If the sun is the centre of the universe why are we finding more planets?

Question

We keeping discovering new and far out planets, so do people still actually believe that the sun is the centre of the universe. I mean were just the milky way, there are other galaxy's out there that have not yet been discovered or at least i assume...

Answer 1

Nobody in the scientific community thinks the sun is the centre of the universe. The heliocentric model of the Solar System put forward by Copernicus in the 16th Century merely argues that the earth and the other 5 planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars Jupiter and Saturn) then known to exist (Uranus was discovered in 1781 and Neptune in 1846) went around the sun, as opposed to the geocentric model proposed by Ptolemy which suggested that everything including all the stars, the Sun and the 5 planets (and the Moon) went around the Earth, which was therefore the Centre of the Universe.

And when Galileo found four moons orbiting Jupiter in January 1610 he demonstrated that everything did NOT go round the Earth. His studies in September 1610 of the phases of Venus also demonstrated that Venus went round the Sun.

The idea that the points of light in the sky were stars like our Sun was first put forward by Democritus, born in 450 BC (he also was the first to suggest matter was made up of indivisible aroms).

Democritus was the first philosopher we know who realised that the celestial body we perceive as the Milky Way is formed from the light of distant stars. Other philosophers, including later Aristotle, argued against this. Democritus was also among the first to propose that the universe contains many worlds, some of them inhabited: he wrote

"In some worlds there is no Sun and Moon, in others they are larger than in our world, and in others more numerous. In some parts there are more worlds, in others fewer (...); in some parts they are arising, in others failing. There are some worlds devoid of living creatures or plants or any moisture."

Galileo's contemporary, Giordano Bruno also suggested that there were planets around other stars and that some of them might harbour extra-terrestrial life. The Roman Catholic Church demanded he recant these heresies and when he would not do so, burned him at the stake in 1600. (Great way to conduct a scientific debate! Akin to "Off with his head!" said the Red Queen in the Alice books by Lewis Carroll!)

Bruno, as you rightly point out, has been proved correct on the first point. We have discovered in excess of 200 planets around 170+ stars in the last 15 years orbiting other stars and in the case of Tau Ceti (11 light years away) and HD 68930 (41 light years away) we have discovered asteroid belts too ~ and we are now notching up extra-solar planet discoveries at the rate of 20 a year,

And there is intense scientific interest (reflected in Yahoo Answers in questions about aliens) in whether any of them may harbour life or not.

Final point I would make is that we now know the sun is about 25,000 to 30,000 light years away from the galactic centre of the Milky Way which is 100,000 light years in diameter, and that it orbits within that galaxy in a circle once every 200-250 million years or so,

So nobody thinks the Sun is at the Centre of the Milky Way galaxy (good thing too as there is a supermnassive black hole there which would have swallowed us all up long ago).

Nor does anyone think our galaxy is at the centre of the universe, either. We also know there are some 30 or so Galaxies in the Local Group of Galaxies, that the Andromeda Galaxy, the nearest one, is bigger than the Milky Way, and we know that some smaller dwarf galaxies (like the larger and smaller Magellanic Clouds) are in orbit around the Milky Way and there are other dwarf galaxies orbiting around around the Andromeda Galaxy, too. We can see many galaxies (named in the Messier catalogue) beyond the Milky Way with the naked eye, too.

Nobody speaks of the Universe having a centre or maps the galaxies with reference to a centre point.

Clearly we have moons revolving around planets and around asteroids and dwarf planets within our solar system and we have rotations of stars within galaxies and of galaxies around other galaxies. It is a many-centered, multi-centered universe we live in!

Can I suggest you read some books and websites about astronomy and it will all become a lot clearer to you?

Answer 2

We live in our solar system, in which all our planets revolve around our sun. But the solar system is just one in many inside the Milky Way galaxy, and we aren't even very close to the center of the galaxy.

There isn't really a known center point of the universe, but a theoretical one, a "gravitational singularity," is where the universe started and the Big Bang is said to have occured.

Answer 3

Well look at it like this the science was not available during ancient times. So naturally what was known by the early Christians originated from Judaism. The belief was the world was flat and if a person sailed beyond the horizon they would fall off into the Abyss, and that Sheol (Hell) was literally under the earth and that the earth was the center of the known universe being that the sky was a dome and the stars, moon, and sun revolved around the earth within this dome. And that Heaven was beyond the dome while the earth itself was supported on pillars. I should mention that Copernicus and Galileo were Roman Catholics.

Answer 4

To fully understand where we fit in with our sun we must understnad proper terminology.

Solar System- cluster of planets/moons/ objects orbiting a star

Galaxy Millions of Millions of solar systems and stars grouped together (ex, the milkyway galaxy of which we are a part has 200-400 billion stars and is nearly 100,000 light years in diameter)

Universe-Infinite expanse of space consiting of an unknown (but large) quantity of galaxies.

The entire universe does not end so there is no center. Nothing or technically everything is the center of the universe.

Greg

Answer 5

That's just an expression.
It probably comes from times when we used to believe that The Earth or The Sun was believed to be the centre of the universe and the expression lingered on, but in a metaphorical sense.

Answer 6

The sun is not the center of the universe. It is close to the outermost edge of the milky way Galaxy. The milky way is also probably not at the center of the universe.

Answer 7

it's the centre of our solar system certainly. but it's accepted these days that calling it 'the centre of the universe' is more a historic term than a predictive fact.
most planets that we've discovered react to our sun in a way that shows a distinct connection.
It is accepted that there are many many more galaxies / solar systems, and they have their own sun at their centre which drives the orbits and so forth.

Answer 8

Sun is in the center of universe. But not in the center of Galaxy. The sun also moving in its path for one circle for about some 2 laks plus years.There are other universe in the galaxy which we may not be able to study.

Answer 9

Sun is NOT the centre of the universe.It is just the centre of our solar system.Its a star which has completed half of its life and will soon turn into a red giant and then explode into a supernova or may be a black-hole.So,its necessary to find out other planets in the universe and settle there before the sun kills us all.

Answer 10

The sun is the center of OUR universe. The milky way has millions of universes. Our technology has only now gotten out to where they can see smaller planets in our universe that are far out.
Gad, what are they teaching in schools now??

Answer 11

The sun is not the center of the universe -- it is the center of our solar system. As we are discovering, there are many other solar systems of planets in addition to ours. And, the universe does not have a center -- all locations and directions are equivalent.