As a result of technological development of the second half of the twentieth century, Astronomy suffers big change in its methods that it makes its appearance of observation science to become also a new experimental science, where they appear numerous branches. The advancement of knowledge in Astronomy enabled to establish conjectures about the origin of the Universe that would have arisen through the Big Bang, to identify the existence of a massive black hole in the center of the Milky Way, the discovery of water on Mars, Pluto's demotion to dwarf planet, the existence of exoplanets similar to Earth outside the solar system and the discovery of matter and dark energy in the Universe.

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SCIENCE AND ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE UNIVERSE
Fernando Alcoforado *
The first great revolution in the history of science was to break the paradigm geocentric
whose theory elaborated by the Greek astronomer Claudius Ptolemy in the early
Christian era defended the thesis that the Earth is at the center of the solar system and
other stars orbit around it including the Sun. According to Ptolemy, the stars were fixed
on concentric spheres and would rotate with different speeds. After 14 centuries, the
geocentric theory was challenged by the Polish astronomer and mathematician Nicolaus
Copernicus, who produced another structure of the solar system, heliocentrism. As
Copernicus, the Earth and other planets move around a neighbor point to the Sun, which
is the true center of the solar system. The heliocentric theory was refined and proven by
Galileo, Kepler and Isaac Newton. Currently, it is the most accepted theory in the
scientific community (See CROWE, Michael J. Theories of the World from Antiquity to
the Copernican Revolution. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc, 1990).
From the studies of Copernicus and Galileo Galilei, the Universe became increasingly
known through the use of telescopes increasingly powerful and of space travel.
Astronomy, which is the science that study the Universe, the bodies that constitute it,
the relative positions they occupy, the laws governing their movements and the
evolution that experience over time, contributed significantly to the advancement of
knowledge about the Universe [See AGUIAR, Marcus. Tópicos de Mecânica Clássica
(Classical Mechanics Topics) Campinas: UNICAMP, 2010, available on the website
<http://sites.ifi.unicamp.br/aguiar/files/2014/10/top-mec-clas.pdf>]. Galileo Galilei built
his lunette or telescope, as was later called, which allowed discovering the four largest
satellites of Jupiter and its free revolution around the planet, in addition to the first
indication of the rings of Saturn and sunspots. Johannes Kepler took a step forward in
formulating the laws of planetary motion, stating that the planets revolve around the
Sun in elliptical orbits at different speeds, and that their relative distances with respect
to the Sun are related to their periods of revolution. Isaac Newton further expanded
knowledge of the Universe by establishing a simple principle to explain Kepler's laws of
planetary motion: the force of attraction between the Sun and the planets (law of
universal gravitation).
Stellar spectroscopy, the construction of large telescopes that always provided advances
and incredible discoveries of the Universe, the replacement of the human eye for photos
and objectives of systematization and classification made Astronomy evolve over these
last fifty years more than in the five millennia of its history. As a result of technological
development of the second half of the twentieth century, Astronomy suffers big change
in its methods that it makes its appearance of observation science to become also a new
experimental science, where they appear numerous branches. The advancement of
knowledge in Astronomy enabled to establish conjectures about the origin of the
Universe that would have arisen through the Big Bang, to identify the existence of a
massive black hole in the center of the Milky Way, the discovery of water on Mars,
Pluto's demotion to dwarf planet, the existence of exoplanets similar to Earth outside the
solar system and the discovery of matter and dark energy in the Universe.
Space travel facing search of the Universe knowledge contributed to many inventions in
the twentieth century, for example, rockets, space capsules and satellites. In addition,
can be cited microchips (used in all electronics created thanks to computers of

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spaceflight assistance), thermometers (able to measure the temperature used in
astronautics to monitor and locate the birth of stars), invisible apparatus (that can
function without the use of power cord created thanks to technology developed for
spacecraft), wireless objects (which can operate without the power cord created thanks
to technology developed for spacecraft), "joysticks" (tool used in video games used for
the first time in the Apollo Lunar Rover, a spaceship), satellite TV (satellite signals
designed and improved to reduce interference from the signal sent by the satellite with a
much improved quality), smoke detectors (created for astronautics research that was a
great invention that has saved many lives in any public space), filters for water (first
water-purification tissue designed for use by astronauts in space that later resulted in
known filters of our homes), insulation (created for spacecraft used in reflective
materials and then used in buildings) and space suit (type of tissue that has its origin in
costumes designed for astronauts).
Another major advancement of knowledge in Astronomy occurred more recently with
the discovery that the Universe is composed of 73% dark matter and 23% dark energy,
while the rest consists of galaxies, stars, planets, etc. corresponding 4 % of the whole
Universe (See PANEK, Richard. The 4% Universe. Boston and New York City:
Mariner Books, 2011). The hypothesis of dark matter and dark energy is a recent
cosmological model, which stepped in to break the paradigm related to the standard
cosmological model, as several observational results indicated a major flaw in the
forecast based on this model. The first of two chances to emerge was the dark matter
with Fritz Zwicky in 1933. For its results, the speed of the galaxies was such that its
gravitational pull, calculated from its visible mass was insufficient to form a system on,
as it was observed. Zwicky then proposed that there was a lot of extra material that was
not visible: the "dark matter".
In 1970, a group of astronomers, led by astronomer Vera Rubin, made a series of very
precise measurements that have shaken every previous theoretical cosmological
structure. Such measures indicated that the rotational speed of the galaxies, from a
certain point, was approximately constant and not decreased with the inverse of the
square root of the distance, as it provided Newtonian physics. So the idea of dark matter
has come up with more vigor and seriousness, being a frontier research today. In the
1990s, two independent teams of astrophysicists turned their eyes to distant supernovae
(the name given to the heavenly bodies appeared after the explosions of stars with more
than 10 solar masses, which produce extremely bright objects, which decline until they
become invisible, past weeks or months) to calculate the deceleration. To their surprise,
they found that the expansion of the Universe was not slowing, but accelerating.
Something must be overcoming the force of gravity, which is the result of a new form
of matter that scientists call "dark energy" which also hasn´t been detected so far and
the current theory cannot explain. Dark matter attracts and dark energy repels, that is,
dark matter is used to explain a greater gravitational pull than expected, while the dark
energy is used to explain a negative gravitational attraction.
On the issue of energy and dark matter, there is the new fact that the Dark Energy would
be eating the Dark Matter. This means that space can become empty. A tantalizing
suggestion that dark matter may be changing slowly for dark energy was discovered by
a team of cosmologists in the UK and Italy. While the specific nature of the interaction
that drives the conversion is not known, the process could be responsible for slowing
the growth of galaxies and other large-scale structures in the Universe through the last
eight billion years. If the conversion continues at this rate, the last destination of the

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Universe as a cold, dark and empty could come sooner than expected. Cosmologists
Valentina Salvatelli, Najla Said and Alessandro Melchiorri of the University of Rome,
along with David Wands and Marco Bruni at the University of Portsmouth reported that
the conversion of dark matter in dark energy is too slow [See Riis Bachega article A
Energia Escura está comendo a Matéria Escura? (The Dark Energy is eating Dark
Matter?) available on the website <http://www.universoracionalista.org/a-energia-
escura-esta-comendo-a-materia-escura/>]. If this continues at the current rate, the whole
Universe will have fallen on dark energy at about 100 billion years. If dark energy is
growing and dark matter is evaporating, we end up with a big void in the Universe with
almost nothing in it.
* Fernando Alcoforado, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor of Territorial
Planning and Regional Development from the University of Barcelona, a university professor and
consultant in strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is
the author of Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova
(Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São
Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado.
Universidade de Barcelona, http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e
Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX
e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of
the Economic and Social Development-The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Muller
Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe
Planetária (P&A Gráfica e Editora, Salvador, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e
combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011),
Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012) and
Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV,
Curitiba, 2015).