never looked up and made ourselves conscious(aware) of those stars, we would still have no idea what they are, and therefore we would have no knowledge of them.
200,000 years ago?
All I know is that I was born in 1959 and was taught about stars in school. I think that the actual time when we really began to understand stars happened around then when they first began building telescopes that could observe the stars and when they first began studying matter from space that either crashed onto earth or was brought back by the Apollo astronauts. My consciousness about these matters is also limited by my interests...which do not include Astronomy, Cosmology, or Geology.
I gather much of my information through second hand accounts by folks such as yourselves (contributors to this forum) who explain to me the evolving mysteries of space, time, and reality as we humans perceive it.