Are we at the center of the Universe?

It’s not surprising that at first, humans believed in a geocentric universe. When you look up at the night sky while standing on earth, it appears as though the sun, moon, and stars are moving around the earth. Now of course we know that this effect is actually due to the rotation of the earth and the tilt of its axis. Still, it’s a bit hard to conceptualize the earth rotating when we’re standing on it and the ground is really our only point of reference. That’s why I want to show you all this SUPER AWESOME GIF!!! This is a long exposure shot of the milky way galaxy, but instead of seeing the stars move like we’re used to the gif has been stabilized with respect to the stars. With this stabilized view we can actually see that the earth is rotating and the view of the stars is stable. This really helps conceptualize the earth’s rotation and clearly shows that we are not at the center of the universe. Isn’t that super awesome?

7 thoughts on “Are we at the center of the Universe?”

  1. Hey Will,
    Very interesting post, thanks for taking the time to write it. You’re right that it does seem like we are at the center of the universe if you didn’t know any better! I appreciate the GIF to help me conceptualize it better. People today often discount the work of astronomers hundreds of years ago since they thought the Earth was the center of the universe. But of course they thought that way! Figuring out that we are just another planet in a huge universe was an incredibly advanced discovery. Let’s remember that modern technology is just that..modern! Thanks again for your post- it definitely got me thinking.
    Jonathan

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    2. I agree! I think we tend to look back at not just what older astronomers believed, but also what older scientists in other fields believed about the world and ask ourselves, “How could they have possibly believed that?” When in reality, they were making the best possible observations and assumptions with the information that was available to them. Looking outside my window right now, it’s not a crazy thing to believe that the Earth is the center of the universe – it goes against all your common knowledge and observations to believe that because from a basic human perception we aren’t moving at all!
      Also that GIF is really, really cool. Thanks for sharing!

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  2. Wow! That gif is extremely cool. I sometimes think about this with respect to the sun. We always say the sun rises and the sun sets, as if it is the sun that is rotating around us, not us around it. I also think that even though we as humans rationally understand the idea that we are part of a heliocentric system, we still tend to discuss celestial objects, such as the stars or the sun, with respect to our place in the solar system/universe, simply because it’s human nature to relate larger objects or systems to ourselves to make sense of them. Thanks for the post!
    Paxton

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  3. Pingback: The Great American (solar) Eclipse | segalastronomyblog

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