The Story of our Universe Part 2:The Turning Point

 

(To continue reading Part 2 , please refer Part 1 : Asking Questions)

The Geo-centric model of Ptolemy gained wide popularity among astronomers around the world. Astronomers started making measurements or rather predictions of planetary motions based on observations. They have encountered certain problem with the motions of planets like Venus. Many Muslim Astronomers from 8^th  to 10^th Century  like Al-Khwarizmi extended their contributions by fine tuning the Geo-centric model, though it never solved the problem about planetary motions.

Though by 16^th Century, many astronomers doubted the Geo-centric model, but they failed to come up with alternative theory.  It was work of Tycho Brahe, a Danish nobleman (refer picture below) whose remarkable collection of data which was the most accurate data available till his time pertaining to motion of celestial objects which he obtained using his Instruments( refer picture below)  that led to the next break-through in our journey. 

  

   

 

Based on the data provided by the Tycho Brahe , Copernicus , a German Astronomer made his own calculation based on this data and came to startling conclusion that to describe the motion of planets , The sun must be at the centre and all other planets including the Earth must be rotating. Thus he developed the so called “The Helio-centric Theory”   i.e., with the sun at the centre, and all other planets revolving around the sun in perfect circles.

Helio Centric Theory

Copernicus

                                                                                            

It was a revolutionary idea that would have very serious implications on the world. Though Copernicus was very confident about his calculations, he only published his theory in his book  “On Revolutions of Celestial Spheres”   only at very later stage of his life. But when the world came to know about his theory, The Holy Church was against to this idea and so does the rest of the world.

To the astronomers around the world, this theory was a daring proposition and they set out to find out the truth. One of them was Keppler, a German astronomer further added to this theory that the planets revolve around the Sun not in Circular orbits but rather in Elliptical Orbits as shown below.

During the 16^th Century, the world was introduced to telescopes as toys that would magnify an object. But one astronomer had a different idea altogether, he developed a special telescope that could magnify an object 10 times. He was Galileo Galilee, a Italian Astronomer. He was first Human being to  gaze at the universe with his telescope. What a remarkable feeling Galileo must have felt by seeing the universe with a naked eye..

  Galileo made a detail record of what he has observed. His observations led him to conclude that Helio centric theory offers the best description of the world around. 

The first ever Telescope

The moon as seen through the telescope

Galileo supported the heliocentric theory with practical observations that could be seen with his telescope. But the Church readily did not accept this idea. The Church decided to prosecute Galileo for his support of heliocentric theory as it rejects the idea that the world was created as described by Geo-centric theory which was work of the God himself. Thus, officially the clash of ideology between Religion and Science has began. In this prosecution by the Church, Galileo was all-alone in this battle. He was at the mercy of the Church. He lost the battle against the Church and was house arrested for the rest of his life. This was done to him just for stating the fact which we regard very obvious in 21^st century. But it is just unimaginable to think the struggle he must have faced. As time passed on after his death, more and more evidence poured in about the Helio centric theory, thus causing the Church to accept the Helio centric theory as the Work of God himself and rejecting the idea of Geo-centric model of universe which lasted for about 1500 years unchallenged.

Prosecution  Session of Galileo by the Holy Church

Galileo in his last days

 Helio-centric theory explained the Sun was at the centre and the rest of planets revolved around the sun. But it was never able to explain what caused the planets to revolve? In our journey to understand the universe, it is time to meet one of the most brilliant mathematician ever lived on the surface of the Earth..

Sir Isaac Newton

Let us look at the Part 3 of our Journey to understand the Universe in the next post ..

The Story of Our Universe- Part 1

How did the Universe come into existence?

Why is the universe the way we see around us?

We all at one point or the other in our life must have asked ourselves the above questions about the universe.As an ardent follower of Science, I have always been deeply fascinated by the mysteries of the universe especially about its origins. I always used to wonder what could be the answer for the following above questions.  And thus, I began my quest to understand it. I immediately realized that there are only two possible routes to find a possible answer to these mysteries.

1.  The Path of Science
2.  The Path of Religion

I took both the paths to understand the universe. The Path of Religion only made me realize that for these questions, the obvious answer is God. Often described as The Supreme, The Invincible, The Creator, The Destroyer and many other names, we were made to believe right from our Childhood that there is someone out there in the skies who is watching us and will grant us anything we wish for, only if, we lead a life as described by Him and His Messengers and thus, according to our acts, we are ensured our berth in Heaven or Hell accordingly. I’m not here to argue about His Existence, that’s not the topic of this discussion, but if asked whether I believe in God, Yes is my answer and He created the Universe we see around.  But at the same time, I certainly believe the fact that the Universe was not created the way as often described in our Sacred Books of Religion. Every Sacred book has its own version of Creation, thus leading to chaos. For example, the Abrahamic religions like Islam, Christianity & Judaism agree that the Universe was created spontaneously in just Six days and God took rest on Seventh Day which is quite different version from what Hinduism and many other states. I certainly believe that God must have left it out for us to figure out ourselves about the origins and so He devoted most of His work making us understand the path that we all need to follow to reach Him, through His Messengers. After all what’s the point of spoon feeding everything?.

For most of us, we are not at all bothered as to how God might have created the universe as it is a past event and cannot affect our daily lives. We are more concerned about our present and future, striving harder to lead a happy and peaceful life.  But for some people understanding the origins of universe  became their entire life’s work for which they have earned respect of the whole mankind which will also be highlighted apart from their contribution in this topic.

The more I try to know about the universe, the more mysterious it becomes. It is perhaps the most complex thing the humankind has ever came across. In this 21^st century we may be nearing to answer few of  the most complex questions by using the Six billion dollars worth “The Large Hadron Collider” facility to  unlock the mysteries of atoms which are conducted at the CERN, Switzerland.This may ultimately help us solve some mysteries  and pave way for some more deep mysteries of the universe ,after all  the universe will never stop to challenge us until we reach the final truth.

The Entire picture of our Universe

 The above picture is a computer simulated model of our complete universe. This was only possible today  because of the latest Super Computers that can do calculations at staggering speeds of more than One PFLOPS/Sec  ( 10 ¹⁵  Operations per second). Each Bright spot in the picture represents billions and billions of galaxies. And each galaxy is collection of billions of stars. Out of these Stars, one star i.e., The Sun is about which our Planet Earth rotates. Isn’t it mind boggling to realize this fact? It just makes feel how tiny we are before it.

In this series, I would like to make an attempt to present  the views of scientific community from the past to present about the origins of our universe in a simple lucid explanation, not involving any complex mathematics that even a glimpse of it will scare you and this, mind you is my interpretation of what I have learned through watching a number of documentaries on this topic.In this journey of our understanding , we can also notice one remarkable thing about science is that a theory proposed by someone is not accepted until and unless it is proved by means of verifiable and repeatable physical parameters which can be conducted by anyone who has understanding of it. It is remarkable to see how science proposes a theory and shatters it by a new theory and mind you this is a iterative process which continues until to that point where we are only left with nothing but  the absolute truth.

I only intend to write this so as to make myself organize the data that i have learned and also have a better understanding about the origins of the universe.The copyrights of all the images used in this post belong to their respective owners .

Part 1:  Asking Questions

In the beginning, say some thousands of years ago, our understanding was very limited. As our mind evolved with passage of time, it became curious to know the things around it, because understanding of surroundings led ultimately to its survival itself. At the same time, it made an attempt to make sense of the mysteries that it happen to encounter. One of such things is the Universe. And it made sense by the idea that the Universe and the Life was created by an Invisible and Invincible force of the universe. The God.

This was the way our ancestors depicted the Universe as the creation of God which is very widely accepted idea today. But the important question is not whether God created everything or not, But  how God created this Universe. The only way to do was by asking questions and making careful observations of things around them. And thus mankind set himself on a journey to unlock the mysteries of the Universe, since God did not gave a clear picture of how he created the Universe even if he did, it was often different versions to different people.

Frightening the Moon to save Sun God!!

             

Our attempt to understand the universe dates back to some 5000 years ago by Babylonian Astronomers who perceived the Earth was flat which was floating in ocean. The first noticeable observation of our Universe on the Earth was that of solar Eclipse, where the moon comes in between the path of Sun God- The giver of light, thus causing darkness in a bright daylight. Our ancestors spread across the Earth had their own perceptions of this event. One among them was, to save The Sun God as he has been swallowed by moon , they were suppose to frighten the moon with their weapons and remarkably this worked , and frightened  moon escapes the spot immediately to avoid the anger of the Sun devotees as depicted in the above picture. Though this interpretation of Solar Eclipse seems to be funny, but it’s quite remarkable that even more than 2500 years ago, our ancestors made very careful observations of the things around them and  made an attempt to understand these mysteries in their own way.

Aristotle

 The first person to make an attempt to understand the universe was Aristotle, who lived around some 2300 years ago in Greece. Until then all his precursors with naked eye were able to make out that the Earth which was spherical in shape and was surrounded by some five Planets which they named them after their Gods.  Later on Aristotle made some remarkable conclusions based on his observations, one of which was that the Solar Eclipse is caused by moon coming in between the path of Sun rays and further he concluded that the Sun was the Centre of Universe.      

                

Ptolemy

            

Earth Centered Model of Universe

It was work of a Greek astronomer, Ptolemy in 1^st Century AD that put forth this idea of Earth Centered Model of Universe which is also known as Geo-centric model of universe, in which earth was centre and all other planets were revolving around the Earth in perfect circular orbits. Though there were certain problems associated with this model, but it was widely accepted as the Standard description of Universe which explained many phenomenons observed at that time like day and night etc (depicted in the above diagram). The Holy Church immediately accepted this idea as it left room for heaven and hell beyond the Stars and preached this as the work of God himself.

This model of universe was left unchallenged for about 1500 years, but the curiosity to understand the mysteries of universe never died. The thing that needs to be highlighted here is that these people made foundation for their successors to understand the Universe using careful observations. It took the following brilliant people Copernicus, Keppler and  Galileo along with countless people to overthrow the existing idea of Geo-centric model of our Universe.

Copernicus

 

Keppler

 

Galileo

Let us look at the Part 2 of our Journey to understand the Universe in the next post " The Turning point"