Term: astronomy
Literally meaning: “law(or order) of the stars”
Origin: Anc Greek
ἄστρον/astron(=star, flame)
+νόμος/nomos(=division, law) > νέμω/nemo(=distribute, divide)
Coined/History
In early times, astronomy was related with the observation of the motions of objects
visible to the naked eye. All ancient cultures such Chinese Egyptian and
Greek civilization had myths and stories about universe creation.The Greeks was
not the first culture with universe predictions and observations but their
philosophers was widely distributed by the Romans ans consequently for
hundreds of years. Eratosthenes of Cyrene ( c.276BC-c.195BC)
measured the circumference of the earth to within 3000 Km and Aristarchus of
Samos (310BCE-ca.230BCE) first stated that earth revolves around the sun. There
were also some cultures which used some structures like ancient calendars but
we know little about this. Modern astronomy dates in Europe in about 1300 AD.
Definition
Astronomy is the science which deals with the universe such as position, motion and composition
of stars and galaxies.
No comments:
Post a Comment