Sky Matters: fundamental knowledge, and questioning our place in space

Through astronomy, we discover wonderful worlds and amazing phenomena and a universe that might even be infinite. 

As you watch a beautiful winter sunrise or sunset, it’s hard to imagine that you’re the one moving, that it’s the ground beneath your feet that’s spinning. It’s so much easier to imagine that you are stationary and the sun is revolving around you. After all, if this wasn’t the case, wouldn’t you feel yourself moving? Wouldn’t there be a constant wind in your face? Wouldn’t you be in danger of falling off your world when your spinning took you upside down? We observe none of these phenomena. 

No matter where we stand on our home planet, they are all absent. We might, somewhat justifiably, conclude that we’re stationary and the universe revolves around us. Feeding into our nascent ego we might deduce our centrality in the universe is proven. We are special.