How recently have we understood the Universe?

Since ancient times, humanity has studied the skies. <img alt="" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:630/0*z8qJjIQyVUpvYqQh" style="height:525px; width:700px" /> 70,000 years ago, a red dwarf-brown dwarf pair known as Scholz’s star, so faint that it was only discovered very recently, passed through the Solar System’s Oort cloud. Unlike the illustration, however, it’s so intrinsically faint that it still wouldn’t have been visible to human eyes; today, it’s approximately 22 light-years away. Other stars, in the near future, will pass even closer, but it is a near-certainty that even our pre-human ancestors were watching and cataloguing the night skies. (<a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/passing-star-shook-solar-systems-comets-70000-years-ago-180968564/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Credit</a>: José A. Peñas/SINC) <a href="https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/how-recently-have-we-understood-the-universe-6242256f172d">Learn More</a>