Up until about the fourteenth century, man's understanding of the world around him advanced very slowly, with centuries passing by before the next advance in critical thinking took place. Following the Renaissance however, it's almost as if new discoveries took place at breakneck speed that only took a few decades at a time. This episode of 'Ancient Skies' begins with the 1577 passing of the Great Comet, which because it actually crossed the path of Venus's orbit, shattered the concept of crystalline spheres encasing the heavens and the planets. In 1609, Johannes Kepler published his 'New Laws of Planetary Motion' which theorized that planets move in ellipses, and not circular orbits.
Considered perhaps the greatest scientist of all time, Sir Isaac Newton needed a theory to prove that gravity worked the same everywhere in the universe, and was fortunate to observe a comet in 1680/1681 that he was able to conclude was orbiting the sun. Other scientists added their contributions as the decades passed, but even Albert Einstein was of the belief that the universe was finite. It was the work of a Catholic priest, George Lemaitre. who recalculated Einstein's equations to determine that the universe was not static, but was actually expanding! How do we know this? The episode provides a fascinating explanation! Hint - you can thank Edwin Hubble and his powerful new telescope.
In all, this is a fascinating series that puts in plain language the way mankind found it's way from a mythological understanding of the way the world worked, to one based on math and science, which over the centuries gave us a rational universe underlying all of it's mysteries. Some of it may be a little dry in the telling, but getting past that, you'll learn an awful lot that's compelling and easy enough to understand in layman's terms. As a side effect, it will even make you appreciate living in the present day to take advantage of centuries of accumulated knowledge.