The area containing the Earth, moon, sun and stars is what we call the Universe. Man's knowledge of the Universe is already very ancient. Four or five thousand years ago. The Egyptians and the Chinese began to study the heavens, and later the Greeks made use of these first researches. By about 600 BC they had already made observations and investigations into the Universe. For example, Thales was able to predict the eclipse of the sun in 585 BC. Another Greek, Anaximander, worked out the times of the rising and setting of the sun.

ON clear nights he could see the moon and stars moving. Because of this he decided that everything in the sky moved. He believed that the Earth was the centre of the Universe. Other astronomers thought that the Earth stayed till, with the heavens moving around it. This idea was believed for hundreds of years. Even in the Middle Ages, anyone who tried to refute this theory was mocked. In the 16th century, Copernicus claimed that the Earth moved around the sun.

A century later the famous mathematician Galileo, proved this theory was correct. Thanks to him, the common belief of the time was that the sun was the centre of the Universe. Today, we know that the sun is only one star amongst many others.