DEFINITION

cos·​mol·​o·​gy | \ käz-ˈmä-lə-jē \

Cosmology is the study of the nature of the

universe as a whole entity. The word cosmology
is derived from the Greek kosmos meaning
harmony or order. Cosmologists are interested
in the formation, evolution and future of the
universe and its constituents.
THIS THE KEY QUESTION THAT COSMOLOGY ASKS
 ANCIENT HUMANS & COSMOLOGY

► ► ►

Early cosmology, from Neolithic About 20,000 years ago, humankind The third stage, considered the core
times of 20,000 to 100,000 years began to organize itself and develop of modern cosmology, grew out of
ago, was extremely local. The cultures. This led to the development ancient Greece, later adopted by the
Universe was what was immediately of creation myths to explain the origin Church. The underlying theme in
interacted with. Cosmological things of the Universe. Many of the myths Greek science is the use of
were weather, earthquakes, and still maintained supernatural themes, observation and experimentation to
cataclysms. Things outside daily but there was an internal logical search for simple, universal laws.
experience were considered consistency to many of the stories. In
supernatural. some sense, the creation myths are
the first scientific theories.

Reference: http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/ast123/lectures/lec01.html
 ►Plato believed that concepts had a universal form, an
ideal form, which leads to Platonic Idealism.

►Aristotle believed that universal forms were not

necessarily attached to each object or concept, and that
PLATO each instance of an object or a concept had to be
analyzed on its own. This is Aristotelian Empiricism.

►For Plato, thought experiments and reasoning would be

enough to "prove" a concept or establish the qualities of an
object, but Aristotle dismissed this in favor of direct
observation and experience.

ARISTOTLE
► Homer and Hesiod (the 8th century BC) postulated a flat or cylindrical
earth located in a hemispherical cosmos

► Pythagoras (560-480BC) held the view that the earth was a sphere in a
universe which was itself also fully spherical

►The belief that the circle or ► The observations of a ship

sphere was the most perfect of and its mast as the vessel
geometric shapes, and receded beyond the horizon.
therefore appropriate for the
earth and the cosmos

https://bertie.ccsu.edu/naturesci/Cosmology/Cosmo1Background.html
Through trigonometric considerations, ancient Greeks were able to determine the Earth’s circumference.

►
The distance from Alexandria to Syene was 4900 stadia, so the ratio of
that circumference of the Earth, C, is given by:
𝐶 360°
= 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒, 𝐶 = 252,000 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑎
4900 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑎 7° Note: 1 stadia ~ 0.16 kms

𝐸𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑠𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑠 ′ 𝑠 𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒: 𝐶 = 40,320 𝑘𝑖𝑙𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠

Present estimate of the Earth’s circumference is about 40,075 kms.

– Space.com
► The world was the creation ► The Demiurge organized ► The soul of the cosmos,
of a "Demiurge" (from the the world out of the elements-- which Plato considered as the
Greek "demos" or people and Earth, Water, Air and Fire. more important part, was its
"ourgos" or work) out of These formed the "body" of principle of eternal and recurring
materials provided by a pre- the cosmos, which was also circular motion, as done by the
existing "chaos", or jumble of endowed with a "soul". moon, planets, sun and stars.
matter

► It is presumed, though not explicitly stated by Plato, that the Earth is the
center of the cosmos, with the other heavenly bodies rotating about it
 ► Acceptance of the four Platonic elements
of Earth, Water, Air and Fire as the basis for
phenomena on both the Earth (the planet)
and in the atmosphere.

► Aristotle based himself on The addition of a fifth element-- known as

various observations evident "aether" -- as the matter of the heavenly
to the unaided eye: bodies (moon, planets, sun, and stars)
– We see the sun "rise" and "set"
each day It seemed appropriate
– We don't feel that the earth that the earth -- the ► The earth as the center of the cosmos
moves under our feet planet we inhabit -- be – geocentrism. The sun moves around
– We see the stars describe a at the center, since the earth – heliodynamism
semi-circle about the horizon after all, aren't
each night humans (i.e. the
Greeks) the most
important part of the All heavenly motions are circular
All of these seem to imply that the
earth is fixed at the center and the cosmos? (or spherical, in three dimensions).
sun moves around it.
 ► Most early models of the solar system were constrained by a
belief in an ideal geometric universe in which the circle is the most
perfect shape

There are two main divisions among the models:

(earth as the center) (sun as the center)

 (408-355 BC)

► EUDOXUS OF CNIDOS was the most renown astronomer and

mathematician of his day. He developed a geocentric solar system
model composed of concentric spheres, incorporating Platonic
ideal of uniform circular motion

• The spherical earth is at rest at the center.

• Around this center, 27 concentric spheres rotate.
• The exterior one caries the fixed stars,
• The others account for the sun, moon, and five planets.
• Each planet requires four spheres, the sun and moon,
three each.

SHORTCOMING
This model doesn’t work well with planets, doesn’t explain retrograde
motions and doesn’t explain different brightness levels.
Image:https://www.math.tamu.edu/~dallen/history/eudoxus/eud
oxus.html
► Aristotle proposed 55 concentric, crystalline spheres to which
the celestial objects were attached, and which rotated at different
velocities with the Earth at the cente

► Additional "buffering" spheres that lay between the spheres

illustrated. The outermost sphere was the domain of the "Prime
Mover” which caused the outermost sphere to rotate at constant
angular velocity, and this motion was imparted from sphere to
sphere, thus causing the whole thing to rotate.

SHORTCOMING
His model could not explain varying planetary brightness and the
retrograde in their motions
Image:http://www.pas.rochester.edu/~blackman/ast104/aristotl
e8.html
► A 1524 representation
of Aristotelian-Ptolemaic
Geocentric universe
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
► The solution to the deficiency in Aristotle’s model was to add
epicycles. Ptolemy made the most sophisticated version of
this model by introducing epicycles in epicycles it also
introduced the idea of the “equant”, an observation point
slightly off from where the earth is

(Photograph ©2007–08 Tunç Tezel.) https://www.earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/OrbitsHistory Images:http://www.pas.rochester.edu/~blackman/ast104/aristotle8.html

► By the Middle Ages, Aristotle’s philosophy was merged with medieval
theology in the great synthesis of Christianity and Reason undertaken by
philosopher-theologians such as Thomas Aquinas.

► The Prime Mover of Aristotle's universe became the God of Christian

theology, the outermost sphere of the Prime Mover became identified with the
Christian Heaven, and the position of the Earth at the center of it all was
understood in terms of the concern that the Christian God had for the affairs of
mankind.

Thus, the ideas largely originating with pagan Greek philosophers were
baptized into the Catholic church and eventually assumed the power of
religious dogma: to challenge this view of the Universe was not merely a
scientific issue; it became a theological one as well, and subjected dissenters
to the considerable and not always benevolent power of the Church.
► Nicolaus Copernicus, a Polish priest, proposed (in 1515)
that the Earth was a planet like Venus and Saturn, and all
these circled the Sun, but did not publish his work until 1543.

► Copernican heliocentrism positioned the Sun near the

center of the Universe, motionless, with Earth and the other
planets rotating around it in circular paths modified by (fewer)
epicycles and at uniform speeds.

► His theory gained followers and some of them faced

charges of heresy.

SHORTCOMING
The shortcoming of this model is the use of circular instead of
[Adapted from Nicolaus Copernicus, 1543, De revolutionibus
elliptical orbits. orbium coelestium (“On the Revolutions of the Heavenly
Spheres.”)]
 COPERNICUS' SYSTEM

► Earth a planet, like others, all

circling the sun (no longer a planet)

► Moon circling earth (no longer a

planet)

► Earth has three motions:

a. Daily rotation - replacing the
movement of the sphere of the fixed
start
b. Annual revolution around sun -
accounting for retrograde motion
c. 3rd motion - an annual rotation
about an axis perpendicular to the
ecliptic

► Fixed stars truly fixed now. Sphere

of the fixed stars motionless.

► No equant.
► It is believed by many that Copernicus’ book was only
published at the end of his life because he feared ridicule and
oppression by his peers and by the Church.

► His ideas remained rather obscure for about 100 years after
his death. In the 17th century, the work of Kepler, Galileo,
and Newton would build on the heliocentric universe of
Copernicus and produce the revolution that would sweep
away completely the ideas of Aristotle and replace them
with the modern view of astronomy and natural science.
This sequence is commonly called the Copernican
Revolution.

► His book was eventually included in the list of forbidden

books by the Church. [Adapted from Nicolaus Copernicus, 1543, De revolutionibus
orbium coelestium (“On the Revolutions of the Heavenly
Spheres.”)]
► King Fredrick II of Denmark built Tycho Brahe a
naked-eye observatory to measure the position of
planets with high accuracy.

► He developed the practice of measuring the error

from his instruments in order to obtain accurate observations.

► He was unable to observe stellar parallax, which would

have given strong proof for the heliocentric theory

► His observations of a supernova and a comet showed

inconsistencies with Aristotelian theory but he did not
challenge it. Top: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tycho-Brahe-Danish-
astronomer
Bottom: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uraniborg#/media/File:Tycho-
Brahe-Mural-Quadrant.jpg
 ► Tycho Brahe's
Uraniborg main
building from the
1663 Blaeu's
Atlas Maior

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uraniborg#/media/File:Uraniborg_main_building.jpg
 ► Tycho Brahe's
Uraniborg main
building from the
1663 Blaeu's
Atlas Maior

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uraniborg#/media/File:Uraniborg_main_building.jpg
► Brahe developed a model in order to explain Galileo’s
observation that Venus had phases. His model had all the
planets (except Earth) orbiting around the Sun, but then
the Sun orbited around the Earth.

Source: [Adapted from Tycho Brahe, Astronomiae instauratae

progymnasmata (“Introductory exercises toward the restoration of
astronomy.”)]
Source: https://elizabethanastronomy.weebly.com/brahe.html
► Johannes Kepler was Tycho Brahe’s
assistant. Brahe felt threatened and assigned
Kepler to the difficult task of observing Mars.

► It was from the meticulous and extensive

record of observation of Mars that Kepler
formed his model of the solar system.

► Unable to fit Mars data into circular orbits,

he was forced to come to the conclusion that
the orbits must be elliptical. ► Diagram of
Kepler's first model
of the universe.
Image source:https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johannes-Kepler/Keplers-social-world
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johannes-Kepler/Keplers-social-world
 ALL ABOUT ELLIPSES

Ellipses are conic sections formed when a plane intersects a cone

in an inclined way. The main characteristic of ellipses is that all the
points on their curve have a sum of distances from two fixed points
that is equal to a constant.

The eccentricity of ellipses are anywhere between zero and one; the circle has an eccentricity of zero.
Source: https://www.mechamath.com/precalculus/characteristics-of-an-ellipse/
 Source: history.com

A B

▼
A. Two of Galileo's
first telescopes; in
the Museo Galileo,
Contrary to the popular belief, Florence.
Scala/Art Resource, New
he was not the inventor of the York
telescope. It was the Dutch
B. Galileo's
eyeglass maker Hans illustrations of the
Lippershey who first applied Moon
Galileo's sepia wash
for the patent of the telescope. studies of the Moon, 1609;
in the Biblioteca Nazionale,
Galileo improved upon this Florence.
Dutch design. © Everett-Art

In 1610, he discovered “stars” orbiting He published his discoveries in

Jupiter and named them after the “Siderius Nuncius” (meaning The
grand duke of Tuscany, Cosimo II de Starry Messenger). This included
Medici ~ Medician Stars. This made observations of the moon’s surface
him famous! and descriptions of a multitude of
new stars in the Milky Way.
 THE CONFLICT

The moon’s rugged surface went against the idea of heavenly perfection, and the orbits of the
Medician stars violated the geocentric notion that the heavens revolved around Earth.

1633: Galileo was

1632: Galileo summoned before the
published his Roman Inquisition. First
“Dialogue denying heliocentrism, but
Concerning the Two later on said he had done
Pope Paul V Chief World so unintentionally.
1616: the Catholic summoned Galileo Systems,” which Convicted of “vehement
Church placed “De to Rome and told him supposedly presented suspicion of heresy”
Revolutionibus” he could no longer arguments for both and under threat of torture Galileo lived his last
under banned support Copernicus sides of the forced to express sorrow nine years under
books publicly. heliocentrism debate. and curse his errors. comfortable house
arrest. Died on
January 8, 1642 at
age 77.
 ►

Galileo is tried before

the Roman Catholic
Inquisition in Rome,
Italy, in 1633. Galileo
is accused of teaching
Copernican theory,
which states that the
Earth revolves around
the Sun. At the time
the church taught that
Earth was the center
of the universe.
© Everett Historical/
Shutterstock.com

The first direct attribution of the quote to Galileo dates to 125 years after the trial, though it appears
on a wall behind him in a 1634 Spanish painting commissioned by one of Galileo's friends. history.com
► Contributions to different fields:
• Mathematics, both pure and applied
• Optics and the theory of light and color
• Design of scientific instruments
• Synthesis and codification of dynamics
• Invention of the concept and law of
universal gravity
• Alchemy
• Chronology, church history, and
• interpretation of the Scriptures

Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Isaac-Newton/Career
 It took 144 years of active debate and research for the Copernican
view to establish itself. Can a scientific revolution take that long?
What is important about a revolution is not its length but its depth.
What makes a change revolutionary is its upheaval in an
established structure, a reversal of viewpoints, a replacement of
presuppositions. It is a general rearrangement of elements in a
network, be it conceptual, political, or social. Some elements in the
system are displaced, some replaced, and others remain.
FRIEDEL WEINERT

from Copernicus, Darwin, & Freud: Revolutions in the History and Philosophy of Science