Astronomy 2021A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Pseudoscience, Isaac Newton, Inverse-Square Law
29 Mar 2015
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Chapter 2- the science of life in the universe. Ancient people could only guess about possibilities of finding life elsewhere, we can study these possibilities with powerful methods of modern science. Need to use science to understand conditions under which we might expect to find life. Methods we can use to search for it. 2. 1 the ancient debate about life beyond earth. Scholars of ancient greece already debating about possibilities of life beyond earth 2300 years ago. Some said there probably is and other said no (aristotle said no) The fact that it occurred means a major chance in human thinking was happening. Ancestors looked into sky, related it to mythological beings ( planets carry names of mythological gods) Greek efforts marked first attempts to understand the universe through methods closely resembling the ones we use in science today. To understand modern science, we need to study the past (how observing the sky turned into modern science)
