Editing Astronomy (section)

===Classical astronomy===
[[File:Ct-33-planisphere.jpg|thumb|A Babylonian [[planisphere]] (7th century BCE). [[Babylonian astronomy]] made early advances in astronomy. Its use of [[sexagesimal]]s (e.g. 12, 24, 60, 360) is still being used today through having been broadly adopted for [[timekeeping]] and [[astrometry]].<ref name="x754">{{cite web | last=Gent | first=R.H. van | title=Bibliography of Babylonian Astronomy & Astrology | website=science.uu.nl project csg | url=https://webspace.science.uu.nl/~gent0113/babylon/babybibl.htm | access-date=2024-11-22}}</ref>]]
As civilizations developed, most notably in [[Egyptian astronomy|Egypt]], [[Babylonian astronomy|Mesopotamia]], [[Greek astronomy|Greece]], [[Persian astronomy|Persia]], [[Indian astronomy|India]], [[Chinese astronomy|China]], and [[Maya civilization|Central America]], astronomical observatories were assembled and ideas on the nature of the Universe began to develop. Most early astronomy consisted of mapping the positions of the stars and planets, a science now referred to as [[astrometry]]. From these observations, early ideas about the motions of the planets were formed, and the nature of the Sun, Moon and the Earth in the Universe were explored philosophically.{{cn|date=March 2025}}

Mesopotamia is worldwide the place of the earliest known astronomer and poet by name: [[Enheduanna]], [[Akkadian Empire|Akkadian]] high priestess to the [[lunar deity]] [[Sin (mythology)|Nanna/Sin]] and princess, daughter of [[Sargon the Great]] ({{circa|2334}} – {{circa|2279}} BCE). She had the Moon tracked in her chambers and wrote poems about her divine Moon.<ref name="c099">{{cite magazine | last=Winkler | first=Elizabeth | title=The Struggle to Unearth the World's First Author | magazine=The New Yorker | date=2022-11-19 | url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-struggle-to-unearth-the-worlds-first-author | access-date=2025-02-10}}</ref>

A particularly important early development was the beginning of mathematical and scientific astronomy, which began among [[Babylonian astronomy|the Babylonians]], who laid the foundations for the later astronomical traditions that developed in many other civilizations.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Scientific Astronomy in Antiquity|author=Aaboe, A. |journal=[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society]]|volume=276|issue=1257|date=1974|pages=21–42|jstor=74272|doi=10.1098/rsta.1974.0007|bibcode = 1974RSPTA.276...21A |s2cid=122508567 }}</ref> The [[Babylonian astronomy|Babylonians]] discovered that [[lunar eclipses]] recurred in a repeating cycle known as a [[Saros cycle|saros]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEsaros/SEsaros.html |title=Eclipses and the Saros |publisher=NASA |access-date=28 October 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071030225501/http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEsaros/SEsaros.html |archive-date=30 October 2007 }}</ref>

Following the Babylonians, significant advances in astronomy were made in [[ancient Greece]] and the [[Hellenistic civilization|Hellenistic]] world. [[Greek astronomy]] is characterized from the start by seeking a rational, physical explanation for celestial phenomena.<ref>{{Cite book| last = Krafft| first = Fritz| date = 2009| contribution = Astronomy| editor-last = Cancik| editor-first = Hubert| editor2-last = Schneider| editor2-first = Helmuth| title = Brill's New Pauly| title-link = Brill's New Pauly}}</ref> In the 3rd century BC, [[Aristarchus of Samos]] estimated the [[Aristarchus On the Sizes and Distances|size and distance of the Moon and Sun]], and he proposed a model of the [[Solar System]] where the Earth and planets rotated around the Sun, now called the [[heliocentrism|heliocentric]] model.<ref>{{cite journal | title = Aristarchus's On the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and the Moon: Greek and Arabic Texts | journal = Archive for History of Exact Sciences | date = May 2007 | first1 = J.L. | last1 = Berrgren |first2= Nathan |last2= Sidoli | volume = 61 | issue = 3 | pages = 213–54 | doi = 10.1007/s00407-006-0118-4| s2cid = 121872685 }}</ref> In the 2nd century BC, [[Hipparchus]] discovered [[precession]], calculated the size and distance of the Moon and invented the earliest known astronomical devices such as the [[astrolabe]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Hipparchus.html|title=Hipparchus of Rhodes|publisher=School of Mathematics and Statistics, [[University of St Andrews]], Scotland|access-date=28 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071023062202/http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Hipparchus.html|archive-date=23 October 2007 |url-status=live}}</ref> Hipparchus also created a comprehensive catalog of 1020 stars, and most of the [[constellation]]s of the northern hemisphere derive from Greek astronomy.<ref>{{cite book|last=Thurston|first=H.|title=Early Astronomy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rNpHjqxQQ9oC&pg=PA2|year=1996|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-0-387-94822-5|page=2|access-date=20 June 2015|archive-date=3 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210203012120/https://books.google.com/books?id=rNpHjqxQQ9oC&pg=PA2|url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Antikythera mechanism]] ({{circa|150}}–80 BC) was an early [[analog computer]] designed to calculate the location of the [[Sun]], [[Moon]], and [[planets]] for a given date. Technological artifacts of similar complexity did not reappear until the 14th century, when mechanical [[astronomical clock]]s appeared in Europe.<ref name=insearchoflosttime>{{cite journal|last1=Marchant|first1=Jo|title=In search of lost time|journal=Nature|volume=444|issue=7119|pages=534–38|date=2006|pmid=17136067|doi=10.1038/444534a|bibcode = 2006Natur.444..534M |doi-access=free}}</ref>

The Earth was believed to be the center of the Universe with the Sun, the Moon and the stars rotating around it. This is known as the [[geocentric model]] of the Universe, or the [[Ptolemaic system]], named after [[Ptolemy]].<ref>{{cite book|last=DeWitt|first=Richard|title=Worldviews: An Introduction to the History and Philosophy of Science|date=2010|publisher=Wiley|location=Chichester, England|isbn=978-1-4051-9563-8|page=113|chapter=The Ptolemaic System}}</ref>