Astronomy through the years
Astronomy has been a very important source of knowledge for us. And as time passes, our knowledge about the outer space and the instruments that we use to observe it are improving. We have been able to observe and take pictures of stars, planets, and even galaxies that are billions of light years away from us. What is astronomy anyway? Who invented instruments such as telescopes that we use to observe space? How long have we been using astronomy?
During the ancient times, people use the stars as basis for their livelihood. They use it to make predictions and know the dates when to plant or do their religious rituals. ancient people were also able to use the heavenly bodies to foretell the future which we call today as astrology. One proof of this is the Stonehenge. Stonehenge has many huge stones arranged in a pattern. It is believed that ancient people used the Stonehenge to predict eclipses and other phenomena in the heavens.
After the fall of Rome, European astronomy was forgotten until the Muslims and Hindus were able to carry out the significant work. Then the Greeks came in. Though the Greeks were known for their contributions for astronomy, their works would never have reached medieval Europe if it were not for the Arabs. The Arabs were the ones who translated Greek astronomy and brought them to Europe. One of the most significant events on the revival of learning in Europe was the publication of De revolutionibus orbium coelestium or On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres by Nicolas Copernicus. According to Nicolas Copernicus’ model of the universe, the Earth rotates in its axis together with all the planets that revolve around the Sun. He just retained the uniform circular motion of Ptolemy’s model but he was able to reduce the number of epicycles just by placing the Sun at the center. The primary claim for his new system was that calculations were easier through it. He also determined the time for revolution of the planets from the Sun through his model.
The Essay on Early Day Astronomers And Their Influences In Astronomy
In modern day astronomy and the study of the universe, individuals usually come up with predictions and then gather information and data in order to prove or disprove their hypothesis. Other astronomers in the history of astronomy did the same and came up with their own conclusions based on the data they collected. Some of their predictions were correct, and some were way off, but for the most ...
Next were Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler. Tycho Brahe was given the privilege to have an observatory in the island of Hven under the patronage of King Frederick II. He and his assistants were considered to have compiled the most accurate and most complete astronomical observations at that time. When Tycho Brahe died, all the information that he had collected was passed on to his last assistant which was Johannes Kepler. At first, Kepler declared that he could make a new model out of Brahe’s records in just a few days but he was wrong. It took him almost a decade to produce an improved system of the heliocentric circular motion. At last, Kepler was able to produce the idea that the orbit of Mars was an ellipse with the Sun at one focus which led him to making his three laws of planetary motion.
Galileo Galilei made great discoveries about astronomy and physics and was considered to be the founder of modern science. He was also the first one to use the telescope as an instrument in observing astronomically. Galileo was also able to discover the four largest moons of Jupiter and the phases of Venus. He was the first to observe craters on the moon, sunspots and discredited the ancient belief about the perfections of heavens. All his findings were published in The Sidereal Messenger and Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the World. He was later condemned by the church and was asked to renounce all of his theories and doctrines that are contrary to the scripture.
Isaac Newton succeeded next. He is possibly the greatest scientific genius of all time. His laws of motion and gravity provided clear information compared to Kepler’s. All the progress of astronomy was an essential part of Newton’s work until the 19th century. Edmond Halley’s prediction that the comet in 1682 would return at 1758 included the perturbing effects of Jupiter and Saturn on the orbit to estimate the date of the comet’s return. William Herschel accidentally discovered a planet in 1781 which was later named Uranus. Astronomy was later revolutionized during the second half of the 19th century. The interest of the people was shifted to studying the physical composition of stars. The dark lines in the solar spectrum were also observed and was only explained completely through the creation if the quantum theory. With the building of more powerful telescopes, the knowledge of humans on the unknown part of the universe expanded. It was also when Edwin Hubble study of the galaxies led him to a conclusion that the universe is expanding.
The Essay on Evolution as Fact and Theory
A ‘theory’ according to American vernacular is understood as an uncertain approach to the world’s mysteries. It is seen as an idea that is not yet actually confirmed but if proven to be true, can shed light on the reasons behind certain phenomena. This vague notion of the meaning of theories is utilized by Creationists to diminish the impact of the Evolution, (Gould, 1981) dismissing it as a ‘ ...
Different theories on the origin of the universe like the big bang theory and steady state theory have been made. Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity plays a big role on the modern cosmological theories. In 1963, the moon passed in front of the radio source 3C-273, allowing Cyril Hazard to calculate the exact position of the source. With this information, Maarten Schmidt photographed the object’s spectrum using the 200-in. reflector on Palomar Mt., then the world’s largest telescope. He interpreted the result as coming from an object, now known as a quasar, at an extreme distance and receding from us at a substantial fraction of the speed of light. In 1967 Antony Hewish and Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovered a radio source a few hundred light years away featuring regular pulses at intervals of about 1 second with an accuracy of repetition of one-millionth of a second. This was the first discovered pulsar, a rapidly spinning neutron star emitting lighthouse-type beams of energy, the end result of the death of a star in a supernova explosion.
The radio signals that were emitted by the celestial bodies through the science of radio astronomy was discovered by Karl Jansky in 1931. Observations regarding astronomy were recently expanded by space exploration. A series of interplanetary probes provided a lot of information about the celestial bodies and continued the line of research. Hubble Space Telescope, launched at 1990 has made observations of a quality better than any earthbound instruments.
The Essay on John Dalton and Atomic Theory Outline and Sources
This is the general path to his discoveries. However, no one knows specifically how he reached most of his conclusions about atoms. II. Work on the atom and its contribution to the modern atomic model A. Lavoisier’s Law influenced Dalton’s assertion that atoms cannot be created, destroyed, or subdivided. B. Proust’s Law of Definite Proportions led Dalton to his Law of Multiple Proportions C. He ...
References: http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sci/A0856747.html
