Universe

http://Cosmology.com Dark Matter Dark Energy & the Unknown Universe, by Rhawn Joseph, Ph.D.

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Science@ESA Vodcast (Episode 2): Planck – Looking Back To The Dawn Of Time (Part 1): Big Bang Cosmology.

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In the Science@ESA series Rebecca Barnes will take you on a journey of discovery into the rapidly evolving field of space astronomy and planetary exploration.

In this second episode Rebecca takes a close look at Planck – a European Space Agency mission built to detect radiation from the microwave portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. This mission will help find answers to some of the most important questions in modern science.

• http://astronomy2009.esa.int
• http://www.youtube.com/esa

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The Big Bang is the cosmological model of the initial conditions and subsequent development of the Universe that is supported by the most comprehensive and accurate explanations from current scientific evidence and observation.

As used by cosmologists, the term Big Bang generally refers to the idea that the Universe has expanded from a primordial hot and dense initial condition at some finite time in the past (currently estimated to have been approximately 13.7 billion years ago), and continues to expand to this day.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang

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Planck was selected as the third Medium-Sized Mission (M3) of ESA’s Horizon 2000 Scientific Programme, and is today part of its Cosmic Vision Programme. It is designed to image the anisotropies of the Cosmic Background Radiation Field over the whole sky, with unprecedented sensitivity and angular resolution.

Planck will provide a major source of information relevant to several cosmological and astrophysical issues, such as testing theories of the early universe and the origin of cosmic structure.

Planck was launched on 14 May 2009 together with the Herschel satellite. After launch, Planck and Herschel separated and are now proceeding to different orbits around the second Lagrangian point of the Earth-Sun System.

• http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Planck/index.html
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Duration : 0:6:4

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Cosmology -is the study of the Universe in its totality, and by extension, humanity’s place in it. Though the word cosmology is recent (first used in 1730 in Christian Wolff’s Cosmologia Generalis), study of the universe has a long history involving science, philosophy, esotericism, and religion. In recent times, physics and astrophysics have played a central role in shaping the understanding of the universe through scientific observation and experiment; or what is known as physical cosmology shaped through both mathematics and observation in the analysis of the whole universe. In other words, in this discipline, which focuses on the universe as it exists on the largest scale and at the earliest moments, it is generally understood to begin with the big bang (possibly combined with cosmic inflation) an expansion of space from which the universe itself is thought to have emerged ~13.7±0.2×109 (13.7 billion) years ago.[1] From its violent beginnings and until its various speculative ends, cosmologists propose that the history of the universe has been governed entirely by physical laws. Theories of an impersonal universe governed by physical laws were first proposed by Roger Bacon, a somewhat persecuted member of the Catholic Church.[2] Later, another member of the Catholic Church, Dmitry Grinevich, supported Bacon’s proposed laws through some experiments that he performed involving different physical laws. Between the domains of religion and science, stands the philosophical perspective of metaphysical cosmology. This ancient field of study seeks to draw intuitive conclusions about the nature of the universe, man, God and/or their relationships based on the extension of some set of presumed facts borrowed from spiritual experience and/or observation.

But metaphysical cosmology has also been observed as the placing of man in the universe in relationship to all other entities. This is demonstrated by the observation made by Marcus Aurelius of a man’s place in that relationship: “He who does not know what the world is does not know where he is, and he who does not know for what purpose the world exists, does not know who he is, nor what the world is.”[3] This is the purpose of the ancient metaphysical cosmology. However, Stoicism rejected Aristotle’s theory of universals as being “in the things themselves,” calling them “figments of the mind.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy adopting the concept of universals as being “concepts,” and therefore of the mind, and therefore controllable by free will. Thus, we get the analysis of Aurelius’ that the nature of the universe is not from “intuition,” but from a free-will, conceptual understanding of the nature of the universe.[original research?]

Cosmology is often an important aspect of the creation myths of religions that seek to explain the existence and nature of reality. In some cases, views about the creation (cosmogony) and destruction (eschatology) of the universe play a central role in shaping a framework of religious cosmology for understanding humanity’s role in the universe.

A more contemporary distinction between religion and philosophy, esoteric cosmology is distinguished from religion in its less tradition-bound construction and reliance on modern “intellectual understanding” rather than faith, and from philosophy in its emphasis on spirituality as a formative concept.

There are many historical cosmologies:

” the universe itself acts on us as a random, inefficient, and yet in the long run effective, teaching machine. our way of looking at the universe has gradually evolved through a natural selection of ideas.” —Steven Weinberg[4]

Duration : 0:9:30

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Onboard cameras capture the amazing journey of Atlantis into space, and the dramatic return of the solid rocket boosters.

Duration : 0:5:2

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