Editing Cosmos (section)

==Early views of cosmos==

Eastern and Western thought differed greatly in their understanding of space and the organization of the cosmos. The Chinese saw the Cosmos as empty, infinite, and intertwined with the Earth. Western ideas, based on the [[ancient Greeks]]' understanding of the cosmos, believed in a multi-planar divided cosmos that was finite and filled with air.

===European view===
[[File:The Nights Long Moments (152181573).jpeg|thumb|Stars rotating in the night sky]]
Early Europeans viewed the cosmos as a divinely created, spatially finite, bifurcated cosmos, divided into sublunary and superlunary realms. Objects above the lunar disc were believed to be stable, with heavenly bodies believed to be made out of a refined substance called "[[Quintessence (physics)|quintessence]]". This was understood to be a crystalline, completely transparent substance that held all of the superlunary spheres in perfect order. After their creation by God, these spheres did not change except for their rotation above the Earth.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The dialogue of civilizations in the birth of modern science|last=Bala|first= Arun|date=2010|publisher=Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS)|others=Institute of Southeast Asian Studies|isbn=978-9812309082|location=Singapore|pages=134–152|oclc=647647268}}</ref> Objects below the lunar sphere were subject to constant combination, separation, and recombination. This was because they consisted of the chaotic elements of earth, air, fire, and water.<ref name=":0" />

The idea of celestial spheres was developed in the cosmological models of [[Plato]], [[Eudoxus of Cnidus|Eudoxus]], [[Aristotle]], [[Ptolemy]], [[Nicolaus Copernicus|Copernicus]], and others.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Planets, stars and orbs : the medieval cosmos, 1200–1687|last=Grant|first=Edward|date=2009|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0521138680|pages=40|oclc=818047493}}</ref> They believed in a stable cosmos created by God, where distinct realms were subject to different kinds of order. Some Europeans maintained the Aristotelian view that infinity could only be seen as an attribute of God, with the cosmos being finite. Furthermore, following the Aristotelian view that "nature abhors a vacuum", some Europeans believed that the space between the spheres were filled with air.<ref name=":0" /> This theory persisted until the [[Scientific Revolution]], when the discovery that the Sun was in the center of the planetary system rocked cosmological understanding to its core.  Other theories such as Atomism posited a void of atoms as the fundamental elements of physics, while Stoicism postulated a void allowing for the cosmos to expand and contract in volume through its cycles.<ref name="sambursky110">{{Citation|last=Sambursky|first=Samuel|year=1959|title=Physics of the Stoics|publisher=Routledge}}{{ISBN?}}</ref><ref name="SEP">Berryman, Sylvia, "Ancient Atomism", ''[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]'' (Fall 2008 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), [http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2008/entries/atomism-ancient/ online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604024544/http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2008/entries/atomism-ancient/ |date=2016-06-04 }}</ref>

===Chinese view===

The Chinese{{who|date=January 2023}} had multiple theories of the processes and components of the cosmos. The most popular of these beliefs was the Xuan Ye theory, the astronomical view of the cosmos as an infinite space with floating pieces of condensed vapor.<ref name=":0" /> The Chinese believed that the Earth consisted of condensed [[Yin and yang|''yin'']] and the heavens of [[Yin and yang|''yang'']]; and that these properties coexisted in constant relation to each other, with ''yin'' and ''yang'' being used together to explain processes on Earth as well of those relating the Earth in conjunction with the heavens.<ref name=":0" /> This idea was described by [[Joseph Needham]] as a cosmos that functioned similarly to a complex organism, with discernible patterns in an ever-changing structure. There was both a pattern and a randomness to the cosmos.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Needham|first=Joseph|date=1957|title=Science and Civilisation in China. Volume II, History of Scientific Thought. Joseph Needham|journal=Isis|volume=48|issue=3|pages=365–367|doi=10.1086/348588|issn=0021-1753}}</ref> Because of this, the Chinese believed that earthly phenomena could affect heavenly bodies.<ref name=":0" />

The Chinese believed that ''qi'' was the substance of all things in the cosmos and Earth, including inanimate matter, humans, ideas, emotions, celestial bodies and everything that exists or has existed;<ref name=":1" /> and that it was ''qi'' condensing that created all the matter within the cosmos.<ref name=":0" /> This is relatively consistent with the modern understanding of the congregation of matter through gravitational fields.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/cosmos/bgov/cosmos.htm|title=Living in the Chinese Cosmos: Understanding Religion in Late-Imperial China|website=afe.easia.columbia.edu|access-date=2019-07-26|archive-date=2014-05-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140510022244/http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/cosmos/bgov/cosmos.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Chinese held a belief associated with the Xuan Ye theory, which held space as both empty and infinite.<ref>{{Citation|last=Iannaccone|first=Isaia|date=2006|pages=3–28|publisher=World Scientific|isbn=978-9812700759|doi=10.1142/9789812772633_0002|chapter=Cosmological Special Relativity|title=Cosmological Relativity}}</ref> This was inconsistent with the Aristotelian concepts that nature would not contain a vacuum, and that infinity could only be a divine attribute.<ref name=":0" /> The idea of the nothingness of space was later recognized as one of the most important discoveries of modern science.<ref name=":0" />

=== Indian view ===
The Indians{{who|date=January 2023}} believed in a cyclic universe related to three other beliefs: (i), time is endless and space has infinite extension; (ii), earth is not the center of the universe; and (iii), laws govern all development, including the creation and destruction of the universe. The Indians believed that there were three types of space, physiological, physical, and infinite space. The infinite space consists of undivided consciousness and everything that is inside and outside. However, finite division of space is where time begins, and the division of time is where all beings were first created.  It was believed that there are connections between the physical and the psychological worlds, and an equivalence existed between the outer cosmos and the inner cosmos of the individual. This is expressed in the famous sentence{{snd}}''yat pinḍe tad brahmṇḍe'', “as in the body so in the universe”.

The ancient Indians mapped out the outer world or the universe at an altar where Yajurveda listed multiples of ten that reached ten million. The numbers used to count to ten million was used as a reference to show the relation of the planets in the universe to Earth, it was not a relevant scale to the entire universe, therefore backing that they believed the universe to be infinite and endless. The Indians calculated the speed of light to be four thousand four hundred and four (4,404) yojanas per nimesa, or about one hundred eighty six thousand (186,000) miles per second. Ancient Indian beliefs also included the belief that the Earth was created after certain stars, these stars include the Sun, Gemini, Aja, and Kurma. Evidence from the Etymological considerations prove this belief and also points towards the discovery of the twin asses, which in western astrology can be found next to the Cancer constellation as Asellus, Borealis, and Asellus Australis.

The Indian cyclic model assumes the existence of countless island universes, which go through their own periods of development and destruction. The conception of cyclicity is taken to be recursive. For an early exposition of these astronomical and cosmological ideas, one may read al-Bīrūnī's classic history of Indian science, composed in 1030 AD, and for an even earlier, popular, view of Indian ideas, one may consult the Vedantic text called the [[Yoga Vasistha|Yoga Vāsiṣṭha]] (YV), which at 32,000 shlokas is one of the longest books in world literature.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Sacralising the Cosmos, Nature and Life|url=https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/2018/sep/03/sacralising-the-cosmos-nature-and-life-1866698.html|access-date=2020-08-31|website=The New Indian Express|date=3 September 2018 |archive-date=2020-09-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200921082601/https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/2018/sep/03/sacralising-the-cosmos-nature-and-life-1866698.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Australian view ===
{{see also|Australian Aboriginal astronomy}}
Australian cosmology has a vast and varied history.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cosmology-australian-indigenous-cosmology|title=Cosmology: Australian Indigenous Cosmology &#124; Encyclopedia.com|website=www.encyclopedia.com|access-date=2020-09-13|archive-date=2021-04-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413221508/https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cosmology-australian-indigenous-cosmology|url-status=live}}</ref>

Australian cosmology beliefs were based around the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's ideas, also known as Indigenous astronomy, and it was around before the Babylonians, Greeks, and the Renaissance period. They found ways to observe the Moon, stars, and the Sun, this enabled them to create a sense of time. This also allowed them to navigate across the continent, create calendars, and predict the weather. One of the most important constellations in Australia for the Aboriginal people is the Emu. The Emu constellation represents the connection between the earth and the sky, and stories and representations of their constellations were written on some cave walls in Australia. Another indigenous tribe known as the Euahlayi saw the [[Milky Way]] as a river and between the two bright sides represented a Galactic Bulge where the two sons of the creator Baiame and the river made a connection from the earth and the sky. The [[Yolŋu|Yolngu]] people were one of the first to discover how the tide of the ocean works. They discovered the tide had a direct correlation with the Moon. Their reasoning as to why the ocean did not fill up as much as perhaps when the Moon was full versus a crescent moon is because the Moon was not as full either. This contradicts the father of science, Galileo, who said that the tides correlated with the Earth's orbit around the Sun. Multiple indigenous tribes described winter by the [[Pleiades|Seven Sisters]], a group of stars in the sky that provided hunter-gatherers a sort of calendar to indicate whether they should be hunting or gathering, based on the season.

===Similarities in observation===
There is one way that both the Chinese and the Europeans, along with countless other ancient societies, related to the cosmos. This was through meaning, placed on celestial bodies, that were observed moving above the Earth. The Chinese had a very complex astronomical understanding of the stars and the cosmos that influenced everything from their art and architecture to their myths and science.<ref>{{Citation|last=Pankenier|first=David W.|chapter=Cosmology and the calendar|pages=242–258|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1139017466|doi=10.1017/cbo9781139017466.014|title=Astrology and Cosmology in Early China|year=2013}}</ref> This was also true of the Greeks and Romans, whose 48 constellations, including the zodiac signs and the constellation of Orion, have been passed down to modern Western cultures. These were likely passed down to them from ancient Babylonian and Egyptian astronomers.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Rogers|first=H|date=1998|title=Origins of the ancient constellations: II. The Mediterranean traditions|journal=Journal of the British Astronomical Association|volume=108|pages=79|bibcode=1998JBAA..108...79R}}</ref> Copernicus is said to have been inspired by the fecund sun deity of neoplatonic thought, which may have initially inspired his vision of a heliocentric universe.<ref name=":0" />

=== Copernican Revolution ===
[[File:Copernicus - Heliocentric Solar System.JPG|thumb|Copernicus' Heliocentric Solar System]]
{{Further|Copernican Revolution}}
Commonly regarded as the foundation of modern astronomy, the common universal view of the cosmos shifted as Nicolaus Copernicus positioned the Sun as the center of the Universe.

=== Early beliefs ===
Prior to the Copernican Revolution, the Ptolemaic system, also known as the geocentric model, was widely accepted. This put the Earth at the center of the universe, with the Sun and other planets revolving around the Earth in an epicyclic orbit.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Ptolemaic System {{!}} Encyclopedia.com|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/science-and-technology/astronomy-and-space-exploration/astronomy-general/ptolemaic-system|access-date=2020-08-31|website=www.encyclopedia.com|archive-date=2020-07-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728210218/https://www.encyclopedia.com/science-and-technology/astronomy-and-space-exploration/astronomy-general/ptolemaic-system|url-status=live}}</ref> Aristotle's geocentric model was also broadly acknowledged, along with his claim that the planets rotated but did not orbit. The reasoning behind this was due to the belief that all objects outside of the lunar sphere were celestial bodies, and therefore could not change, as they were made of ''quintessence.''<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bala|first=Arun|date=2006|title=The Dialogue of Civilizations in the Birth of Modern Science|doi=10.1057/9780230601215|isbn=978-0230609792|s2cid=142593876 }}</ref>

There were notable critiques of this model prior to Copernicus. In the Islamic world, [[Ibn al-Haytham]] doubted Ptolemy's notion of the planetary orbits, and [[Al-Battani|Muhammad al-Battani]] recalculated the parameters. However, both still agreed with the geocentric model.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=2008Obs...128..231G Page 231|bibcode=2008Obs...128..231G|last1=Guessoum |first1=N. |journal=The Observatory |year=2008 |volume=128 |page=231 }}</ref>

One of the first known astronomers that supported the Heliocentric theory was [[Aristarchus of Samos]]. After observing a [[lunar eclipse]], he came to the conclusion that the Sun was farther away from Earth than the Moon and that the Sun was much larger than Earth. He also claimed the Sun was a star. While Aristarchus was later an influence on Copernicus and his groundbreaking work, prior to the 17th century Aristarchus' findings were obstructed by the more established theories of Ptolemy and Aristotle.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Ask a Solar Physicist|url=http://solar-center.stanford.edu/FAQ/Qsunasstar.html|access-date=2020-08-31|website=solar-center.stanford.edu|archive-date=2017-07-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170710011853/http://solar-center.stanford.edu/FAQ/Qsunasstar.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Aristarchus of Samos {{!}} Greek astronomer|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aristarchus-of-Samos|access-date=2020-08-31|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|archive-date=2020-08-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200812075650/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aristarchus-of-Samos|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Copernican theory ===
Astronomer and mathematician Nicolaus Copernicus was appointed by the Catholic Church as an official, as his uncle was a bishop in the church. He used his income to further his studies, eventually studying at the  [[University of Bologna]] in Italy.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Nicolaus Copernicus|url=https://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/whos_who_level2/copernicus.html|access-date=2020-08-31|website=starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov|archive-date=2020-09-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200916022849/https://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/whos_who_level2/copernicus.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Copernicus began doubting the knowledge of natural philosophers and their beliefs, claiming that geometrical astronomy instead would result in the true reality of the cosmos. His manuscript, ''[[De revolutionibus orbium coelestium|De revolutionibus]],'' pioneered ideas that would change the course of how both the cosmos and astrology were viewed. Most notably, Copernicus claimed that the Sun was the stationary center of the universe. His work also included calculations on the motions of the Moon, and the motions in latitude and longitude of the planets, all which orbit the Sun.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Henry|first= John|title=Moving heaven and earth : Copernicus and the solar system|year=2017|publisher= Icon Books|isbn=978-1785782701|oclc=1007075382}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Dreyer|first= J.L.E.|title=History of the planetary systems from Thales to Kepler|date=1906|oclc=462657864}}</ref> Copernicus' work was not immediately published as it disagreed with Biblical teachings, and he feared his work would be rejected by Catholic officials.<ref>{{Citation|last=Rabin|first=Sheila|title=Nicolaus Copernicus|date=2019|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2019/entries/copernicus/|encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|editor-last=Zalta|editor-first=Edward N.|edition=Fall 2019|publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University|access-date=2020-08-31|archive-date=2020-10-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201017213429/https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2019/entries/copernicus/|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Neoplatonism ===
Copernicus' work was not entirely mathematical conviction. There is evidence that Copernicus was influenced by [[neoplatonism]]. Founded by philosopher [[Plotinus]], neoplatonism believes that the Sun is the symbol of The One, or [[Anima Mundi|The Universal Soul]]. It would make sense then that Copernicus would place the god-like figure at the center of the universe.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.utm.edu/staff/jfieser/class/314/09-314-neoplatonism.htm|title=Neoplatonism|access-date=2020-08-31|website=www.utm.edu|archive-date=2021-01-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210115152417/https://www.utm.edu/staff/jfieser/class/314/09-314-neoplatonism.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> Neoplatonist [[Nicholas of Cusa]] claimed the universe was infinite, containing multiple earths and suns. This changed the belief of a finite universe to an infinite one, which emphasized a more obscure and incomplete version of God.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Nicholas Of Cusa {{!}} Christian scholar|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nicholas-of-Cusa|access-date=2020-08-31|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|archive-date=2020-08-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200821181816/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nicholas-of-Cusa|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Kuhn|first= Thomas S.|title=The Copernican revolution : planetary astronomy in the development of western thought|date=2003|publisher=Harvard Univ. Pr|isbn=0674171039|oclc=255797153}}</ref>