Structure of the Universe From

Structure of the Universe

From the beginning of time mankind had been fascinated with the Universe and the wonders of the sky. The first reports of astronomers existing had been in the early ages in Egypt, as people believed that the sun and the moon had been of great importance. With time, people evolved, astronomy also evolved along and astronomers had continuously become better by analyzing earth and the surrounding planets.

The early Egyptians had been very limited when regarding their astronomy knowledge. Egypt had been considered to be the center of the Universe, while the stars were enormous lamps. One of the reasons which stopped Egyptian astronomers from further examining the world of astronomy was that they believed that everything had been controlled by gods.

At about 600 B.C., after some time of constant improvements in the country, the Greeks became interested in astronomy. The Greeks invented the world astronomy after bringing together the words law and star with the intention of providing a somewhat complete documentation on the subject. Despite of the fact that the Greeks had indeed made a huge step for astronomy, some of the information supplied by them had been erroneous.

Among the hundreds of great astronomers in the history of mankind, Aristotle is famous for having studied astronomy next to the fact that he had been one of the greatest philosophers ever to live. However, he wrongfully considered that the Universe had been composed of four essential elements: earth, water, fire and air. Furthermore, he believed that the heavenly object, such as the sun and the moon, had been perfect by having a fifth essential element in their composition, named ether.

In the more civilized world people began to pay more attention to astronomy and the results were beginning to show, as Nicholas Copernicus, the Polish astronomer, put a stop to the belief that the Earth had been the center of the Universe. He did that by presenting the world's first heliocentric model, in which all the planets revolved around the sun, then believed to be the center of the Universe.

The world had been advancing when regarding astronomy, with people from all countries being attracted to the topic. Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei had been determined to build a device that would assist him in watching heavenly objects more carefully. By working intensely, he managed to build the world's first telescope and to be able to look at the moon and at the sun. After inspect both the sun and the moon he discovered sun spots and craters, thus proving Aristotle's theory of the heavenly objects as being flawless as wrong. Galileo's discovery had not been appreciated by the rest of the world, as the people of the 16th century had been reluctant from accepting any breakthrough that would influence the previous theories. After Galileo mad his discovery public, he had been punished to spend the rest of his life in his house by the Roman Catholic Church, which had been the major authority of the time.

Edmond Halley solved the case of comets which kept appearing on the sky at an approximately 76-year interval. After having analyzed the situation, Halley came up with the idea that there was only one comet which kept orbiting the earth. Consequently, the comet did appear at the approximate time that he predicted that it would show again and it is now called the Halley Comet.

Due to the fact that people did not always posses the proper equipment to learn more about earth and the universe, there had been several mistakes when regarding the appropriate measurement of distances. One of the most notable cases in which man wrongfully calculated distances is the case of Columbus, with the Genovese explorer failing from reaching Asia, which he assumed had been much closer than it actually was.

With the coming of the 20th century, astronomy had been more popular than ever and people now had the means to better explore the subject. The century had been full of breakthroughs in the world of astronomy with Hubble, the American astronomer, presenting the theory of the expanding Universe and man leaving Earth and putting foot on the moon for the first time in history.

Most astronomers today believe that the planets had formed as a result of an explosion of enormous proportions called "the Big Bang." There is much controversy regarding the Big Bang theory, as there are people hesitant of accepting it. Especially the church is unwilling to accept the issue, as religion only accepts the theory of God having made the world.