Theme of The Chapter: A Story of Religion and Science - How Our Ideas About The Universe Have Changed

Section Four: COSMOS
Chapter 12. Cosmic Order

Theme of the chapter: a story of religion and science --
How our ideas about the universe have changed:
Through the Ptolemaic

geocentric universe
To this and beyond
From this:
Structure of the Chapter
1. Astronomy from Ptolemy to Galileo
2. Biblical and Christian Beliefs
Galileo and the Disturbing New View of the Heavens
(Shakespeare and Donne express common anxieties.)
3. An expanding universe.
In fact – from long before Ptolemy’s
years (died ca. 170 A.D.)
From ancient beginnings:
-- Babylonian astronomy / astrology,
ca. 1800 BC recording the patterns
of planetary & stellar motions
(without a geometric model?) –
to Ptolemy’s Almagest
Another portrayal of
the usual biblical image
of the universe,
Greek theories of the structure of the universe, ca. 350 BC.
classical times – seeking to figure our the whole universe
Ca. 580 BC Aristotle & Hipparchus

Ca. 250 BCE
d. 322; d. ca. 120 BC
N. B name: Aristarchus
276-194 BCE
In fact – from long before Ptolemy’s years, ca. 170 A.D.
Ptolemaic universe: earth in the center (geocentric)
surrounded by 7 “heavens” [name them]
then by stellar heaven
then by Prime Mover? (Aristotle’s Unmoved Mover)
Heavenly motion is perfect,
the heavens are incorruptible -- they go on and on.
Earth has imperfect motion; things are corrupt here.
Things fall apart, rot, bump into one another . . . .

– from long before Ptolemy’s years, (ca. 170 A.D.)
Aristarchus ( ca. 250 BCE) and the heliocentric theory:
explained planetary retrograde motion
[what is planetary retrograde motion, you ask? Next slide please.]
The retrograde motion of Mars in 2005. Mars appears to go backwards for a while, about
each year and a half, in relation to the “fixed” stars in the sky beyond Mars, at different
points in the sky each time. Go to the next slide for an explanation of this phenomenon.
(This is a composite image created by superimposing images from 35 different dates,
each separated from the next by about a week. Tunc Tezel, apod060422)
Aristarchus’ (250 BCE) heliocentric theory explained planetary regression quite well.
Earth moves along its orbit faster than Mars

does in its orbit. Earth passes Mars each 1.4 years.
Explain why Earth has to go faster than Mars.

Recall gravity formula
Retrograde planetary motion
The Earth (green dots) travels

faster than Mars around the
sun, because its orbit is smaller.
The blue arrow at the far right
points to the Earth moving
counter-clockwise upward.
From that vantage point Mars
seems to move to the left.
The pale green arrow points to the
Earth as it passes Mars, at
which time Mars seems to go
backward.
The tan arrow points to the earth
when its position allows it to
see the movement of Mars toward
the left once again.
(This animated gif was obtained from Dr. Stephen J. Daunt's Astronomy 161 web site
at The University of Tennesee, Knoxville.)
Ptolemaic theory used “epicycles” to explain retrograde motion:

Heavenly (sky) motion was in supposedly perfect circles.
This manifested the perfection of the supra-lunary universe.
So retrograde motion must be caused by epicycles – also perfect circles.
This animated gif was also obtained from Dr. Stephen J. Daunt's Astronomy 161
web site at The University of Tennesee, Knoxville.)
from long before Ptolemy’s years, ca. 170 A.D. –
Aristarchus and the heliocentric theory:

also explained why mercury and venus stayed near the sun.
heliocentrism from long before Ptolemy’s years, ca. 170 A.D.
Why did Ptolemy favor Hipparchus over Aristarchus?
a. excessive earth whirl in Aristarchus’ theory.
Eratosthenes, ca. 200 BC, calculated

The circumference of the earth, at about
23,000+ miles (in Anglo measure)
[40,300 Km]
Implication: at the equator objects are

Being twirled around ca. 1,000 mph!
Why do not objects go flying off the earth?
[Also: earth speeds around the sun at 67,000 mph]

heliocentrism from long before Ptolemy’s years, ca. 170 A.D.
b. lack of stellar parallax
b. lack of stellar parallax
.
(The small circle at the left is the whole solar system; the dot at the right is a star.)
The nearest star, Alpha Centauri, would have to be 25 yards further to the right to
represent the actual distance from the earth to that star, so far that no parallax at
all would be discernible (not until the 19th century, at least).
Therefore, if Copernicus is right, the universe is more than just immense !!
This was a frightening thought.

1. Astronomy from Ptolemy to Galileo – just finished. Now:
2. Biblical and Christian Beliefs [See pp. 118-119 in the text

for verses and stories that seem to say the earth does not move!]
The case of Galileo, 1564 – 1642
Eventually judged guilty of heresy contrary to the Bible.
This is the biblical view; and this is Ptolemy’s
Greek science:
Problem: The church “fathers”
(2nd to 5th century CE), had used
the geocentric view, accepting
Ptolemy’s universe as more
scientific than the Bible. By the 16th
century the Church was relying on
ancient Greek science instead of
the Bible, without realizing it.
1. Biblical and Christian Beliefs [See pp. 118-119 in the text.]
The case of Galileo, 1564 – 1642

Why did Galileo adopt the Copernican view?
Professor of mathematics, able to grasp Copernicus’s argument.

Galileo re-invented the telescope, to look at moon, sun, and venus.
and saw that they were imperfect (sun spots, e.g.)
He compared the force of gravity,
as measured by inclined plane studies,
to the centrifugal force of a rotating earth:
no problem.
Conclusion: heliocentrism was correct.
By the way: On the earth as the
center of the universe?
“This creature feels and sees that it is
lodged here amid the mire and filth of
the world, fast bound and riveted to
the worst, the most lifeless and
debased part of the universe, on the
lowest story of the lodging and the
farthest removed from the celestial
vault.” Michel de Montaigne, ca. 1560
An illustration for Dante’s

Inferno (Book I of the
Divine Comedy, ca. 1315
(Michelangelo Cactani,
La Materia della Divina
Commedia di Dante
Alighieri, 1855
3. Galileo and the Disturbing New View of the Heavens
(Shakespeare expresses common anxieties – text p. 158.; see next slides)
Traditionalists needed hierarchical great chain of being.
The new scientists saw a rational (clockwork) universe; Deism flourished
and so did skepticism about all old theories.
They explored new “rational” theories of government, economics, basic morality.
(rational means not based on tradition, including traditional religion)
[Digression on authority, “degree,” and social order:
In 1689, John Locke’s (1632-1704) Two Treatises of Government rejected the
divine right of kings and argued that all just government is based on basic
human rights and the consent of the governed !! Radical stuff. ]
.
From John Donne’s "Anatomy of the World"

(1572-1631) (1611)
New philosophy calls all in doubt, [Recall the Great
The element of fire is quite put out; Chain of Being. That
The sun is lost and th'earth; and no man's will included the social
Can well direct him where to looke for it. hierarchy too. Family
And freely men confess that this world is spent, order, city order,
When in the planets, and the Firmament ‘national’ order,
They seeke so many new; then see that this religious order – from
Is crumbled out again in his Atomies. child and peasants
'Tis all in pieces, all coherence gone; through king and
All just supply and all Relation. pope up through
angels, saints, and
finally to God.]
When the planets
In evil mixture to disorder wander,
What plagues and what portents, what mutiny
What raging of the sea, shaking of earth,
Commotion in the winds, frights changes horrors,
Divert and crack, rend and deracinate [uproot]
The unity and married calm of states
Quite from their fixture. Oh when degree is shak'd
Which is the ladder to all high designs,
The enterprise is sick. How could communities,
Degree in schools and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,
The primogenitive and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels,
But by degree stand in authentic place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And hark, what discord follows. Each thing meets
In mere oppugnancy. The bound waters
Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores
And make a sop of all this solid globe:
Strength should be lord to imbecility,
And the rude son should strike his father dead . . . . See p. 158.
[Troilus and Cressida, Shakespeare.]
See p. 158.
Cosmic Terror
1. A disorderly universe -- Blaise Pascal

moon and sun have “spots” 1623-62
orbits elliptical, not perfect circles (Kepler)
there is no clear hierarchical order
2. The universe is vast --

the stars are at immense distances
the emptiness of space is chilling
Pascal’s words, #72 of the Pensees (ca. 1660):
“The whole visible world is only an imperceptible atom in the ample bosom of nature.
No idea approaches it. We may enlarge our conceptions beyond all imaginable
space; we only produce atoms in comparison with the reality of things. It is an
infinite sphere, the center of which is everywhere, the circumference nowhere.
In short, it is the greatest sensible mark of the almighty power of God that
imagination loses itself in that thought.
“Returning to himself, let man consider what he is in comparison with all
existence; let him regard himself as lost in this remote corner of nature; and from
the little cell in which he finds himself lodged, I mean the universe, let him estimate
at their true value the earth, kingdoms, cities, and himself. What is a person in the
Infinite?”
What was lost !
Hierarchical universe for

spiritual ascentx
Primum Mobile Angels
Fixed Stars Souls
Saturn temperance
Jupiter justice
Mars fortitude
Sun prudence
Venus earthly love
Mercury ambition
Moon inconstancy
Earth this fallen place
from whence to climb
to sky-virtues
Start here at bottom
Later things did not get better: Running out of time
Hermann von Helmholz speculated in 1854 that gravity alone could power the sun,
as the material that composed it fell in on itself generating great pressure and
therefore heat. He gave it a life-span of 20 million years.
Lord Kelvin [William Thompson] in 1862 gave a maximum age since the beginning Helmholz
of the sun as 100 million years, but thought between 20 and 50 million more likely
(with an aside that Darwin needed 300 million years for his evolutionary process).
Lord Kelvin
Current theory: sun = huge fusion furnace,
mainly hydrogen into helium (5 billion years to go?)
Section Five: COSMOS
So far:
(Shakespeare and Pascal expresses common anxieties.)
3. An Expanding Universe: Slipher, Hubble and Humason

a. Some “Stars” are whole galaxies, moving away.
b. The further they are away, the faster they go.
Conclusion: the universe is both enormous and expanding.
3. An Expanding Universe: Slipher, Hubble and Humason

a. Some “Stars” are whole galaxies, moving away (Slipher)
b. The further they are away, the faster they go (Hubble).
Conclusion: the universe is both enormous and expanding.
How arrive at this conclusion?

Begin with red shift observed
by Vesto Melvin Slipher
(1875-1969)
Lowell Observatory,
Flagstaff, AZ.
in 1912-1914
3. Slipher, Hubble, and Humason – 20th century
a. Some “Stars” are whole galaxies, moving away.
b. The further they are away, the faster they go.
Conclusion:
the universe is both enormous and expanding.
Vesto Slipher discovered the red

shift of faraway stars Edwin Hubble
Lowell observatory, Falstaff.
Milton Humason
Albert and the gang

at Mt. Wilson
Mt. Wilson Observatory
San Gabriel Mountains
Just north of Los Angeles
100 inch reflector, 1917
Edwin Hubble, 1889-1953

1920s work established the
expansion of the universe.
A gateway to
the universe
Mt Palomar Observatory
ca. 70 mi NNE of San Diego;
200 in. reflector, 1948
6,140 feet above sea level

Hubble space
telescope.
Launched 1990.
Hubble “deep field,”

1995 & 1998, and
Hubble “ultra deep
field, 2003-2004.
Photo by the space

shuttle Discovery.
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/timeline.htm
l
0: The Big Bang. Time and space are created.
10–43 seconds: Gravity separates from the three other fundamental forces (electromagnetism, and the
weak and strong nuclear forces). This is the earliest time that theoretical physicists have probed so far. The
strong force and electroweak forces become distinct soon after.
10–35 seconds: The universe expands, undergoing a spectacular acceleration known as inflation. This
process takes tiny regions of space and blows them up into much larger volumes, ironing out any wrinkles in the
process.
10–6 seconds: Particles gain mass. The electroweak forces break down into the electromagnetism and weak
forces we observe today. Sub-atomic particles gain mass.
* 1 second: The first composite particles. Protons and neutrons form from a very hot soup of quarks and
gluons.
3 minutes: The first elements (mostly hydrogen and helium) form. The universe expands and cools so fast
that heavier elements don’t even have a chance to be created. [Barnes: too hot for that, no?]
380,000 years: The universe’s temperature drops enough for the protons and neutrons to begin capturing
electrons. Also, for the first time, light travels freely through space, and the fog of the early universe clears. This
light is still detectable today as the cosmic microwave background.
30 million years: Stars first appear in the universe. Computer models suggest that the first stars may have
formed at this point, along with the creation of heavy elements.
200 million years: The Milky Way forms. The Earth’s home galaxy was formed not long (well, in cosmic terms)
after the first stars.
9 billion years: The Earth’s solar system forms. The disk of material left over after the formation of the Sun
begins to get clumpy.
10 billion years: Life on Earth begins. The effect of harsh solar radiation and lightning on a primordial soup of
organic material may have kick-started life. [Barnes: we do have evidence of life at 3.7 bya.]
11 billion years: Oxygen accumulates in the atmosphere of the Earth. The essential gas for animals to
breathe appears for the first time.
13.5 billion years: Early humans evolve in Africa. Modern humans first appear on the continent and colonise
the rest of the planet.
13.7 billion years: You check out this list. The origins of the universe are explained!
As of Oct. 16, 2016. http://www.dummies.com/education/history/world-history/a-rough-timeline-of-the-universe/
A review of the huge change in cosmology:
Zoroastrian --- Judaic --- Christian --- (& Muslim) universe

This earth is the center of the universe, with sky and stars and planets
not too far away. The entire history of the universe can be summed up:
CREATION --- SIN, REBELLION --- STRUGGLES -- CULMINATION.
ca. 4,000 BC source of pain God helps catastrophic end;
all good, ideal & temptations 6,000 years in all good rewarded
Scientific Picture of Cosmic History

The earth is nowhere in particular in an immensity of galaxies.
BIG BANG – COSMIC EVOLUTION – LIFE EVOLUTION -- BILLIONS MORE YRS
raw energy for billions of years over more with no apparent
go boom from gas to galaxies billions of years goal or design.
(Appendix A. Lost with Pascal in a Huge Universe.)

(Shakespeare and Donne express common anxieties.)
3. An Expanding Universe.
End of slides on Ch. 12

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Section Four: COSMOS

Chapter 12. Cosmic Order

Through the Ptolemaic

Ca. 580 BC Aristotle & Hipparchus

Structure of the Chapter

1. Astronomy from Ptolemy to Galileo

Earth moves along its orbit faster than Mars

Explain why Earth has to go faster than Mars.

The Earth (green dots) travels

Ptolemaic theory used “epicycles” to explain retrograde motion:

Aristarchus and the heliocentric theory:

Eratosthenes, ca. 200 BC, calculated

Implication: at the equator objects are

Why do not objects go flying off the earth?

[Also: earth speeds around the sun at 67,000 mph]

This was a frightening thought.

2. Biblical and Christian Beliefs [See pp. 118-119 in the text

The case of Galileo, 1564 – 1642

Professor of mathematics, able to grasp Copernicus’s argument.

An illustration for Dante’s

From John Donne’s "Anatomy of the World"

1. A disorderly universe -- Blaise Pascal

2. The universe is vast --

What was lost !

Hierarchical universe for

Later things did not get better: Running out of time

3. An Expanding Universe: Slipher, Hubble and Humason

3. An Expanding Universe: Slipher, Hubble and Humason

How arrive at this conclusion?

Vesto Slipher discovered the red

Albert and the gang

Edwin Hubble, 1889-1953

6,140 feet above sea level

Hubble “deep field,”

Photo by the space

Zoroastrian --- Judaic --- Christian --- (& Muslim) universe

Scientific Picture of Cosmic History

2. Biblical and Christian Beliefs

End of slides on Ch. 12

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