The problem is that Vaucoulerurs created a very loose definition of the term “supercluster”, using it to mean any region with a high concentration of galaxies. But where exactly is our galaxy? In 1956, Gérard Henri de Vaucouleurs grouped ours with a few others, calling it the Virgo Supercluster (Huchra, 2007). Zooming out, the solar system is placed within a spiral galaxy named the Milky Way, which is as far as most “addresses” go. Historic western ideology placed the Earth in the center of the universe, later corrected by Galileo and contemporaries through the heliocentric model. Trying to explicitly define the Earth’s address on the cosmic map has been an ongoing problem in astronomy, especially in the largest scales. This trend continues to the macroscopic level, as shown by the difficulty creating a “cosmic address” for our planet. This leads to ambiguity and dispute as distinctions are arbitrarily defined, such as with the case of the life-like non-living virus (Villarreal, 2008). The universe, however, is intrinsically gradated, and generally lacks the definite black-and-white factors that we seek. ArticleĪn inherent quality of science, ever since the birth of the modern scientific method, is the creation of strict definitions by which to measure and categorize the natural world.
I’m leaving this here only for posterity (and to flesh out my website). Please forgive the roughness of the post, this was years ago. The original is behind a class login at Synopsis Beta, but this version is entirely unedited. This post was originally writted for academic credit in the course ISCI 1A24 at McMaster University.
0 kommentar(er)
