systematically observed and recorded periodical motions of celestial bodies, according to the European Space Agency (ESA), and similar records exist also from early China. Art pieces depicting the moon and stars were discovered dating back several thousand years, such as the "world's oldest star map," the bronze-age Nebra disk.Īncient Assyro-Babylonians around 1,000 B.C. We can guess how drawn our ancestors were to that overwhelming sight from the role that sky-watching played in their lives.Īncient monuments, such as the 5,000 years old Stonehenge in the U.K., were built to reflect the journey of the sun in the sky, which helped keep track of time and organize life in an age that solely depended on seasons. Most of today's citizens of planet Earth live surrounded by the inescapable glow of modern urban lighting and can hardly imagine the awe-inspiring presence of the pristine star-studded sky that illuminated the nights for ancient tribes and early civilizations. Astronomy is the scientific study of the universe using mathematics, physics, and chemistry. What's the difference between astrology and astronomy?Īstrology is widely considered to be a pseudoscience that attempts to explain how the position and motion of celestial objects such as planets affect people and events on Earth. Astronomers aim to answer fundamental questions about our universe through theory and observation. Those who study astronomy explore the structure and origin of the universe including the stars, planets, galaxies and black holes that reside in it. It is a broad discipline encompassing many subfields including observational astronomy, theoretical astronomy, planetary science, astrophysics, cosmology and astrobiology. What are the four types of astronomy?Īstronomy cannot be divided solely into four types. Astronomy FAQs What is astronomy?Īstronomy uses mathematics, physics and chemistry to study celestial objects and phenomena. After the end of the 5th century bce Babylonian astronomers introduced the zodiac and developed new methods for predicting lunar and planetary phenomena known as mathematical astronomy At about the same time they developed horoscopy and other forms of astrology that use the zodiac, the Moon, the Sun, and the planets to predict events on Earth.Here is how the story of astronomy and our understanding of the universe evolved. Their purpose was to enable predictions of the reported phenomena with period-based, so-called Goal-Year methods. 600 bce and 100 ce, Babylonian scholars reported lunar and planetary phenomena in astronomical diaries and related texts. 1800 bce onward, the phenomena of the Moon, the Sun, and the planets were studied as signs that were produced by the gods to communicate with humankind. The Moon, the Sun, and the planets were viewed as gods or manifestations of gods. The most common Akkadian names of the five planets, Šiḫṭu (Mercury), Dilbat (Venus), Ṣalbatānu (Mars), White Star (Jupiter), and Kayyāmānu (Saturn), are attested first in 1800–1000 bce. In cuneiform writing, the Sumerian and Akkadian names of the Moongod, Nanna/Sin, are attested since ca. 3000 bce onward, Mesopotamians used a calendar with months and years, which indicates that the Moon was studied at that early age. Much research remains to be done, because important sources remain unpublished and new questions have been posed to published sources.įrom ca. Modern research on Mesopotamian astral science began in the 19th century. The term “astral science” covers all forms of Mesopotamian scholarly engagement with celestial entities, including celestial divination and astrology. In all Mesopotamian sources concerning the Moon and the planets, be they textual or iconographical, the astronomical, astrological, and religious aspects are intertwined. In ancient Mesopotamia, all five planets visible to the naked eye were known and studied, along with the Moon, the Sun, the stars, and other celestial phenomena.
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