GEOL 1001 Chapter : Ch1 Earth In Context
Document Summary
Lends us curiosity, insight, and the ability to learn: as a result, we seek to explain our surroundings. Cosmology: study of the structure and history of the universe, cosmology is a complicated science. Requires thinking in unfamiliar scales of space and time: 3,000 years ago, humans knew the heavens well. They knew that stars were fixed relative to other stars. They knew that stars moved predictably across the sky. They saw retrograde motion separating planets from stars. They did not think of earth as a planet, however: movement in the heavens was attributed to deities. An evolving image of earth: the ancients thought the universe was geocentric. Heavenly bodies circle around a motionless central. The idea held as religious dogma for 1,400 years. An evolving image of earth: a heliocentric (sun-centered) universe was proposed by the greeks ~ 250 b. c. e, rebirth of rational thought in 15th century europe, spawned a new age of scientific discovery.
