Aphelion

A YANP-compliant knowledge vault for space science, astronomy, and cosmology. Satellite corpus to vulture-nest, sharing ingestion infrastructure (local crawler + Supabase/pgvector).

Orientation

Aphelion is the farthest point from the sun in an orbit — this vault collects knowledge at the edge of the main AI/software corpus.

Clusters

Navigation - Human x Sky

• celestial-navigation - latitude trivial (measure Polaris); longitude hard (needed a clock); 57 navigational stars; no planets
• polynesian-navigation - star paths; 150 stars; wave/swell piloting; frigatebird; Marshall Islands stick charts; Tupaia
• islamic-astronomy - preserved Greek knowledge; Arabic star names (Aldebaran, Rigel, Vega...); astrolabe; prayer times drove precision
• astrolabe - "star-taker"; 1,000 uses (al-Sufi); latitude, time, qibla; bridge from antiquity to Age of Discovery
• longitude-problem - Earth turns 1° per 4 minutes; Harrison's H-4 chronometer (1762); £20,000 prize; GPS is its heir
• polaris - current North Star; Thuban was pole star 2750 BC; precession changes it every ~26,000 years; Polaris 2.5x brighter than in Ptolemy's time
• southern-cross - navigation reference for Southern Hemisphere; 5 national flags; Coalsack = Dark Emu's head
• viking-navigation - sunstone (Iceland spar) locates Sun in total overcast; latitude sailing; Vinland without a compass
• aboriginal-astronomy - dark constellations (Emu in the Sky); ecological calendar; Eta Carinae eruption recorded in oral tradition
• canopus - 2nd brightest star; named after a navigator (pilot of Menelaus); Arab navigation reference; NASA spacecraft use it for attitude control
• moon - tidal locking; axial stabiliser; lunar distance method for longitude; Apollo 6 landings; calendar across all cultures
• compass - lodestone China ~200 BCE; magnetic declination; William Gilbert; corrects celestial nav in overcast; stars → compass → chronometer → GPS
• dead-reckoning - start from a fix, advance by course and speed; backbone of ocean navigation for 500 years; errors compound until reset by celestial fix
• sextant - replaced the astrolabe; double-reflection principle handles ship motion; 0.1 arcminute accuracy; still standard naval backup
• crossing-mercury-retrograde - false - Mercury was useless for ancient navigation; retrograde harm deduced from mythology not observation

Sky Events — Observation

• solar-eclipses-total — upcoming total solar eclipses 2026–2046; paths of totality; calendar import

Mythology × Astronomy — Framework

• iau-naming-conventions — the structured mythology-per-orbital-class system built into planetary science

Mythology x Astronomy - Beyond the Naked Eye

• crossing-uranus-ouranos - observed - primordial formless sky / first planet beyond the known cosmos; Aphrodite chain
• myth-ouranos - primordial sky itself; castrated by Cronus; Aphrodite born from sea foam; recedes to empty sky
• uranus-planet - first telescopic planet; 97.77° tilt; sideways seasons; Shakespeare moon names; coldest atmosphere
• crossing-neptune-poseidon - observed - deep blue planet / sea god; found by inference from hidden perturbation; Triton moon chain
• myth-poseidon - sea, earthquakes, horses; Earth-Shaker; trident; contest with Athena; father of Triton and Polyphemus
• neptune-planet - found by math prediction (1846); strongest winds in Solar System; Triton retrograde moon; 164.8-year orbit
• crossing-pluto-hades - deliberate - darkness + remoteness / lord of the unseen; excluded god = demoted planet; full underworld moon pantheon
• myth-hades - lord of the dead; Plouton (the wealthy); Persephone; Charon; Cerberus; excluded from Olympus
• pluto-dwarf-planet - named by 11-year-old Venetia Burney; demoted 2006; New Horizons heart; binary system with Charon; all moons underworld figures
• crossing-eris-eris - deliberate - goddess of strife named for causing the Trojan War / dwarf planet named for causing Pluto's demotion; most on-the-nose naming in the solar system
• myth-eris - goddess of discord; apple of discord; Judgment of Paris; Trojan War causal chain; Hesiod's two Erises
• eris-dwarf-planet - caused Pluto's demotion; named for strife; Dysnomia moon
• sirius - brightest star; Egyptian Nile calendar (Sopdet/Isis); Greek dog days; Polynesian Great Bird; Qur'an

Mythology × Astronomy — The Five Planets (Naked Eye)

• crossing-mercury-hermes — accidental — messenger god / statistically closest planet; formalized 2019
• crossing-venus-aphrodite — observed — brightest object / goddess of beauty; Inanna descent myth encodes Venus's disappearance
• crossing-mars-ares — observed — red colour + retrograde chaos / god of unpredictable war
• crossing-jupiter-zeus — partially knowable — brightest wanderer / king of gods; gravitational dominance unknowable
• crossing-saturn-cronus — observed — slowest planet / god of deep time and the age before Zeus
• myth-zeus — king of the Olympians; establisher of cosmic order; *Dyeus Pater*; Thursday
• myth-hermes — psychopomp, boundary-crosser, always accessible, youngest Olympian
• myth-aphrodite — born from sea foam; Inanna lineage; Ourania vs Pandemos
• myth-ares — bloodlust, unpredictability, humiliation; Phobos and Deimos
• myth-cronus — harvest deity, Golden Age, swallowed his children, Milky Way origin
• mercury-planet — proximity paradox; Nabu/Hermes/Woden convergence
• venus-planet — retrograde rotation; Hesperus/Phosphorus; 8-year cycle
• mars-planet — retrograde motion; Phobos and Deimos moons; lost magnetosphere
• jupiter-planet — first-formed; gravitational shepherd; 115 moons; Great Red Spot
• saturn-planet — 29.5-year orbit; rings; Titan; slowest naked-eye planet

Mythology × Astronomy — Star Clusters and Lesser Figures

• crossing-pleiades — observed — Seven Sisters pursued by Orion; most globally documented sky crossing
• crossing-sedna — deliberate — Inuit sea goddess named for cold outer solar system; 2003 naming
• crossing-orion-scorpius — observed — killer and victim placed on opposite sides of sky
• myth-pleiades — Maia (Hermes's mother), pursuit by Orion, lost Pleiad, agricultural calendar
• myth-orion — giant hunter, killed by scorpion, pursues the Pleiades eternally
• myth-sedna — Inuit sea goddess; severed fingers became marine life; ruler of the deep
• orion-constellation — Orion Nebula; winter sky; Betelgeuse supernova candidate
• pleiades-cluster — 444 light-years; Matariki; Subaru; Nebra sky disk; oldest astronomical tradition
• sedna-dwarf-planet — inner Oort cloud; Planet Nine evidence; 2076 perihelion window
• eris-dwarf-planet — caused Pluto's demotion; named for strife; Dysnomia moon
• babylonian-astronomy — first functional planetary theory; Mercury as Nabu; empirical not cosmological

Cosmology — Origin and Large-Scale Structure

• milky-way — our barred spiral galaxy; Sgr A*; spiral arms; galactic halo; Andromeda collision in 4 Gyr
• andromeda-galaxy — nearest large galaxy; 1 trillion stars; Great Debate 1924; Milkdromeda merger in 4.5 Gyr
• big-bang — 13.8 Gyr ago; inflation, BBN, recombination, CMB; four pillars; Lambda-CDM
• cosmic-inflation — exponential expansion 10⁻³⁶ to 10⁻³² s; solves horizon/flatness/monopole problems; seeds all structure
• cosmic-microwave-background — 2.7 K afterglow; released at 380,000 years; Penzias & Wilson 1964; encodes dark matter density
• dark-matter — 27% of universal mass-energy; rotation curves, gravitational lensing, CDM
• dark-energy — 68% of universal mass-energy; cosmological constant, accelerating expansion
• quasar — most luminous persistent objects; accreting supermassive black holes; AGN; Lyman-alpha forest probes

Astrophysics — Stellar Processes and Particles

• stellar-nucleosynthesis — how stars forge elements; B2FH; seeding the interstellar medium
• supernova — stellar death; Type Ia standard candles; r-process; cosmic ray acceleration; ISM enrichment
• white-dwarf — final state of 97% of stars; Chandrasekhar limit; Sirius B; Type Ia trigger; electron degeneracy
• neutron-star — densest stable objects; pulsars; magnetars; gold forged in mergers
• black-hole — event horizon; Sgr A*; Hawking radiation; gravitational wave source; no-hair theorem
• gravitational-waves — ripples in spacetime; LIGO 2015; GW170817 confirmed gold synthesis; pulsar timing background
• cosmic-ray — high-energy particles at near-light-speed; composition, sources, air showers
• nebula — emission/reflection/dark/planetary/supernova-remnant; star birth and death; Orion Nebula; Dark Emu

Space Regions and Structure

• outer-space — foundational definition, composition, 2.7K baseline, regions
• karman-line — the 100 km boundary between atmosphere and space
• local-bubble — low-density ISM cavity around the Sun; supernova-carved; star formation on bubble surface
• interstellar-medium — space between stars; Local Bubble; molecular chemistry
• kuiper-belt — 30–50 AU; icy planetesimals; Pluto; scattered disc; New Horizons flybys
• oort-cloud — 2,000–200,000 AU; cometary reservoir; galactic tide; ~90% captured from other stars
• interplanetary-medium — heliosphere interior, solar wind, zodiacal light
• heliosphere — the Sun's wind-bubble; termination shock to heliopause
• heliopause — outer boundary of heliosphere; Voyager 1 & 2 crossings
• geospace — near-Earth space, magnetosphere, Van Allen belts, space weather
• van-allen-radiation-belts — charged particle belts trapped by Earth's magnetosphere

Heliophysics — Sun and Solar Wind

• solar-science — the Sun's 11/22-year cycles, flares, CMEs, NASA solar missions
• solar-corona — outermost solar atmosphere; coronal heating mystery; nanoflares; wave heating; Parker PSP
• solar-wind — corona outflow; fast/slow streams; Parker spiral; comet tails; atmospheric erosion
• coronal-mass-ejection — billion-tonne plasma eruptions; Carrington Event; geomagnetic storm driver
• space-weather — effects on satellites, GPS, power grids, astronauts; forecasting
• heliophysics — unified system science: Sun → solar wind → magnetospheres → ITM

Exoplanets and the Search for Life

• exoplanets — thousands known; transit/Doppler/microlensing; habitable zones; biosignatures; JWST atmospheres
• fermi-paradox — where is everybody; Drake Equation; Great Filter; SETI; Wow! Signal; Rare Earth vs ahead-of-us filter

Space Exploration and Observatories

• voyager-program - twin 1977 spacecraft; Grand Tour; heliopause crossings; Pale Blue Dot; current status
• parker-solar-probe - first spacecraft in the corona; magnetic switchbacks; solar wind origin; launched 2018
• james-webb-space-telescope - infrared time machine; 13.5 Gyr lookback; L2 orbit; first light 2022
• hubble-space-telescope - flawed mirror fixed by spacewalk; deep fields; dark energy; Hubble tension; 35+ years
• new-horizons - first Pluto flyby 2015; Tombaugh Regio heart; Arrokoth contact binary; most distant object visited
• cassini-huygens - 13 years at Saturn; Huygens on Titan; Enceladus ocean; ring age; Grand Finale 2017
• event-horizon-telescope - Earth-sized VLBI array; M87* image 2019; Sgr A* image 2022; confirms GR in strong-field regime
• titan-moon - only moon with dense atmosphere; methane lakes and rain cycle; Huygens landed 2005; Dragonfly mission 2034
• enceladus-moon - active geysers; global subsurface ocean; hydrothermal vents; phosphates confirmed 2023; best life candidate in solar system

Space Law and Policy

• outer-space-treaty — foundational 1967 treaty; province of all mankind; 118 parties
• space-debris — orbital pollution, Kessler syndrome, ODPO toolchain, mitigation

Sources Indexed

Recently Added

• 2026-05-05: Vault initialized; initial 6 notes from outer space crawl
• 2026-05-05: Second batch — 7 stub-filling notes (dark matter, dark energy, heliosphere, stellar nucleosynthesis, Van Allen belts, Outer Space Treaty, space debris)
• 2026-05-05: NASA content — space-debris upgraded, solar-science, space-weather, heliophysics, dark-energy (Roman), heliosphere (Voyager status), voyager-program
• 2026-05-05: Third batch — cosmic-ray, oort-cloud, coronal-mass-ejection, local-bubble, big-bang, solar-wind
• 2026-05-05: Navigation cluster — celestial-navigation, polynesian-navigation, viking-navigation, islamic-astronomy, astrolabe, longitude-problem, polaris, southern-cross, canopus, aboriginal-astronomy
• 2026-05-05: Mythology × Astronomy cluster — all 5 naked-eye planet crossings + myth notes + planet notes; Sedna, Eris, Orion, Pleiades, Babylonian astronomy; IAU naming conventions
• 2026-05-05: Astrophysics — neutron-star, black-hole, supernova, gravitational-waves, milky-way, solar-corona, james-webb-space-telescope, parker-solar-probe
• 2026-05-06: Beyond the naked eye — sirius, uranus-planet, myth-ouranos, crossing-uranus-ouranos; CMB, exoplanets (Wikipedia sourced)
• 2026-05-06: Outer solar system mythology — neptune-planet, myth-poseidon, crossing-neptune-poseidon, pluto-dwarf-planet, myth-hades, crossing-pluto-hades (Neptune/Pluto/Poseidon/Hades/Triton Wikipedia crawled)
• 2026-05-06: Space exploration trio — hubble-space-telescope, new-horizons, cassini-huygens (Wikipedia sourced; 92+84+27 chunks)
• 2026-05-06: 100 pages reached — white-dwarf, nebula, andromeda-galaxy, quasar, cosmic-inflation, fermi-paradox, moon, compass (all Wikipedia sourced)
• 2026-05-06: claude-100-milestone-handoff-2026-05-06 - session handoff with cluster map, crawl patterns, and next directions
• 2026-05-17: Mythology chain completed - myth-eris, crossing-eris-eris; navigation depth - dead-reckoning, sextant; Saturn moons - titan-moon, enceladus-moon; observatory - event-horizon-telescope