BRAINCAKEThe Cosmological Principle
The cosmological principle states that, when viewed on a large enough scale, the universe is homogeneous and isotropic, and the laws of physics are universal.
Homogeneous means that matter is distributed uniformly throughout the universe. Any large region of space (hundreds of megaparsecs across) contains roughly the same number of galaxies, and the same density of matter, as any other large region.
Isotropic means that the universe looks the same in every direction. An observer sees the same large-scale distribution of galaxies whichever way they look.
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More in Astrophysics and Cosmology
- Stefan's Law
- Estimating the Radius of a Star
- The Astronomical Unit, Light Year and Parsec
- Stellar Parallax
- The Doppler Effect and Red Shift
- Hubble's Law
- The Big Bang Theory
- Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
All 24 lessons in Astrophysics and Cosmology · All OCR A-level Physics topics