Cosmology and the
Origin of Life
Okay, our task is to now remove the earth from the center of
the Universe and come up with something more sensible:
Elements of the Universe at this time (Aristotle):
- Geocentric Cosmology
- Stars and planets on perfect crystalline spheres
- Universe is perfect and Changeless
Problems:
- observed transient phenomena (comets, novae, variable stars) -->
attributed to disturbances in the upper atmosphere of the earth
- Aristotelian model makes a definite prediction --> all planets
and stars should move in the same direction .
But Mars was known at that time to sometimes move in the opposite direction
for a brief period of time (this is known as retrograde motion)
- So Ptolemy builds an incredible
complicated machine to preserve the geocentric model and account
for retrograde motion ( The correct explanation)
- This model stood for 1500 years before anybody asked this
relevant question
Back to the Original Idea Alert:
Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa (15th Century) through a lot about
cosmology and came up with the following;
- Every direction is relative
- The Universe has its center everywhere
The above two means there can be no UNIQUE place in the Universe
- The Earth may not be stationary
- Wherever one stood in the Universe, the same pattern of stars
would be strewn out before them (homogeneity)
Thus for the first time we see the ideas of relativity, homogeneity and
non-uniqueness expressed.
Copernicus embraces the non-uniqueness idea and then asks why should
the earth be at the center - lets put the SUN there
This is the First Heliocentric Cosmology
Evolving Models of the Solar System and The Scientific Method:
Galileo sees a mini solar system around Jupiter
Tycho searches for stellar parallax --> sees none --> Aarogant rejection
of Copernicun Model
Tycho publishes data --> Kepler makes Geometrical Model
Newton invents gravity, calculus but forgets about the speed of light
Einstein invents causality and gravity as curved spacetime
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The Electronic Universe Project
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