One popular notion was that the stars were "fixed" on the dome of heaven. The entire universe would have been considerably smaller than one light year in diameter.
The ancient Greeks coined the word for "planets" which means "wanderers." They knew of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Uranus is visible on very dark nights to the naked eye, but no one was aware of it until well after the invention of the telescope.
The ancient Greeks (400 BCE) also cleverly measured the distance to our moon, determining it was about 60 earth diameters. What they did not know, until Eratosthenes figured it out about 200 BCE, was just how big the earth was. Impressively big, but not nearly as big as Jupiter, or the sun. Our sun is huge and vast, and very far away, though not nearly as far as any other star in our galaxy, and the myriads of galaxies far beyond.
Whatever direction you look from the earth, if you have equipment sensitive enough
to make the measurements, you find that all distant galaxies ... outside of the "local
group" ... are moving away from us, and the farther from us a galaxy already is, the
faster it's moving away from us.
Since you see the same pattern in all directions, it looks exactly as if the center of
the expansion is right here, exactly where we are !
And if the universe really did start from a big bang at a single point, then it sure looks like
we're sitting at that point, and earth is at the center of the universe.
Now, modern cosmologists will explain that anyone else, no matter where he is in the
universe, will see exactly the same thing, as if he's at the center.
But maybe there's nobody else out there to look out and think about it.
It's enough to give you dolor de la cabeza.
Early civilizations believed that THEY PERSONALLY were the center of the universe, or that their tribe was, or that their city was. For the most part, no one knew ANYTHING about any place more than a day's ride (by horse!) away. The Sun and Moon were anthropomorphized as gods and demigods; stars and constellations became the heroes of myth and legend physically ascended into the heavens.
Babylonian and Egyptian astronomers and astrologers didn't share their knowledge with the average people; only the kings and priests were worthy to receive this enlightenment. And to be honest, who could blame them? The average peasant farmer who spent most of his day looking at the rear end of the ox who plowed his fields probably didn't care one bit about what the moving stars in the sky were doing.
At one point in history people believed the the Earth was the centre of the universe and everything else revolved around us. We now know that this is not true.
they believed that the sun and other planets rotated around the earth
i do believe its FAMILY
earth
They believed they were more superior and more advance than the other ancient civilizations. (Just as we do now.)
People used to think that the earth was the center of the universe.
It feels that way. You can not feel the Earth moving.
Scientists think there may be another universe or universes beyond ours.The universe is vast and ever expanding. Some people firmly believe God created the universe and everything in it.
They believed in a heliocentric universe. This meaning that the earth was not the center of the universe, but that the sun was. However, many people , including the church, did not agree with this theory. Instead they believed in a geocentric universe. Plato and Aristotle believed in this theory.
They believed they were more superior and more advance than the other ancient civilizations. (Just as we do now.)
cheese.
they believed that the earth was the center.
i do believe its FAMILY
that the earth was the center of the universe and that the earth wAS FLAT
If you were Chinese, the Forbidden City. If you were European, Europe.
Because it was the old catholic churches teachings.
People used to think that the earth was the center of the universe.
Anything
the earth
There are 2 (no, no, 3...)... The human race and people who ask this stuff on wiki answers (and people who answer this stupid answer....
There was a major conflict with the catholic church. They reportedly did not think the time was right to allow people to believe that the world was not the center of the universe, as was implied by the bible.