Ancient Greek Astronomy

The Scientific Revolution brought a new way of thinking about the universe, and brought an end to Europe’s medieval past. Many scientists have devoted their lives to creating new ideas about the physical universe. These scientists created the assumption that the universe and nature are governed by mathematical laws. Each of the three scientists, Nicolaus Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, and Isaac Newton contributed to the breakdown of the medieval world view. Nicolaus Copernicus thought past the idea of a geocentric universe, and established the idea of a heliocentric theory, or a sun-centered universe. Johannes Kepler presented the idea of an ellipse, otherwise known as the planets following an oval shaped orbit, and not a perfect circle. Finally,

Ptolemy, a Roman astronomer came up with the theory that the universe revolved around Earth and all the creatures inhabiting it (Doc. C). This theory, The Geocentric Universe of Ptolemy, was adjusted by most of the people during The Middle Ages. However, much later on, Nicolaus Copernicus, a Polish astronomer, disagreed with Ptolemy’s theory. With his use of math and reason, he came up with a new theory called The Heliocentric Universe of Copernicus (Doc. C). He said that the universe & Earth itself revolves around the sun. The Church denied this theory because they did not want to be proven wrong. If the Church was wrong about this part of the universe, this would then cause man to wonder what else they could be wrong about, or even lied to them about. This new theory taught men to think for themselves and not to rely on the Church for

Greek mythology was very important in many cultures throughout the world and was utilized to clarify the earth and its circumstances in which mankind lived, the normal wonders they identified and how constellations explained the why the movement of the stars and sky were important in the lives of the Greeks. Greek mythology contained information about the livelihood of these gods and goddesses, humankind after death and simply how to live a joyous life. The geography of Greece also shaped Greek mythology due to it being a peninsula and Ancient Greeks used mythology to find out certain characteristics within their lives and they were successful in teaching moral lessons and demonstrating the type of world they were living in at the time.

In concordance with Christian doctrines, this system implies that heaven and the throne of God lie beyond the tenth sphere. On the other hand, during the first half of the 16th century, Polish cleric Copernicus developed an astronomical model which positions the motionless Sun at the center of the universe, with the Earth, the moon, and six other planets revolving at a constant speed around it. He argues that all stars were at rest and that their nightly movements are simply indications of the earth’s rotation. However, members of the Church, especially Protestants, who interpreted the Bible literally, refused to grant Copernicus credit for his theory. Nevertheless, once released among the population, the Copernican theory raised support from various scholars, a few of whom, such as Brahe, Kepler, and Galileo, went on to dedicate their career to solidify its legitimacy. With their use of mathematical reasoning, instead of antic philosophy, the Copernican theory finally became justified among the population. Pertaining to its influence among laypeople, the Copernican theory raised various questions against the

Claudius Ptolemy and Nicholas Copernicus were two famous astronomers known for their opposing views of the universe. Ptolemy founded the Ptolemaic system, which stated that the Earth was at the center of the universe. His idea was also known as the geocentric theory. The geocentric theory stated that the Earth was in the center of the universe, standing still, while all the other planets and stars revolved around it. The lack of scientific knowledge led his theory to be widely accepted. The Copernican theory, which revolved around a heliocentric idea, claimed that the sun was at the center of the universe, while the planets, including Earth, circled around it. His idea was not widely popular because of the already accepted propositions with

----------------------------------------. Whether astrology is accepted as true has yet to be determined. For centuries, astrology has been used to provide a deeper understanding of nature and identity. Astrology originates from Babylon- developing from the belief that the heavens ruled man’s fate.

Among these people were Copernicus who believed the sun was at the center of the world and the earth, stars and planets revolved around it. Danish astronomer Brahe helped contribute to this idea by contributing a large mass of data about the universe that he was able to discover. His student Kepler kept his ideas going, as he formulated many laws of planetary motion. He said the orbits around the sun were elliptical, planets don’t move in a uniform speed and the time a planet completes its orbit is related to its distance from the sun. Meanwhile, Florentine Galileo decided to use experiments to find out what happened and not what should happen, and discovered that a uniform force makes a uniform acceleration as well as inertia laws, that an object will be in motion forever unless stopped by another force.

Mesopotamians started studying astronomy, which is the science of stars, planets and space as early as 7,985 BC. As Mesopotamians studied astronomy they started forming beliefs about astrological culture. They started the belief of creationism, the belief that a divine being(s) created the universe and everything in it.

Thought history scientists’ finding have been ignored, only to be discovered that their information was beneficial. In the 1600s and 1700s, many astronomers and mechanics were focused on finding a way to find the longitude of a ship’s position at sea. John Harrison, a self-taught carpenter and clockmaker was able to create a solution, but no one with enough power to enforce his studies would listen to his ideas. Similar to this, when Nicolaus Copernicus discovered that the earth revolved around the sun, no one believed him because the belief at the time was that the earth was the center of the universe. Despite no one appreciating what the two had discovered, several years after they had died, their theories surfaced again and people began

The Ptolemaic view of the motions of the stars was earth centric, or geocentric. Ptolemy believed that all the planets revolved around the earth, the earth was the center of the universe. Copernicus on the other hand held the belief that the universe revolved around the sun, or that the universe was heliocentric. Copernicus also only considered there to only be six planets, as he didn’t count the moon like Ptolemy. Kepler held similar beliefs t Copernicus, and believed that the reason why a god-created universe only had six planets instead of seven was based on Plato’s idea of the five Platonic Solids. That just like there are only five forms of matter and five platonic solids, the universe must have been intelligently created in a similar

Its name means “the twins” in Latin. Gemini is one of the zodiac constellations, first cataloged by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the 2nd century.The constellation represents the twins Castor and Pollux (Poly deuces), also known as the Dioscuri in ancient times, in Greek mythology.

Although I wouldn’t prefer to live in the Greek time I do believe that it is the most interesting because of the intriguing culture, philosophy, plays and literature, and structures. The amount of progress in philosophy and culture makes the Greek era very recognizable and incredibly important for future of the world. Many things can call their start from the Greeks too, such as drama, comedy, modern philosophy, democracy, and the beginning of modern science. While the extravagant temples only exaggerate the magnificent and sturdy buildings the Greeks built and filled with incredible sculptures displaying arete at its finest. These things make the Greeks the most interesting culture for myself to learn and study about.

The characteristics of Uranus are vastly different from the ones on Earth, as Uranus cannot support any form of life. There is much to Uranus that makes it impossible for us to live on. Things such as temperature, the atmosphere, and it’s distance from the sun. The atmosphere has gases that make it impossible for us to live on. Since there are so many gasses that we cannot tolerate, there is a minimal amount of oxygen on Uranus. In fact, the whole planet is a gas giant, which means it is completely made of gas. Therefore, no life form would be able to live on Uranus, due to the fact that you cannot walk on Uranus.

Like men in other civilizations, ancient Greeks also looked into the night sky and saw those thousands of twinkling lights. They could see that most of the tiny lights are fixed relative to each other, but a few wonder (move) about. They called those wandering lights "Planets" (in Greek, planet means wanderer); the rest fixed tiny lights were called, “Stars”. With their naked eyes, they could see only five planets. The English names by which we now know these five planets; Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, were derived from the names of mythological Roman Gods. In Roman mythology; Mercurius, son of Jupiter, is the patron god of financial gain and supposed to move fast. Planet mercury was named after him. The name was appropriate

Since the first Egyptian farmers discovered the annual reappearance of Sirius just before dawn a few days before the yearly rising of the Nile, ancient civilizations around the Mediterranean have sought to explain the movements of the heavens as a sort of calendar to help guide them conduct earthly activities. Counting phases of the moon or observing the annual variations of day length could, after many years' collection of observations, serve as vital indicators for planting and harvesting times, safe or stormy season for sailing, or time to bring the flocks from winter to summer pastures. With our millennia of such observation behind us, we sometimes forget that seeing and recording anything less obvious than