Cosmic Awareness 2011-01: The Cosmic Awareness Forecast For The Year 2011
The Cosmic Engine
description
Transcript of The Cosmic Engine
The Cosmic Engine
Solar System
Universe
Venus
Mercury
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Planets
Gravity
Sun is a starPowered
by nuclear reactions
Millions of stars (suns)
Billions of galaxies
Milky Way
Stars orbit galactic centre
GravityGalaxy
Universe is expanding
Scale of the Universe
http://primaxstudio.com/stuff/scale_of_universe/
A Little History
Up until 200 years ago, it was all about the solar system.
1500 year battle over geo-centric vs helio-centric
Geo-centric: Geo = earth Centric = centred aroundEverything revolved around the Earth
Helio-centric: Helio = sun Centric = centred around
Everything revolves around the sun
It all started with Aristotle & Aristarchus
~330BCAristotle: Philosopher – Sun, moon, planets & stars orbit Earth on crystal spheres Geo – centric
~240BCAristarchus: Philosopher – Earth & planets orbit the sun on crystal spheres, stars
are on a fixed sphere very far away.
Helio– centric
Claudius Ptolemy - ~120AD
Geo-centric
It explained retrograde motion of planets
Based on evidence, not philosophy
It worked!
It became part of religious doctrine
Ptolemy
Nicholas Copernicus 1473 - 1543
Helio-centric model – Earth & planets orbit the sun on crystal spheres
It was simpler, and possibly more “correct”, but it didn’t work any better, therefore it was largely rejected.
Also rejected for religious reasons