Major Questions in Astronomy - Essay Example

Constellations like Orion, Mars, and Jupiter were mythical gods to ancient civilizations.

Patterns or cycles help science by predicting the behavior of seasons, planet movement, and other aspects of our environment. The prediction of these seasons was vital to the survival of ancient people, and still, help farmers today. Without these predictions, humans would have no food.

Astronomy helped ancient civilizations predict the seasons, create temples, invent astronomy and even create gods out of the sky. The practical uses were the making of a calendar to predict seasons. This helped with harvesting food, planning for harsh climates, and giving ancient civilizations a way to document time.

A temple was built so whenever the sun shined through a window that told the Anasazis what season it was. The planets seem to have the apparent motions of back and forth depending on their orbit and the earth’s position. This proves that all the planets have their orbits around the sun.

The scientific thought of the time was the sun, moon, and other planets revolved around the earth. Kepler felt that the spacing of the planet's orbits was spiritual. The universe was built in God’s image. The sun was God the Father, the Earth the Son, and everything in between the Holy Spirit. Kepler felt science and religion could complement each other.

On February 4, 1600, Kepler met Tycho Brahe at Benátky nad Jizerou in Poland. This is where Tycho's new observatory was being constructed. This observatory was for Tycho’s studies on Mars. Kepler’s political and religious troubles in Poland plagued the mutual work of Kepler and Tycho.

"Since the divine benevolence has vouchsafed us Tycho Brahe, a most diligent observer, from whose observations the 8' error in this Ptolemaic computation is shown, it is fitting that we with thankful mind both acknowledge and honor this benefit of God... For if I had thought I could ignore eight minutes of longitude, in bisecting the eccentricity I would already have made enough of a correction in the [vicarious] hypothesis found in Ch. 16. Now, because they could not have been ignored, these eight minutes alone will have led the way to the reformation of all of astronomy, and have constituted the material for a great part of the present work."