Astronomy and Renaissance essays

Astronomy and Renaissance essays The Renaissance was a time for reform. Renaissance, French for rebirth, describes the intellectual and economic changes that occurred in Europe from the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries. During this time, Europe emerged from the economic decline of the Middle Ages and experienced a time of financial growth. Most importantly, the Renaissance was an age in which artistic, social, scientific, and political thought revolutionized. In the area of astrology, Renaissance scientists changed the ideas and theories that were familiar in the Middle Ages. Scientists such as Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543), Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), and Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) made new discoveries, introduced new instruments, and developed ideas that modernized Renaissance beliefs. During the Middle Ages and even going back to early Greek and Roman culture, it was believed that the earth was the center of the universe. The sun, moon, planets, and stars had two functions: first, motion in orbit around the fixed earth, and second, a participation in the daily rotation of the celestial sphere which produced our daily cycle of night and day (Cohen, 37). Before Galileo and Copernicus, there was the theory composed by an astronomer named Claudius Ptolemaeus known as Ptolemy (died 141 or 151 AD). He wrote a book, The Almagest, where he described and summarized most of ancient mans understanding of the universe. In detail, he describes the appearances of the stars and planets, and tried to explain how the universe was constructed and how it worked (Ptolemaic System, 2). This was later known as the Ptolemaic system. However, this system assured that the Earth stood still and was at the center of the universe. Aristotle (384-322 BC) supported the theory of an earth centered universe with laws of physics and philosophy. Aristotle was a student of Plato, founding his own school of Natural Philosoph...