astronomy

Our Heavenly Bodies

Our Heavenly Bodies is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Our Heavenly Bodies rather than just read about it. In short: Our Heavenly Bodies (German: Wunder der Schöpfung, literally: Wonder of the Creation) is a 1925 German educational film written by Hanns Walter Kornblum and Ernst Krieger which attempts to represent everything known about the cosmos at the time. It covers the origin and mechanics of the Solar System, gravitation, the stars, and the nature of galaxies.

Key takeaways

Our Heavenly Bodies belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Our Heavenly Bodies to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Our Heavenly Bodies from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Our Heavenly Bodies (German: Wunder der Schöpfung, literally: Wonder of the Creation) is a 1925 German educational film written by Hanns Walter Kornblum and Ernst Krieger which attempts to represent everything known about the cosmos at the time. It covers the origin and mechanics of the Solar System, gravitation, the stars, and the nature of galaxies. The film is a prime example of the early German "Kulturfilm", which are regarded as predecessors of the modern film documentary. It features a large variety of special effects and animations, as well as fantastical depictions of travel around the Solar System and to the stars. Prints were color-tinted and color-toned for effect. The film has been reconstructed in 2008 by Munich Film Archive using material from the National Audiovisual Institute (Finland) in Helsinki and the Deutsche Kinemathek in Berlin. The current rights holder is the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Foundation.

Acts 1) On the Road to Truth (German: Auf dem Weg zur Wahrheit) A history of cosmology. 2) The Night Sky (German: Der nächtliche Himmel) The Moon: its motion and faces, its tides, lunar eclipses; the fixed stars, Berlin-Babelsberg Observatory, constellations, the North Star, comets, meteors and falling stars. 3) The Star of Day (German: Das Gestirn des Tages) Sunspots, auroras, solar eclipse, solar prominences, night, day and meridians, heating of the equator vs. poles, earthly seasons. 4) A Flight to the Moon (German: Ein Flug zum Mond) Introduces a "fantasty ship" pulled by "huge electrical energies", calls it a "space ship". Depicts its launch, discusses the nature of the vacuum of space, the idea of a Moon-day, the Earth as seen from the Moon. 5) The Sun's Children (German: Der Sonne Kinder) Continues the imaginary journey to Mercury (mentions that it's thought that Mercury always presents the same face to the Sun), Venus, Mars, its seasons and polar caps, the observed canals. Depicts an imaginary landing, and people bouncing around in reduced gravity. Asteroids. A depiction of Gulliver's Travels in Lilliput illustrates Jupiter's size. The moons of Jupiter. Depicts a person labouring to crawl on the surface of Jupiter, and giants residing on Jupiter. Saturn's rings as "numberless small bodies", depicts the rings as seen from Saturn, and Saturn's moons; Uranus; Neptune, its discovery, and its one big moon. 6) At the Gates of Infinity (German: An den Toren der Unendlichkeit) Explains that there is no up or down in space, and attempts to show people in zero gravity; discusses nebulas. The travellers use a flat view screen to look back on Earth, where they witness historical events. As the ship proceeds to travel faster than light, the travellers view the same historical events in reverse. The ship then proceeds much faster than light to visit binary stars — Algol, globular cluster. The fantasy comes to an end as they leave the last star of the Milky Way. (In 1924 it was controversial whether the Milky Way comprised the universe or not.) 7) Becoming and Waning in Outer Space (German: Werden und Vergehen im Weltenraum) Discusses the relative movements of stars; that the shape of constellations is a matter of perspective; a mass of gas taking a spiral disk shape, wherein knots form to become planets — in their youth as gas, forming a solid kernel — formation of (terrestrial) planets; erosion of surface of Earth, prehistoric creatures. Speculates on the future of the Earth — shows people freezing, then a very extended depiction of the world burning up upon being hit by another heavenly body.

Further Credits Scientific review:

Professor Dr. Guthnick Professor Dr. Kopff Professor Dr. Ludendorff Professor Dr. Solger Constructions:

Gustav Hennig Hans Minzloff Walter Reimann Karl Stahl-Urach

Film Reconstruction Stefan Drössler Christian Ketels Gerhard Ullmann "Thanks to"

Antti Alanen Annette Groschke Juha Kindberg Konrad und Wolfgang Kornblum Eva Orbanz Jon Wengström

Reception and legacy The film is described as being "overwhelming", a "wild success" at the time, in contrast with the Ufa's later, better known production Metropolis. Scenes of the film are often described as forerunners of space science-fiction films, especially Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. The spirit and content of the film more closely parallels that of Carl Sagan's TV series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.

References

External links Our Heavenly Bodies at IMDb

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Our Heavenly Bodies

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Our Heavenly Bodies claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Our Heavenly Bodies before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Our Heavenly Bodies ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Our Heavenly Bodies

In research: Our Heavenly Bodies appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Our Heavenly Bodies in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Our Heavenly Bodies is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1925 German films, 1925 documentary films, 1925 films, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Our Heavenly Bodies outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Our Heavenly Bodies in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Our Heavenly Bodies means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Our Heavenly Bodies out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Our Heavenly Bodies in simple terms?

Why does Our Heavenly Bodies matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Our Heavenly Bodies?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Our Heavenly Bodies.