{"id":3936,"date":"2018-07-27T18:05:51","date_gmt":"2018-07-27T18:05:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/austrinus.com\/?page_id=3936"},"modified":"2025-01-17T04:31:21","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T07:31:21","slug":"historia-cosmologia","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/en\/historia-cosmologia\/","title":{"rendered":"History and cosmology"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sky has always attracted the attention of human beings. Its grandeur, the celestial bodies and various events that occur in the sky have motivated people to observe the sky since ancient times, and based on this, they can organize their perception of the world and the Universe. At first, we only had our eyes as an instrument of observation and our imagination to conclude why the stars moved in a certain way. The fact that after the day came the night, and then the day again, was already a special situation and merited explanations that today would sound like fantasy. Soon man discovered that many other patterns - in addition to day and night - were constantly repeated, and this served purposes such as agriculture or orientation. When celestial events began to be better understood, the first astronomers would emerge.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Illustrations of kites on a 2nd century tomb in Changsha, China. Unknown credit (168 BCE)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

Ancient China<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The first astronomical observations and measurements are difficult to specify. Astronomy in ancient China has been considered the oldest, with traces found dating back to the\u00a04,000 BC<\/strong>., with records of eclipses and novae. Records of comets, supernova explosions and the design of calendars were his most important achievements. They divided the sky into 284 constellations and considered the Universe to be like an orange hanging from the North Star back then. As their observations progressed, they were also able to record lunations to measure time and observe sunspots.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Babylonian astronomy<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The Babylonians specialized in studying the Sun and Moon, specifically solar eclipses, which they were later able to predict thanks to their advances in mathematics. They managed to anticipate the lunar phases and planetary positions using cuneiform tablets. The Babylonians reached their peak around the\u00a0600-500 BC<\/strong>., achieving discoveries as interesting as the Saros Cycle, and being able to make calculations that today only differ by a few decimal places (e.g. the synodic month). The concept of the zodiac is also attributed to them.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Illustration from 1660 of Claudius Ptolemy's geocentric model. Public domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

Greek advances<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Ancient Greece was home to many of the most important advances in astronomy, and gave rise to many discoveries based on observation alone. The Greeks considered the Earth to be a disk, with Olympus at its center and the "Okeanos" (universal sea) around it. The study of planetary motion was one of the most fruitful fields, as was observation and mathematical advances, led by figures such as Pythagoras, Archimedes and Aristotle. Aristarchus of Samos (310 BC-230 BC) was the first to calculate the distance from the Earth to the Sun and the Moon. They firmly maintained the idea of a geocentric system for more than 2,000 years.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Paradigm shifts<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Two of Galileo's first telescopes in the Galileo Museum, Florence. Scala\/Art Resource, NYC.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

The geocentric system was originally proposed by Eudoxus, to be later better represented by the astronomer Claudius Ptolemy (85 AD \u2013 165 AD). The Ptolemaic system placed the Earth at the center of the Universe with the planets and the Sun revolving around it, with the fixed stars in the background. The model was coherent in many ways, but it left the apparent motion of the planets, especially retrograde motion, unexplained. It was not until the Renaissance, in the 15th century, that this conception of the Earth would finally be changed. Nicholas Copernicus established the Heliocentric system in 1543, placing the Sun and not the Earth at the center of the Universe. Later, Johannes Kepler would enunciate the laws of planetary motion, establishing the elliptical orbits of the planets.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Beginning of modern astronomy<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Galileo Galilei was born the year of Copernicus' death, and was the most important defender of the Heliocentric theory, a fact that earned him repeated friction with the Catholic Church. He built the first telescope for astronomical use in 1609, managing to study the phases of Venus, the craters of the Moon, sunspots and the 4 largest satellites of Jupiter (today also called Galileans). This last fact would be decisive in definitively ending geocentrism, as well as highlighting that not all objects revolve around the Sun. All these discoveries inevitably led to the birth of modern astronomy, and the progressive disengagement of religious dogmas about the Universe.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The Universe revealed<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

After Galileo, it was only a matter of time before new astronomers began to make discoveries in an established Solar System and to abandon the models that placed the Sun at the centre of the Universe. Among the most important was Isaac Newton (1643-1727), who enunciated the laws of celestial mechanics, gravity and modified the design of the original telescope (refractor) to make way for a model with mirrors (Newtonian). William Herschel (1738-1822) studied objects other than planets and comets, which he named "nebulae". He also began measuring distances to celestial objects.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n

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American astronomer Edwin Hubble at the Schmidt telescope in Mountain Palomar, California, 1949. Credit Boyer\/Roger Viollet\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n

The 20th century<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

One of the most important revelations in astronomy came in 1924, from the hand of astronomer Edwin Hubble: the "nebulae" of yesteryear were actually galaxies, similar to our own, which contained billions of other stars. And it was associated with this discovery that Hubble determined that these galaxies were moving away from us, leading to deduce the expansion of the Universe that would give rise to the Big Bang theory. Albert Einstein enunciated the Theory of Relativity in 1915, which, together with the previous discovery, laid the foundations for modern cosmology and the explanation of various celestial phenomena.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Today and beyond<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Astronomy has evolved enormously to this day. Supported by the large and complex instruments that today allow us to scrutinize the sky, added to the exploration of space and the formulation of theories that today seek to understand the fundamental forces that govern the Universe, the history of this science has not been free of complications and stagnations, but in one way or another it has managed to move forward and satisfy human curiosity about the sky, the same that motivated the ancients to observe the stars.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The sky has always attracted the attention of human beings. Its grandeur, the celestial bodies and various events that occur in the sky have motivated people to observe the sky since ancient times, and based on this, they can organize their perception of the world and the Universe. In the beginning, we only had eyes as...<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6533,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3936","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/historia-cosmologia-banner-150x150.jpg","medium":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/historia-cosmologia-banner-300x252.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/historia-cosmologia-banner-768x646.jpg","large":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/historia-cosmologia-banner-1024x861.jpg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/historia-cosmologia-banner.jpg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/historia-cosmologia-banner.jpg","trp-custom-language-flag":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/historia-cosmologia-banner.jpg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"Farid","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/57e8aa07b0d16e13c8408ea413c009fc7da05f4cbb36da0d568b4235b1eaee6b?s=96&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":false,"magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"El cielo siempre ha llamado la atenci\u00f3n de los seres humanos. Su grandiosidad, los cuerpos celestes y diversos eventos que ocurren en el firmamento, ha motivado a observar el cielo desde la antig\u00fcedad, y en funci\u00f3n de ello ordenar su percepci\u00f3n del mundo y del Universo. En un comienzo, s\u00f3lo dispon\u00edamos de los ojos como…","magazineBlocksPostCategories":[],"magazineBlocksPostViewCount":0,"magazineBlocksPostReadTime":6,"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/historia-cosmologia-banner.jpg",1200,1009,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/historia-cosmologia-banner-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/historia-cosmologia-banner-300x252.jpg",300,252,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/historia-cosmologia-banner-768x646.jpg",640,538,true],"large":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/historia-cosmologia-banner-1024x861.jpg",640,538,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/historia-cosmologia-banner.jpg",1200,1009,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/historia-cosmologia-banner.jpg",1200,1009,false],"trp-custom-language-flag":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/historia-cosmologia-banner.jpg",14,12,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Farid","author_link":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/en\/author\/farid\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"El cielo siempre ha llamado la atenci\u00f3n de los seres humanos. Su grandiosidad, los cuerpos celestes y diversos eventos que ocurren en el firmamento, ha motivado a observar el cielo desde la antig\u00fcedad, y en funci\u00f3n de ello ordenar su percepci\u00f3n del mundo y del Universo. En un comienzo, s\u00f3lo dispon\u00edamos de los ojos como…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3936"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6536,"href":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3936\/revisions\/6536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}