The Solar System Essay -- Astronomy

The universe was once a vast uncharted area; an area of the unknown. People looked up to the sky in wonder and awe, curious as to what was beyond Earth. What were those lights in the sky? Where did they come from? How did they get there? As time has passed, the universe made up of stars and planets has evolved. What we did not know before, we know now, our cosmos has changed immensely, transforming into what we now call our solar system. Before people had the knowledge and technology we have today, the heavenly skies were an area of endless speculation and inspiration. People from all around the world created their own myths and explanations about the cosmos and the celestial bodies within it. Roughly six thousand years in the past, the Sumerians had the belief that Earth lied in the center of the universe. The Babylonians and Greek civilizations further carried this same belief into their centuries, depicting the heavenly skies as a cosmos revolving around the earth. Looking back into history, the Greeks were the first to put forward the idea that planet Earth was a sphere (now known as an oblate ellipsoid). Then around 340 BC, a Greek philosopher named Aristotle made the discovery of a few of our most influential and fundamental theories that helped to further prove this idea. Aristotle first proposed that one always witnesses the sails of a ship approaching past the horizon first and then its framework. This suggested that the surface of the ocean must be curved and not flat as it was once thought to be. Secondly, Aristotle discovered that the eclipses of the moon were generated by the shadow that Earth casted on it. This further proved the point that if the Earth was flat, the shadow it casted upon the Moon would not app... ...years later that non-uniformity in the antediluvian commenced the formation of galaxies and ancient stars out of pouches of gas condensing due to gravity. Approximately five billion years ago, such pouches of gas that resided in a spiral channel of the MIlky Way Galaxy formed the Sun. An immense circle of gas and refuse that was whirling around the ancient Sun formed to the planets, Earth included, which is predictably 4.6 to 4.5 billion years old. Works Cited Adskin, Alaina. Humanities 242. Away we go!. N.p., 22 Feb. 2011. Web. 1 Dec. 2011. "Big Bang Theory - An Overview." All About Science. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2011. Cessna, Abby. "Heliocentric Model." Universe Today. N.p., 22 June 2009. Web. 1 Dec. 2011. "Isaac Newton." Scientists: Their Lives and Works. Gale, 2006. Gale Biography. Dec. 2011. "The Universe." The Big View. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2011.