![]() It seems the picture of multiple worlds with a finite distance between them and the Earth as an ordinary body among them could now be imagined.Įven more remarkably, the debate about the possibility of other solar systems had also started in Greece. ( 347) One of Pythagoras' followers, Philolaus made the first, though awkward attempt to draw a true picture of the Solar System, by suggesting that the sky, the planets, the Sun, the moon, the Earth and the "Counter earth" rotate around the Central Fire. Merely a generation later, Pythagoras (born 572 B.C.) declared the Earth a sphere, and it is safe to assume, he also attributed a spherical shape to the Moon, Sun and stars. Anaximander also made the first attempt to draw a map of the entire inhabited world. However, despite his brilliant estimates on the structure of the Earth and the Sun and their obvious globular shape, Anaximander described the Earth as a short cylinder, perhaps in the effort to explain the visible flatness of his home planet. He believed that the Sun is the size of the Earth. He speculated that the Earth was suspended freely at equal distance from all other heavenly bodies! Anaximander estimated the Moon's "orbit" to be 19 times the size of the Earth and the Sun's orbit 28 times the size of the Earth. ( 348)Īnother Greek thinker Anaximander (about 611-546 B.C.) is the first known challenger to the flat Earth theory. ![]() However, despite his famous ability to predict a solar eclipse, he still pictured the Earth as a flat disk floating in the ocean, which was itself contained in a starry sphere. After a trip to Egypt, he founded the so-called Ionian school of Greek astronomy. The result was a startling string of discoveries, which gave humanity its first chance to see the world as it is.Īccording to Greek historians, Thales of Miletus founded such sciences as mathematics and philosophy in the late 500s B.C. The Greeks borrowed extensive astronomical knowledge from the Egyptians and Babylonians, however unlike their predecessors, Greek astronomers managed to combine observations with an active and persistent effort to explain the origin and the design of the Universe through science rather than myths. Prehistoric structures like Stonehenge point to their architects' awareness of astronomical phenomena such as the movement of celestial bodies, however there is no sign of human investigation into the physical properties of the Moon, Sun or stars, until the rise of the Greek civilization. Along with the movement of the Moon and stars, it had to prompt questions about the dimensions and shape of the world. Yet, the Sun had a mysterious capability to make a night-long trip "underground" to the opposite side of the world and reappear over the eastern horizon every morning. Those living on the shores of great oceans could justifiably see them as the edge of the world extending endlessly into the abyss. ![]() There were no hints of other worlds' existence, let alone their similarity to the Earth. The night sky was peppered with bright dots of light and the lonely flat disk of the Moon. According to the 20th century historians, to a scientifically unarmed inhabitant of the pre-historic world, the Earth looked flat. ![]() However, drawing an even approximate picture of the Universe with conceivable travel destinations required centuries of overcoming counterintuitive concepts. The idea of flight was probably obvious to the earliest humans, from observing birds and objects carried by the wind. Before humans could achieve space flight or even start dreaming about it, they had to discover its possibility. ![]()
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