Cosmography

{{Short description|Science of mapping the universe}} {{About|mapping the universe|a flat map of the cosmos|cosmogram|nature of the universe|cosmology}} {{More citations needed|date=April 2024}} The term '''cosmography''' has two distinct meanings: traditionally it has been the [[protoscience]] of [[Mapping (cartography)|mapping]] the general features of the [[cosmos]], [[heaven]] and [[Earth]]; more recently, it has been used to describe the ongoing effort to determine the large-scale features of the [[observable universe]].

== Traditional usage == The 14th-century work ''[['Aja'ib al-makhluqat wa-ghara'ib al-mawjudat]]'' by [[Persian people|Persian]] physician [[Zakariya al-Qazwini]] is considered to be an early work of cosmography. Traditional [[Hinduism|Hindu]], [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] and [[Jainism|Jain]] cosmography schematize a universe centered on [[Mount Meru]] surrounded by rivers, continents and seas. These cosmographies posit a universe being repeatedly created and destroyed over time cycles of immense lengths. [[File:Peasants spinning.png|thumb|upright=1.2|Sedentary Occupations of Peasants – by [[Hans Holbein the Younger|Holbein]], in the "Cosmographie" of Munster (Basle, 1552, folio)]]

In 1551, [[Martín Cortés de Albacar]], from [[Zaragoza]], Spain, published ''[[Breve compendio de la esfera y del arte de navegar]]''. Translated into English and reprinted several times, the work was of great influence in Britain for many years. He proposed spherical charts and mentioned magnetic deviation and the existence of magnetic poles.

[[Peter Heylin]]'s 1652 book ''[[Cosmographie]]'' (enlarged from his ''Microcosmos'' of 1621) was one of the earliest attempts to describe the entire world in English, and is the first known description of Australia, and among the first of California. The book has four sections, examining the geography, politics, and cultures of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, with an addendum on ''[[Terra incognita|Terra Incognita]]'', including Australia, and extending to [[Utopia]], [[Álfheimr|Fairyland]], and the "[[Land of Chivalrie]]".

In 1659, Thomas Porter published a smaller, but extensive ''Compendious Description of the Whole World'', which also included a [[chronology]] of world events from [[Genesis creation myth|Creation]] forward. These were all part of a major trend in the [[European Renaissance]] to explore (and perhaps comprehend) the known world.

== Modern usage == In [[astrophysics]], the term "cosmography" is beginning to be used to describe attempts to determine the large-scale [[Observable universe#Large-scale structure|matter distribution]] and [[kinematics]] of the [[universe|observable universe]], dependent on the [[Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker metric]] but independent of the temporal dependence of the [[Scale factor (cosmology)|scale factor]] on the matter/energy composition of the Universe.<ref>{{cite book | title = Gravitation and Cosmology: Principles and Applications of the General Theory of Relativity | pages = [https://archive.org/details/gravitationcosmo00stev_0/page/407 407–463] | last = Weinberg | first = Steven | publisher = Wiley | year = 1972 | isbn = 978-0-471-92567-5 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/gravitationcosmo00stev_0/page/407 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | arxiv = gr-qc/0411131 | last= Visser | first= Matt | title= Cosmography: Cosmology without the Einstein equations | journal= General Relativity and Gravitation | year= 2005 | volume= 37 | issue= 9 | pages= 1541–1548 | doi= 10.1007/s10714-005-0134-8 |bibcode = 2005GReGr..37.1541V | s2cid= 119414427 }}</ref> The word was also commonly used by [[Buckminster Fuller]] in his lectures.

Using the [[Tully-Fisher relation]] on a catalog of 10000 galaxies has allowed the construction of 3D images of the local structure of the cosmos.<ref name=SaidTF>{{Cite book |last=Said |first=Khaled |title=Hubble Constant Tension |date=2023-10-24 |editor-last=Di Valentino |editor-first=E |chapter=Tully-Fisher relation |arxiv=2310.16053 |editor-last2=Brout |editor-first2=D. }}</ref> This led to the identification of a local supercluster named the [[Laniakea Supercluster]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Tully |first1=R. Brent |last2=Courtois |first2=Hélène |last3=Hoffman |first3=Yehuda |last4=Pomarède |first4=Daniel |date=2014-09-03 |title=The Laniakea supercluster of galaxies |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/nature13674 |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=513 |issue=7516 |pages=71–73 |doi=10.1038/nature13674 |pmid=25186900 |arxiv=1409.0880 |bibcode=2014Natur.513...71T |s2cid=205240232 |issn=0028-0836}}</ref>

==See also== {{div col|colwidth=30em}}

* [[Andreas Cellarius]] * [[Chronology of the Universe]] * [[Cosmogony]] * [[Cosmogram]] * [[Cosmographia (disambiguation)|Cosmographia]] * [[Cosmology]] * [[Religious cosmology]] * [[Johann Bayer]] * [[Julius Schiller]] * [[Large-scale structure of the cosmos]] * [[Star cartography]] * [[Timeline of astronomical maps, catalogs, and surveys]] * [[Timeline of cosmological theories]] * [[Timeline of knowledge about galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and large-scale structure]] {{div col end}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

[[Category:Physical cosmology]]