Tycho Brahe's Cosmology

But in the 17th century knowledge in these fields took sharp turns. It started with new science discoveries through observation which did not hold true with the old believes. In astronomy for example, Kepler supported Copernicus’s claims, and believed it could only be understood through mathematical

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) was a German astronomer who believed in the heliocentric theory. Kepler is a clear example of the narrow line that separated science and religion. Nonetheless, his ideas would show that things could be solved through reason alone. He believed that the harmony of the human soul could be found through numerical relationships that existed between planets. He found that the planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Uranus, Jupiter, and Saturn all revolved at different times. For example, the earth revolved around the sun in a year while Saturn revolved around the sun in fifty years. From this, Kepler found a mathematical ratio, nine to the two-thirds power, to explain this phenomenon. This was revolutionary to humanity’s place in the universe. People were shocked that the universe could be explained by math alone rather than religion. This went strongly

These ideas not only, obviously, created a new conception of the forming of the universe, but also of humanities place within it. The Copernican hypothesis had enormous religious implications as it destroyed the idea that the earth was different from where God was. This eliminated the realm of perfection. Therefore humanity’s place within the Earth was lessening in importance. Also, 1572 a “new star,” which was really an exploding star, left a huge impression on many people. This is because it contradicted the idea that the heavenly spheres were unchanging, thus

Celebrated on October 31st, the festival of Halloween (also known as Samhain) includes dressing in costume, trick or treating, and decorating. Tracing back in history Halloween is considered to be one of America’s oldest holidays, and is still celebrated today. Halloween is believed to come from Celtic rituals. Celtics believed the cosmological myth of Saman (Lord of the Dead). Saman would call on the souls of the people that passed away that year to take them to the afterlife or underworld; the Celtic underworld identifies with the Christian Hell. In order for the spirits to believe they were on their own, the living would wear costumes and mask their identities, along with fairies, witches and demons. This functions as a cosmological myth because it provides a creation story and framework in which this universe occupies and includes many other realms of existence. Another tradition that followed was to give food to the Saman, to persuade him to be more tolerant while he judged the dead ancestors of the living, which he would chose to take to the underworld. In this essay I will further investigate what the origins of Halloween consist of and how it offers reasoning for trick-or-treating. Also I will examine how trick-or-treating, which is still continued today, is connected to ancient Celtic festivals.

the heliocentric solar system. Johannes Kepler further modified the heliocentric system, by mathematically showing that the planets’ orbits are elliptical. With his invention of the telescope, Galileo made new observations about the solar system and found mathematical laws that described the movement of the planets. Later, Isaac Newton established a universal law of gravity. With the new scientific discoveries, the gap between religion and science increased. Science revolutionized the human though and its understanding of the universe.

Johannes Kepler was a famous mathematician, best known for his works on the planetary laws of motion. During his lifetime he faced many oppositions to his work, Kepler was known to be a very quiet tempered man with little interest but his research, which was often impeded. Kepler’s personal religious beliefs were what caused him the most trouble in his professional and personal life. He was denied positions and friendships due to his Protestant beliefs; finding enemies in the Catholic church and in the Lutheran for his sympathy towards Calvinists. In addition, Kepler’s family life was increasingly problematic. His first wife often prevented him from getting work done, and two of his sons died. Finally, Kepler’s mother was accused of being a witch, this greatly affected Kepler, as he had to take time out of his research to help prove her innocence on the matter.

In “Towards a New Heaven: Revolution in Astronomy,” some of the greatest achievements of the Scientific Revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth century were dominated by medicine, mechanics, and astronomers. Nicolaus Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, and Isaac Newton were some of the brilliant individuals that magnified the revolutionary astronomy. These astronomers challenged the conception and beliefs through the nature of the external world.

Cosmogonies play a part in the universe; it’s the creation of mankind and universe myths. These myths portray a part in culture today. “Cosmogonies --- stories about how the world began--- have been told by almost every culture in the world” (23). It affects the western culture and eastern culture and how social order is established. Social order is primary the basis of how humankind operate; it has links to behavior, morals, customs and values. It brings the foundation to mankind as a whole. Cosmogonies have established a lot of set beliefs, morals, and goals for humans.

Brahe portrayed the humanist ideal observation by revising previous theories and scientific tools throughout his career. Three discoveries attributed to Tycho Brahe include how the earth's position is viewed in the universe, mapping of celestial bodies, and his creation of accurate scientific instruments. Before the Renaissance, many scientists believed in the geocentric theory, or the belief that the earth was the center of the universe, and the sun, planets, and other stars revolved around earth. Tycho proved that the path of the comet of 1577 was not circular, but elongated, meaning that it would be impossible according to the geocentric theory. This discovery influenced the ways scientists viewed the location of planets and stars. Tycho viewed and observed a new star in the constellation Cassiopeia that lay beyond the moon and was in the realm of fixed stars. This discovery of the new star influenced the way scientists mapped all celestial bodies. Brahe was one of the first astronomers to realize the importance of error of instrumentation. He believed that some of the errors in the astronomical works of famous Renaissance astronomers were due to poor instrumentation. He was able to develop new instruments to plot his research that were massive improvements on the previous tables and tools used. His designs for new methods and instruments won him great fame. These discoveries continue to influence the way scientists view the universe

Prior to Galileo’s time, the Greek and medieval mind, science was a kind of formalism, a means of coordinating data, which had no bearing on the ultimate reality of things. The point was to give order to complicated data, and all that mattered was the hypothesis that was simplest to understand and most convenient. Astronomy and mathematics were regarded as the playthings of intellectuals. They were accounted as having neither philosophical nor theological relevance. There was genuine puzzlement among Churchmen that they had to get involved in a quarrel over planetary orbits.

Following the rabbit example with one along a broader scale, if a theist believes that if a substance cannot be produced by anything else, and an atheist would similarly agree, than that substance must inhere in itself, or that, “…if everything is caused by itself or another than God must be a substance, and as a substance, then His existence involves essence. Since God’s essence exists, then so does God.” (Lin, 2007, p. 274) What if an atheist believed that the cosmological argument was unsound because they were quite certain that God did not exist. Given their argument, they would in fact, by rejecting God’s existence, be acknowledging it based on a logical inference suggested by Kelly

Tycho Brahe is primarily known for the Tychonic system. The Tychonic system saw the moon as orbiting the Earth and the other planets orbiting the Sun, but believed the Sun to be orbiting the Earth as it was at a standstill. This model became popular among the people at this time because it was a combination of Copernicus' sun-centered model and the earth-centered model. Other achievements Brahe was greatly known for were based around the fact that he tracked heavenly bodies in their orbit, instead of only a unusual points like other astronomers at the time, and created the most precise observations at the time without a telescope. A few of his measurements were accurate to half an arc minute, compared to other astronomers during that time that

In summer of 1609, Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) pointed his revolutionary astronomical telescope to the heavens under the starry Venetian sky; his greatly important observations unveiled the mysteries of universe and would end up changing the course of scientific thought forever. Galileo lived in an age where there was much status quo, when scientists and philosophers would accept scientific and religious doctrine that had stood for hundreds, if not thousands, of years instead of challenging the accepted knowledge in favor of intellectual progress. Galileo’s scientific methods lead to significant discoveries explaining key scientific laws, such as the

Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer and mathematician who lived between 1671-1630. Kepler was a Copernican and initially believed that planets should follow perfectly circular orbits (“Johan Kepler” 1). During this time period, Ptolemy’s geocentric theory of the solar system was accepted. Ptolemy’s theory stated that Earth is at the center of the universe and stationary; closest to Earth is the Moon, and beyond it, expanding towards the outside, are Mercury, Venus, and the Sun in a straight line, followed by Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the “fixed stars”. The Ptolemaic system explained the numerous observed motions of the planets as having small spherical orbits called epicycles (“Astronomy” 2). Kepler is best known for introducing three

After Tycho’s death, his assistant, young mathematician Johannes Kepler used Tycho’s observations and came up with his First Law that orbits of the planets are elliptical instead of round like Copernicus believed. With his Second Law, Kepler stated that the speed of the planets depends on their distance from the sun which helped English astronomer and physicist Isaac Newton, to come up with his Law of Universal Gravitation.