Copernican principle
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In [[cosmology]], the '''Copernican principle''', named after [[Nicolaus Copernicus]], states ''the Earth is not in a central, specially favoured position.''<ref>{{cite book | author = H. Bondi | authorlink = Hermann Bondi | title = Cosmology | publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 1952 | pages = p. 13}}</ref> More recently, the principle is generalised to the [[Theory of relativity|relativistic]] concept that humans are not privileged observers of the universe.<ref>{{cite book | author = J. A. Peacock | title = Cosmological Physics | publisher = Cambridge University Press | page = 66 | year = 1998}}.</ref> In this sense, it is equivalent to the [[mediocrity principle]], with significant implications in the [[philosophy of science]].
Since the 1990s, the term has been used (interchangeably with "the Copernicus method") for [[J. Richard Gott]]'s [[Bayesian inference]]-based prediction of duration of ongoing events, a generalized version of the [[Doomsday argument]].
== Origin and implications ==
[[Michael Rowan-Robinson]] emphasizes the importance of the Copernican principle: "It is evident that in the post-Copernican era of human history, no well-informed and rational person can imagine that the Earth occupies a unique position in the universe."<ref>{{cite book | author = [[Michael Rowan-Robinson]] | title = Cosmology| edition = 3rd ed. | publisher = Clarendon Press, Oxford | pages = p. 62}}.</ref>
[[Hermann Bondi]] named the principle after Copernicus in the mid-20th century, although the principle itself dates back to the 16th-17th century [[paradigm shift]] away from the [[Ptolemaic system]], which placed [[Earth]] at the center of the [[Universe]]. Copernicus demonstrated the motion of the planets can be explained without the assumption that Earth is centrally located and stationary. He argued that the apparent [[retrograde motion]] of the planets is an illusion caused by Earth's movement around [[Sol|the Sun]], which the [[Copernican heliocentrism|Copernican model]] placed at the centre of the Universe. Copernicus himself was mainly motivated by technical dissatisfaction with the earlier system and not by support for any mediocrity principle.<ref>{{cite book | author = [[Thomas Kuhn]] | title = The Copernican Revolution | publisher = Harvard University Press}}.</ref>
In cosmology, if one assumes the Copernican principle and observes that the universe appears [[isotropic]] from our vantage-point on Earth, then one can prove that the Universe is generally [[wiktionary:Homogeneous|homogeneous]] (at any given time) and is also isotropic about any given point. These two conditions comprise the [[cosmological principle]].
In practice, astronomers observe that the Universe has heterogeneous structures up to the scale of [[galactic supercluster]]s, [[Galaxy filament|filaments]] and [[Void (astronomy)|great void]]s, but becomes more and more homogeneous and isotropic when observed on larger and larger scales, with little detectable structure on scales of more than about 200 million [[parsec]]s. However, on scales comparable to the radius of the observable universe, we see systematic changes with distance from the Earth. For instance, galaxies contain more young stars and are less clustered, and [[quasars]] appear more numerous. While this might suggest that the Earth is at the center of the Universe, the Copernican principle requires us to interpret it as evidence for the evolution of the Universe with time: this distant light has taken most of the age of the Universe to reach and shows us the Universe when it was young. The most distant light of all, [[cosmic microwave background radiation]], is isotropic to at least one part in a thousand.
Modern mathematical cosmology is based on the assumption that the Cosmological principle is almost, but not exactly, true on the largest scales. The Copernican principle represents the irreducible philosophical assumption needed to justify this, when combined with the observations.
Bondi and [[Thomas Gold]] used the Copernican principle to argue for the [[perfect cosmological principle]] which maintains that the universe is also homogeneous in time, and is the basis for the [[steady-state cosmology]]. However, this strongly conflicts with the evidence for cosmological evolution mentioned earlier: the Universe has progressed from extremely different conditions at the [[Big Bang]], and will continue to progress toward extremely different conditions, particularly under the rising influence of [[dark energy]], apparently toward the [[Big Freeze]] or the [[Big Rip]].
== Confirmation ==
Measurements of the effects of the [[cosmic microwave background radiation]] in the dynamics of distant astrophysical systems in 2000 proved the Copernican principle on a [[Physical cosmology|cosmological]] scale.<ref>Astronomers reported their measurement in a paper published in the December 2000 issue of [[Nature (journal)|Nature]] titled ''[http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/bib_query?astro-ph/0012222 The microwave background temperature at the redshift of 2.33771]'' ([http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0012222 available] on [[arxiv]]). A [http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2000/pr-27-00.html press release] from the [[European Southern Observatory]] explains the findings to the public.</ref> The radiation that pervades the universe was demonstrably warmer at earlier times. Uniform cooling of the cosmic microwave background over billions of years is explainable only if [[Metric expansion of space|the universe is experiencing a metric expansion]].
== Ecliptic alignment of cosmic microwave background anisotropy ==
Results from [[Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe]] (WMAP) appear to run counter to Copernican expectations. The motion of the solar system, and the orientation of the plane of the [[ecliptic]] are aligned with features of the microwave sky, which on conventional thinking are caused by structure at the edge of the observable universe<ref>CERN Courier "[http://www.cerncourier.com/main/article/44/10/4/1/CCEsky1_12-04 Does the motion of the solar system affect the microwave sky?]"</ref><ref>{{cite journal | author = C. J. Copi, D. Huterer, D. J. Schwarz, G. D. Starkman | title = On the large-angle anomalies of the microwave sky | journal = Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society | volume = 367 | year = 2006 | pages = 79–102 | doi = 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.09980.x}} [http://www.arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0508047 preprint]</ref>
[[Lawrence Krauss]] is quoted as follows in the referenced Edge.org article:<ref>"[http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/krauss06/krauss06.2_index.html The Energy of Space That Isn't Zero.]"</ref>
{{quote|But when you look at CMB map, you also see that the structure that is observed, is in fact, in a weird way, correlated with the plane of the earth around the sun. Is this Copernicus coming back to haunt us? That's crazy. We're looking out at the whole universe. There's no way there should be a correlation of structure with our motion of the earth around the sun — the plane of the earth around the sun — the ecliptic. That would say we are truly the center of the universe.}}
It would be somewhat surprising if the WMAP alignments were a complete coincidence, but the anti-Copernican implications suggested by Krauss would be far more surprising, if true. Other possibilities are (i) that residual instrumental errors in WMAP cause the effect (ii) that unexpected microwave emission from within the solar system is contaminating the maps.<ref>Copi et al. ''op. cit.''</ref>
== See also ==
* [[Anthropic principle]]
* [[Doomsday argument]]
== References ==
<references/>
== External links ==
*[http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CAA2A.htm Spiked-online Article]
*[http://www.slate.com/id/2096491/ Slate: How will the Universe End?]
[[Category:Cosmology]]
[[Category:Philosophical terminology]]
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