The origins of today's cosmology began with the observation in the early 1500s by Nicolaus Copernicus that the Earth revolves around the Sun.
The next step was the discovery in the late 1600s by Isaac Newton that objects in space behaved according to the same laws of physics as objects on Earth..
Scientific definitions for cosmology
The scientific study of the origin, evolution, and structure of the universe.
A specific theory or model of the origin and evolution of the universe..
Cosmic evolution is the study of the sum total of the many varied developmental and generational changes in the assembly and composition of radiation, matter, and life throughout the history of the Universe..
Cosmic evolution has guided matter from simplicity to complexity, from inorganic to organic.
Advancing with time, evolutionary change has fashioned intelligent life on at least one planet—Earth—and possibly on others as well..
Our universe began with an explosion of space itself - the Big Bang.
Starting from extremely high density and temperature, space expanded, the universe cooled, and the simplest elements formed.
Gravity gradually drew matter together to form the first stars and the first galaxies..
We elucidate the modern paradigm of cosmic evolution—an astrobiology, a cosmogenesis, a whole new scientific philosophy—whereby changes, both gradual or episodic and generational or developmental, in the composition and structure of matter have given rise to galaxies, stars, planets, and life..
