Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The universe is often defined as "the totality of existence", or everything that exists, everything that has existed, and everything that will exist. [24] In fact, some philosophers and scientists support the inclusion of ideas and abstract concepts—such as mathematics and logic—in the definition of the universe.
c. 16th century BCE – Mesopotamian cosmology has a flat, circular Earth enclosed in a cosmic ocean. [1]c. 15th–11th century BCE – The Rigveda of Hinduism has some cosmological hymns, particularly in the late book 10, notably the Nasadiya Sukta which describes the origin of the universe, originating from the monistic Hiranyagarbha or "Golden Egg".
The Northern Hemisphere page from Johann Bayer's 1661 edition of Uranometria - the first atlas to have star charts covering the entire celestial sphere Southern Hemisphere. The history of astronomy focuses on the contributions civilizations have made to further their understanding of the universe beyond earth's atmosphere. [1]
The chronology of the universe describes the history and future of the universe according to Big Bang cosmology. Research published in 2015 estimates the earliest stages of the universe's existence as taking place 13.8 billion years ago, with an uncertainty of around 21 million years at the 68% confidence level. [1]
The traditional model of the Big Bang. The use of only general relativity to predict what happened in the beginnings of the universe has been heavily criticized, as quantum mechanics becomes a significant factor in the high-energy environment of the earliest stage of the universe, and general relativity on its own fails to make accurate predictions.
A version of the concept of absolute space (in the sense of a preferred frame) can be seen in Aristotelian physics. [1] Robert S. Westman writes that a "whiff" of absolute space can be observed in Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, where Copernicus uses the concept of an immobile sphere of stars. [2]
The Big Bang is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. [1] The concept of an expanding universe was scientifically originated by physicist Alexander Friedmann in 1922 with the mathematical derivation of the Friedmann equations.
Lucretius introduced the concept of the javelin argument in his discourse of space and how it can be bound. He explained: For whatever bounds it, that thing must itself be bounded likewise; and to this bounding thing there must be a bound again, and so on for ever and ever throughout all immensity.