Array ( [0] => {{Short description|Sun-centered astronomical model}} [1] => {{redirect|Heliocentric|the albums|Heliocentric (Paul Weller album)|and|Heliocentric (The Ocean Collective album)|the heliocentric orbit|Heliocentric orbit}} [2] => [[File:Heliocentric.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Andreas Cellarius]]'s illustration of the Copernican system, from the ''Harmonia Macrocosmica'']] [3] => [4] => '''Heliocentrism'''{{efn|Optionally capitalised, ''Heliocentrism'' or ''heliocentrism'', according to [[#soed|The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (6th ed., 2007)]]. The term is a learned formation based on [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] {{lang|grc|[[wikt:ἥλιος|ἥλιος]]}} ''[[Helios]]'' "Sun" and {{lang|grc|[[wikt:κέντρον|κέντρον]]}} ''kentron'' "center"; the adjective ''heliocentric'' is first recorded in English (as ''heliocentrick'') in 1685, after [[Neo-Latin]] ''heliocentricus'', in use from about the same time ([[Johann Jakob Zimmermann]], ''Prodromus biceps cono ellipticæ et a priori demonstratæ planetarum theorices'', 1679, p. 28). [5] => The abstract noun in ''[[-ism]]'' is more recent, recorded from the late 19th century (e.g. in Constance Naden, ''Induction and Deduction: A Historical and Critical Sketch of Successive Philosophical Conceptions Respecting the Relations Between Inductive and Deductive Thought and Other Essays'' (1890), p. 76: "Copernicus started from the observed motions of the planets, on which astronomers were agreed, and worked them out on the new hypothesis of Heliocentrism"), modelled after German ''Heliocentrismus'' or ''Heliozentrismus'' (c. 1870).}} (also known as the '''heliocentric model''') is a [[Superseded_theories_in_science#Astronomy and cosmology|superseded]] [[astronomical]] model{{efn|Heliocentrism only applies to the selected Solar System, and only approximately, since the Sun's center is not at the Solar System's [[center of mass]]. See [[barycentric coordinates (astronomy)|barycentric coordinates]].}} in which the [[Earth]] and planets revolve around the [[Sun]] at the center of the [[universe]]. Historically, heliocentrism was opposed to [[Geocentric model|geocentrism]], which placed the Earth at the center. The notion that the Earth revolves around the Sun had been proposed as early as the third century BC by [[Aristarchus of Samos]],{{harvnb|Dreyer|1953|pp=[https://archive.org/stream/historyofplaneta00dreyuoft#page/n148 135–148]}}; {{harvnb|Linton|2004|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=B4br4XJFj0MC&pg=PA38 38f.]}}. The work of Aristarchus in which he proposed his heliocentric system has not survived. We only know of it now from a brief passage in [[Archimedes]]' ''[[The Sand Reckoner]]''. who had been influenced by a concept presented by [[Philolaus of Croton]] (c. 470 – 385 BC). In the 5th century BC the Greek Philosophers [[Philolaus]] and [[Hicetas]] had the thought on different occasions that the Earth was spherical and revolving around a "mystical" central fire, and that this fire regulated the universe.{{Britannica|260027|Heliocentrism}} In medieval Europe, however, Aristarchus' heliocentrism attracted little attention—possibly because of the loss of scientific works of the [[Hellenistic period]].{{efn|According to [[Lucio Russo]], the heliocentric view was expounded in [[Hipparchus]]' work on gravity.{{cite book | last=Russo | first=Lucio | translator-last=Levy | translator-first=Silvio | title=The Forgotten Revolution: How Science Was Born in 300 BC and Why it Had to Be Reborn | publisher=Springer Berlin Heidelberg | year=2003 | isbn=978-3-540-20068-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MOTpnfz7ZuYC&pg=PA293| pages=293–296}}}} [6] => [7] => It was not until the sixteenth century that a [[mathematical model]] of a heliocentric system was [[Copernican heliocentrism|presented]] by the [[Renaissance]] mathematician, astronomer, and Catholic cleric, [[Nicolaus Copernicus]], leading to the [[Copernican Revolution]]. In the following century, [[Johannes Kepler]] introduced [[Elliptic orbit|elliptical orbits]], and [[Galileo Galilei]] presented supporting observations made using a [[telescope]]. [8] => [9] => With the observations of [[William Herschel]], [[Friedrich Bessel]], and other astronomers, it was realized that the Sun, while near the [[barycenter]] of the [[Solar System]], was not at any center of the universe. [10] => [11] => == Ancient and medieval astronomy == [12] => [[File:geoz wb en.svg|thumb|upright=1.2|A hypothetical geocentric model of the Solar System (upper panel) in comparison to the heliocentric model (lower panel).]] [13] => While the [[sphericity of the Earth]] was widely recognized in Greco-Roman astronomy from at least the 4th century BC,{{cite book |last=Dicks |first=D.R. |title=Early Greek Astronomy to Aristotle |pages=[https://archive.org/details/earlygreekastron0000dick/page/68 68] |date=1970 |isbn=978-0-8014-0561-7 |publisher=Cornell University Press |location=Ithaca, N.Y. |url=https://archive.org/details/earlygreekastron0000dick/page/68 }} the Earth's [[Earth's rotation|daily rotation]] and [[Earth's orbit|yearly orbit around the Sun]] was never universally accepted until the [[Copernican Revolution]]. [14] => [15] => While a moving Earth was proposed at least from the 4th century BC in [[Pythagoreanism]], and a fully developed heliocentric model was developed by [[Aristarchus of Samos]] in the 3rd century BC, these ideas were not successful in replacing the view of a static spherical Earth, and from the 2nd century AD the predominant model, which would be inherited by medieval astronomy, was the [[Ptolemaic system|geocentric model]] described in [[Ptolemy]]'s ''[[Almagest]]''. [16] => [17] => The Ptolemaic system was a sophisticated astronomical system that managed to calculate the positions for the planets to a fair degree of accuracy.{{cite book |title=Man and nature in the Renaissance |first1=Allen G. |last1=Debus |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1987 |isbn=978-0-521-29328-0 |page=76 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=caJygwa-jiEC&pg=PA76}} [18] => Ptolemy himself, in his ''Almagest'', says that any model for describing the motions of the planets is merely a mathematical device, and since there is no actual way to know which is true, the simplest model that gets the right numbers should be used.In Book 1 section 7 he admits that a model in which the Earth revolves with respect to the stars would be simpler but doesn't go as far as considering a heliocentric system. [19] => However, he rejected the idea of a [[Earth rotation|spinning Earth]] as absurd as he believed it would create huge winds. Within his [[Ptolemy#Astronomy|model]] the distances of the Moon, Sun, planets and stars could be determined by treating orbits' [[Celestial spheres#Antiquity|celestial spheres]] as contiguous realities, which gave the stars' distance as less than 20 [[Astronomical Units]],Dennis Duke, [http://people.scs.fsu.edu/~dduke/ptolemy.html Ptolemy's Universe] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120729211430/http://people.sc.fsu.edu/~dduke/ptolemy.html |date=July 29, 2012 }} a regression, since [[Aristarchus of Samos]]'s heliocentric scheme had centuries earlier [[#Classical antiquity|necessarily]] placed the stars at least two orders of magnitude more distant. [20] => [21] => Problems with Ptolemy's system were well recognized in medieval astronomy, and an increasing effort to criticize and improve it in the late medieval period eventually led to the [[Copernican heliocentrism]] developed in Renaissance astronomy. [22] => [23] => === Classical antiquity === [24] => {{See also|Ancient Greek astronomy}} [25] => [26] => ==== Pythagoreans ==== [27] => The first non-geocentric model of the [[universe]] was proposed by the [[Pythagoreans|Pythagorean]] philosopher [[Philolaus]] (d. 390 BC), who taught that at the center of the universe was a "central fire", around which the [[Earth]], [[Sun]], [[Moon]] and [[planet]]s revolved in uniform circular motion. This system postulated the existence of a counter-earth collinear with the Earth and central fire, with the same period of revolution around the central fire as the Earth. The Sun revolved around the central fire once a year, and the stars were stationary. The Earth maintained the same hidden face towards the central fire, rendering both it and the "counter-earth" invisible from Earth. The Pythagorean concept of uniform circular motion remained unchallenged for approximately the next 2000 years, and it was to the Pythagoreans that Copernicus referred to show that the notion of a moving Earth was neither new nor revolutionary.Boyer, C. ''A History of Mathematics.'' Wiley, p. 54. Kepler gave an alternative explanation of the Pythagoreans' "central fire" as the Sun, "as most sects purposely hid[e] their teachings".{{cite book|first=Johannes |last=Kepler|title=Epitome of Copernican Astronomy |at=Book IV, Part 1.2|year=1618–1621}} [28] => [29] => [[Heraclides Ponticus|Heraclides of Pontus]] (4th century BC) said that the [[Earth's rotation|rotation of the Earth]] explained the apparent daily motion of the celestial sphere. It used to be thought that he believed [[Mercury (planet)|Mercury]] and [[Venus]] to revolve around the Sun, which in turn (along with the other planets) revolves around the Earth.{{Citation| volume = 23| issue = 4| page = 233| last = Eastwood| first = B. S.| title = Heraclides and Heliocentrism – Texts Diagrams and Interpretations| journal=Journal for the History of Astronomy| date = November 1, 1992| bibcode = 1992JHA....23..233E| doi = 10.1177/002182869202300401| s2cid = 118643709}} [[Macrobius]] (AD 395{{mdash}}423) later described this as the "Egyptian System," stating that "it did not escape the skill of the [[Egyptians]]," though there is no other evidence it was known in [[ancient Egypt]].{{citation|first=Otto E. |last=Neugebauer|title=A history of ancient mathematical astronomy|publisher=Springer|place=Berlin/Heidelberg/New York|year=1975|page=695|isbn=978-3-540-06995-9|author-link=Otto E. Neugebauer}}{{citation|title=The astronomical system of Copernicus|last=Rufus|first=W. Carl|journal=[[Popular Astronomy (US magazine)|Popular Astronomy]]|volume=31|pages=511–512 [512]|bibcode=1923PA.....31..510R|year=1923}} [30] => [31] => ==== Aristarchus of Samos ==== [32] => [[File:Aristarchus working.jpg|thumb|right|[[Aristarchus of Samos|Aristarchus']] 3rd century BC calculations on the relative sizes of the Earth, Sun and Moon, from a 10th-century AD Greek copy]] [33] => [34] => The first person known to have proposed a heliocentric system was [[Aristarchus of Samos]] {{nowrap|({{circa|270}} BC)}}. Like his contemporary [[Eratosthenes]], Aristarchus calculated the size of the Earth and measured the [[On the Sizes and Distances (Aristarchus)|sizes and distances of the Sun and Moon]]. From his estimates, he concluded that the Sun was six to seven times wider than the Earth, and thought that the larger object would have the most attractive force. [35] => [36] => His writings on the heliocentric system are lost, but some information about them is known from a brief description by his contemporary, [[Archimedes]], and from scattered references by later writers. Archimedes' description of Aristarchus' theory is given in the former's book, ''[[The Sand Reckoner]]''. The entire description comprises just three sentences, which [[Thomas Little Heath|Thomas Heath]] translates as follows:{{harvtxt|Heath|1913|p=[https://archive.org/stream/aristarchusofsam00heatuoft#page/302 302]}}. The italics and parenthetical comments are as they appear in Heath's original. [37] => [38] => {{quote|You [King Gelon] are aware that "universe" is the name given by most astronomers to the sphere, the centre of which is the centre of the earth, while its radius is equal to the straight line between the centre of the sun and the centre of the earth. This is the common account (τά γραφόμενα), as you have heard from astronomers. But Aristarchus brought out ''a book consisting of certain hypotheses'', wherein it appears, as a consequence of the assumptions made, that the universe is many times greater than the "universe" just mentioned. His hypotheses are that ''the fixed stars and the sun remain unmoved, that the earth revolves about the sun on the circumference of a circle, the sun lying in the middle of the orbit'', and that the sphere of the fixed stars, situated about the same centre as the sun, is so great that the circle in which he supposes the earth to revolve bears such a proportion to the distance of the fixed stars as the centre of the sphere bears to its surface.|''The Sand Reckoner'' (''Arenarius'' I, 4–7){{r|HeathSand}}}} [39] => [40] => Aristarchus presumably took the stars to be very far away because he was aware that their [[parallax#Stellar parallax|parallax]]That is, an apparent movement of the stars relative to the [[celestial pole]]s and [[celestial equator|equator]], and to each other, caused by the Earth's revolution around the Sun. would otherwise be observed over the course of a year. The stars are in fact so far away that stellar parallax only became detectable when sufficiently powerful [[telescope]]s had been developed in the [[1838 in science#Astronomy|1830s]]. [41] => [42] => No references to Aristarchus' heliocentrism are known in any other writings from before the [[common era]]. The earliest of the handful of other ancient references occur in two passages from the writings of [[Plutarch]]. These mention one detail not stated explicitly in Archimedes' accountAlthough it could obviously be reasonably inferred therefrom.—namely, that Aristarchus' theory had the Earth rotating on an axis. The first of these reference occurs in ''On the Face in the Orb of the Moon'':{{harvtxt|Heath|1913|p=[https://archive.org/stream/aristarchusofsam00heatuoft#page/304 304]}}. Most modern scholars share Heath's opinion that it is Cleanthes in this passage who is being held as having accused Aristarchus of impiety (see {{harvnb|Gent|Godwin|1883|p=[https://archive.org/stream/plutarchsmorals51883plut#page/240 240]}}; {{harvnb|Dreyer|1953|p=[https://archive.org/stream/historyofplaneta00dreyuoft#page/138/mode/1up 138]}}; {{harvnb|Prickard|1911|p=[https://archive.org/stream/plutarchonfacewh00plut#page/20/mode/1up 20]}}; Cherniss 1957]], p. [https://archive.org/stream/moraliainfifteen12plutuoft#page/55 55]; for example). The manuscripts of Plutarch's ''On the Face in the Orb of the Moon'' that have come down to us are corrupted, however, and the traditional interpretation of the passage has been challenged by [[Lucio Russo]], who insists that it should be interpreted as having Aristarchus rhetorically suggest that ''Cleanthes'' was being impious for wanting to shift the ''Sun'' from its proper place at the center of the universe ({{harvnb|Russo|2013|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ld8lBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA82 82]}}; {{harvnb|Russo|Medaglia|1996|pp=113–117}}). [43] => {{quote|Only do not, my good fellow, enter an action against me for impiety in the style of [[Cleanthes]], who thought it was the duty of Greeks to indict Aristarchus of Samos on the charge of impiety for putting in motion the Hearth of the Universe, this being the effect of his attempt to save the phenomena by supposing the heaven to remain at rest and the earth to revolve in an oblique circle, while it rotates, at the same time, about its own axis.|''On the Face in the Orb of the Moon'' (''De facie in orbe lunae'', c. 6, pp. 922 F – 923 A.) }} [44] => Only scattered fragments of Cleanthes' writings have survived in quotations by other writers, but in ''[[Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers]]'', [[Diogenes Laërtius]] lists ''A reply to Aristarchus'' (Πρὸς Ἀρίσταρχον) as one of Cleanthes' works,Diogenes Laërtius (1972, Bk 7, ch 5, p. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0258:book=7:chapter=5&highlight=aristarchus 281]) and some scholars{{sfn|Edwards|1998|loc=p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=nS51_7qbEWsC&pg=PA68 68] and n. 104, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=nS51_7qbEWsC&pg=PA455 455]|ps=, for instance.}} have suggested that this might have been where Cleanthes had accused Aristarchus of impiety. [45] => [46] => The second of the references by Plutarch is in his ''Platonic Questions'':{{sfn|Heath|1913|p=[https://archive.org/stream/aristarchusofsam00heatuoft#page/305 305]}} [47] => [48] => {{quote|Did Plato put the earth in motion, as he did the sun, the moon, and the five planets, which he called the instruments of time on account of their turnings, and was it necessary to conceive that the earth "which is globed about the axis stretched from pole to pole through the whole universe" was not represented as being held together and at rest, but as turning and revolving (στρεφομένην καὶ ἀνειλουμένην), as Aristarchus and [[Seleucus of Seleucia|Seleucus]] afterwards maintained that it did, the former stating this as only a hypothesis (ὑποτιθέμενος μόνον), the latter as a definite opinion (καὶ ἀποφαινόμενος)?| ''Platonic Questions'' (''Platonicae Quaestiones'' viii. I, 1006 C)}} [49] => The remaining references to Aristarchus' heliocentrism are extremely brief, and provide no more information beyond what can be gleaned from those already cited. Ones which mention Aristarchus explicitly by name occur in [[Aetius (philosopher)|Aëtius]]' ''Opinions of the Philosophers'', [[Sextus Empiricus]]' ''Against the Mathematicians'',{{sfn|Heath|1913|p=[https://archive.org/stream/aristarchusofsam00heatuoft#page/305 305]}} and an anonymous scholiast to Aristotle.{{sfn|Dreyer|1953|p=[https://archive.org/stream/historyofplaneta00dreyuoft#page/139/mode/1up 139]}} Another passage in Aëtius' ''Opinions of the Philosophers'' reports that Seleucus the astronomer had affirmed the Earth's motion, but does not mention Aristarchus.{{sfn|Heath|1913|p=[https://archive.org/stream/aristarchusofsam00heatuoft#page/305 305]}} [50] => [51] => ==== Seleucus of Seleucia ==== [52] => {{Main|Seleucus of Seleucia}} [53] => Since [[Plutarch]] mentions the "followers of Aristarchus" in passing, it is likely that there were other astronomers in the Classical period who also espoused heliocentrism, but whose work was lost. The only other astronomer from antiquity known by name who is known to have supported Aristarchus' heliocentric model was Seleucus of Seleucia (b. 190 BC), a [[Hellenistic civilization|Hellenistic]] astronomer who flourished a century after Aristarchus in the [[Seleucid Empire]].{{Citation |last1=Murdin|first1=Paul|editor1-last=Murdin|editor1-first=Paul |title=Seleucus of Seleucia (c. 190 BC–?) |journal=Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics|pages=3998|doi=10.1888/0333750888 |isbn=978-0-333-75088-9 | bibcode=2000eaa..bookE3998.|year=2000|citeseerx=10.1.1.255.9251}} Seleucus was a proponent of the heliocentric system of Aristarchus.{{cite web|url=http://www.ics.forth.gr/~vsiris/ancient_greeks/hellinistic_period.html|title=Index of Ancient Greek Philosophers-Scientists|website=Ics.forth.gr|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180127034924/http://users.ics.forth.gr/~vsiris/ancient_greeks/hellinistic_period.html|archive-date=January 27, 2018|access-date=20 November 2018|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}} Seleucus may have proved the heliocentric theory by determining the constants of a [[geometry|geometric]] model for the heliocentric theory and developing methods to compute planetary positions using this model. He may have used early [[trigonometry|trigonometric]] methods that were available in his time, as he was a contemporary of [[Hipparchus]].{{Citation | last1 = Bartel | first1 = B. L.| author-link = Bartel Leendert van der Waerden | year = 1987 | title = The Heliocentric System in Greek, Persian and Hindu Astronomy | journal=Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences | volume = 500 | issue = 1| pages = 525–545 [527–529] | doi = 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1987.tb37224.x | postscript = . | bibcode=1987NYASA.500..525V| s2cid = 222087224}} A fragment of a work by Seleucus has survived in Arabic translation, which was referred to by [[Abu Bakr al-Razi|Rhazes]] (b. 865).{{citation|title=Studies in Arabic versions of Greek texts and in mediaeval science|volume=2|first=Shlomo |last=Pines|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|year=1986|isbn=978-965-223-626-5|pages=viii & 201–217|author-link=Shlomo Pines}} [54] => [55] => Alternatively, his explanation may have involved the phenomenon of [[tide]]s,[[Lucio Russo]], ''Flussi e riflussi'', Feltrinelli, Milano, 2003, {{ISBN|88-07-10349-4}}. which he supposedly theorized to be caused by the attraction to the Moon and by the revolution of the Earth around the Earth and Moon's [[Barycenter|center of mass]]. [56] => [57] => ==== Late antiquity ==== [58] => There were occasional speculations about heliocentrism in Europe before Copernicus. In [[Carthage#Roman Carthage|Roman Carthage]], the [[pagan]] [[Martianus Capella]] (5th century AD) expressed the opinion that the planets Venus and Mercury did not go about the Earth but instead circled the Sun.[[William Harris Stahl | William Stahl]], trans., ''Martianus Capella and the Seven Liberal Arts'', vol. 2, ''The Marriage of Philology and Mercury'', 854, 857, New York: Columbia Univ. Pr, 1977, pp. 332–333 Capella's model was discussed in the [[Early Middle Ages]] by various anonymous 9th-century commentators{{Citation | last = Eastwood | first = Bruce S. | title = Ordering the Heavens: Roman Astronomy and Cosmology in the Carolingian Renaissance | publisher=Brill | year = 2007 | location = Leiden | pages = 244–259 | isbn = 978-90-04-16186-3}} and Copernicus mentions him as an influence on his own work.{{Citation | last1 = Eastwood | first1 = Bruce S. | year = 1982 | title = Kepler as Historian of Science: Precursors of Copernican Heliocentrism according to ''De revolutionibus'' I, 10 | journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society | volume = 126 | pages = 367–394 | postscript = . }} [59] => [60] => === Ancient India === [61] => {{See also|Indian astronomy}} [62] => [[Vedic period|Vedic era]] philosopher [[Yajnavalkya]] (c. 900–700 Century BCE) proposed [[Yajnavalkya's theory of heliocentrism|elements of heliocentrism]] stating that the [[Sun]] was "the center of the spheres".{{Cite book |last=Castleden |first=Rodney |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uqILEAAAQBAJ&dq=yajnavalkya+heliocentrism&pg=PT113 |title=Discoveries that Changed the World |date=2020-11-01 |publisher=Canary Press eBooks |isbn=978-1-908698-53-7 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Sabiu |first=Cristiano Giovanni |title=Probing the Large-Scale Homogeneity of the Universe with Galaxy Redshift Surveys |publisher=[[University of Glasgow]] |year=2006 |location=Scotland |pages=12 |language=English |arxiv=astro-ph/0703492}} However he also stated the sun has motion. The [[Aitareya Brahmana]] (dated to c. 800–500 BC) states that "The sun does never set nor rise. When people think the sun is setting (it is not so)."{{cite book |author=Lionel D. Barnett |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x40mwFwgK44C |title=Antiquities of India: An Account of the History and Culture of Ancient Hindustan |publisher=Phillip Warner: London |year=1913 |isbn=978-81-206-0530-5 |pages=203 footnote 1 |access-date=26 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191208092840/https://books.google.com/books?id=x40mwFwgK44C |archive-date=8 December 2019 |url-status=live}}Martin Haug (1922), [https://archive.org/stream/aitareyabrahmana04hauguoft#page/162/mode/2up The Aitareya Brahmana of the Rigveda], Chapter 3, Verse 44, Editor: BD Basu, ''The Sacred Books of the Hindus Series'', pp. 163–164 [63] => [64] => The Tamil classical literary work ''[[Ciṟupāṇāṟṟuppaṭai]]'' from [[Sangam period]] by Nattattaṉār uses "sun surrounded by planets, in the shining, bright sky" as an analogy for food served by a king in golden plates surrounded by sides.{{sfn|JV Chelliah|1946|p=161}}{{cite web |last1=Herbert |first1=Vaidehi |title=Sirupaanatrupadai |url=https://learnsangamtamil.com/sirupaanatrupadai/ |website=Learn Sangam Tamil|date=December 2, 2010 }} [65] => [66] => [[Aryabhata]] (476–550), in his magnum opus ''[[Aryabhatiya]]'' (499), propounded a planetary model in which the Earth was taken to be [[Earth's rotation|spinning on its axis]] and the periods of the planets were given with respect to the Sun.{{sfn|Thurston|1993|p=188}} His immediate commentators, such as [[Lalla]], and other later authors, rejected his innovative view about the turning Earth.{{Cite book|title=Mathematics in India|title-link=Mathematics in India (book)|last=Plofker|first=Kim|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2009|isbn=978-1-4008-3407-5|location=Princeton|pages=111–112|oclc=650305544}} He also made many astronomical calculations, such as the times of the [[solar eclipse|solar]] and [[lunar eclipse|lunar]] [[eclipse]]s, and the instantaneous motion of the Moon.{{sfn|Joseph|2000|pp=393–394, 408}} Early followers of Aryabhata's model included [[Varahamihira]], [[Brahmagupta]], and [[Bhaskara II]]. [67] => [68] => === Medieval Islamic world === [69] => {{See also|Astronomy in medieval Islam|Islamic cosmology}} [70] => For a time, [[List of Muslim astronomers|Muslim astronomers]] accepted the [[Ptolemaic model|Ptolemaic system]] and the geocentric model, which were used by {{nowrap|[[al-Battani]]}} to show that the distance between the Sun and the Earth varies.{{sfn|Sabra|1998|pp=317f|ps=: {{quote|All Islamic astronomers from Thabit ibn Qurra in the ninth century to Ibn al-Shatir in the fourteenth, and all natural philosophers from al-Kindi to Averroes and later, are known to have accepted ... the Greek picture of the world as consisting of two spheres of which one, the celestial sphere ... concentrically envelops the other.}}}}{{cite web|url=https://www.famousscientists.org/al-battani/|title=Al-Battani|website=Famous Scientists|access-date=20 November 2018}} In the 10th century, {{nowrap|[[al-Sijzi]]}} accepted that the [[Earth's rotation|Earth rotates around its axis]].{{Cite journal|volume=108|issue=67|pages=762|last=Alessandro Bausani|title=Cosmology and Religion in Islam|journal=Scientia/Rivista di Scienza|year=1973}} According to later astronomer [[al-Biruni]], al-Sijzi invented an [[astrolabe]] called ''al-zūraqī'' based on a belief held by some of his contemporaries that the apparent motion of the stars was due to the Earth's movement, and not that of the [[firmament]].{{cite book|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-02887-5|editor-last1=Young|editor-first1=M. J. L.|title=Religion, Learning and Science in the 'Abbasid Period|year=2006|page=[https://archive.org/stream/M.J.L.YoungJ.D.LathamR.B.SerjeantEdsReligionLearningAndScienceInTheAbbasidPeriod/M.%20J.%20L.%20Young%2C%20J.%20D.%20Latham%2C%20R.%20B.%20Serjeant%20eds%20Religion%2C%20Learning%20and%20Science%20in%20the%20%60Abbasid%20Period#page/n217/mode/1up 413]}}{{cite book|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-1-4384-1419-5|last=Nasr|first=Seyyed Hossein|title=An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines|date= 1993|page=135}} Islamic astronomers began to criticize the Ptolemaic model, including [[Ibn al-Haytham]] in his ''{{nowrap|Al-Shukūk}} 'alā Baṭalamiyūs'' ("Doubts Concerning Ptolemy", c. 1028),{{cite book|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-57600-0|last=Hoskin|first=Michael|title=The Cambridge Concise History of Astronomy|date= 1999|page=60}}{{sfn|Qadir|1989|pp=5–10.}} who found contradictions in Ptolemy's model, but al-Haytham remained commited to a geocentric model.[http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/stanford/entries/copernicus/index.html Nicolaus Copernicus], [[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] (2004). [71] => [72] => [[File:Lunar phases al-Biruni.jpg|thumb|An illustration from [[al-Biruni]]'s astronomical works explains the different [[Lunar phase|phases of the Moon]] with respect to the position of the Sun.]] [73] => Al-Biruni discussed the possibility of whether the Earth rotated about its own axis and orbited the Sun, but in his ''Masudic Canon'' (1031),{{cite web|last=Covington|first=Richard|title=Rediscovering Arabic Science|url=http://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/200703/rediscovering.arabic.science.htm|website=Aramco World|access-date=20 November 2018}} he expressed his faith in a geocentric and stationary Earth.E. S. Kennedy, "Al-Bīrūnī's Masudic Canon", ''Al-Abhath'', 24 (1971): 59–81; reprinted in David A. King and Mary Helen Kennedy, ed., ''Studies in the Islamic Exact Sciences,'' Beirut, 1983, pp. 573–595. He was aware that if the Earth rotated on its axis, it would be consistent with his astronomical observations,G. Wiet, V. Elisseeff, P. Wolff, J. Naudu (1975). ''History of Mankind, Vol 3: The Great medieval Civilisations'', p. 649. George Allen & Unwin Ltd, [[UNESCO]]. but considered it a problem of [[natural philosophy]] rather than one of mathematics.{{sfn|Saliba|1999}} [74] => [75] => In the 12th century, non-heliocentric alternatives to the Ptolemaic system were developed by some Islamic astronomers, such as [[Nur ad-Din al-Bitruji]], who considered the Ptolemaic model mathematical, and not physical.{{cite encyclopedia|editor=Thomas Hockey|last=Samsó|first=Julio|title=Biṭrūjī: Nūr al‐Dīn Abū Isḥāq [Abū Jaʿfar] Ibrāhīm ibn Yūsuf al‐Biṭrūjī|encyclopedia=The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers|publisher=Springer|year=2007|location=New York|pages=133–134|url=http://islamsci.mcgill.ca/RASI/BEA/Bitruji_BEA.htm|isbn=978-0-387-31022-0|display-editors=etal}} ([http://islamsci.mcgill.ca/RASI/BEA/Bitruji_BEA.pdf PDF version]) His system spread throughout most of Europe in the 13th century, with debates and refutations of his ideas continued to the 16th century.{{cite encyclopedia|last=Samsó|first=Julio|title=Al-Bitruji Al-Ishbili, Abu Ishaq|encyclopedia=[[Dictionary of Scientific Biography]]| publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|location=New York|year=1970–80|isbn=978-0-684-10114-9|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2830904829.html}} [76] => [77] => The [[Maragheh observatory|Maragha]] school of astronomy in [[Ilkhanid]]-era Persia further developed "non-Ptolemaic" planetary models involving [[Earth's rotation]]. Notable astronomers of this school are [[Al-Urdi]] (d. 1266) [[Najm al-Dīn al-Qazwīnī al-Kātibī|Al-Katibi]] (d. 1277),''[https://archive.org/details/Hikmat3ayn Hikmat al-'Ain]'', p. 78 and [[Nasir al-Din al-Tusi|Al-Tusi]] (d. 1274). [78] => [79] => The arguments and evidence used resemble those used by Copernicus to support the Earth's motion.{{Citation |last=Ragep |first=F. Jamil |year=2001a |title=Tusi and Copernicus: The Earth's Motion in Context |journal=Science in Context |volume=14 |issue=1–2 |pages=145–163 |doi=10.1017/s0269889701000060|s2cid=145372613 }}{{Citation |last1=Ragep |first1=F. Jamil |year=2001b |title=Freeing Astronomy from Philosophy: An Aspect of Islamic Influence on Science |journal=Osiris |series=2nd Series |volume=16 |issue=Science in Theistic Contexts: Cognitive Dimensions |pages=49–64 & 66–71 |bibcode = 2001Osir...16...49R |doi=10.1086/649338 |last2=Al-Qushji |first2=Ali|s2cid=142586786 |url=http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=156332 }} [80] => The criticism of Ptolemy as developed by Averroes and by the Maragha school explicitly address the [[Earth's rotation]] but it did not arrive at explicit heliocentrism.{{cite book | last=Huff | first=Toby E. | title=The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China and the West | publisher=Cambridge University Press | series=The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China, and the West | year=2003 | isbn=978-0-521-52994-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DLxRGjr1gYQC}} [81] => The observations of the Maragha school were further improved at the Timurid-era [[Ulugh Beg Observatory|Samarkand observatory]] under [[Ali Qushji|Qushji]] (1403–1474). [82] => [83] => === Later medieval period === [84] => [[File:Nicholas of Cusa.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Nicholas of Cusa]], 15th century, asked whether there was any reason to assert that any point was the center of the universe.]] [85] => European scholarship in the later medieval period actively received astronomical models developed in the Islamic world and by the 13th century was well aware of the problems of the Ptolemaic model. In the 14th century, bishop [[Nicole Oresme]] discussed the possibility that the Earth rotated on its axis, while Cardinal [[Nicholas of Cusa]] in his ''[[De Docta Ignorantia|Learned Ignorance]]'' asked whether there was any reason to assert that the Sun (or any other point) was the center of the universe. In parallel to a mystical definition of God, Cusa wrote that "Thus the fabric of the world (''machina mundi'') will ''quasi'' have its center everywhere and circumference nowhere,"Nicholas of Cusa, ''De docta ignorantia'', 2.12, p. 103, cited in Koyré (1957), p. 17. recalling [[Hermes Trismegistus]].{{cite web|url=https://www.ritmanlibrary.com/founder/god-is-an-infinite-sphere/|title=Favourite quote of founder Joost R. Ritman: God is an infinite sphere|last=van Limpt|first=Cokky|date=17 February 2003|website=[[Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica]]|access-date=27 November 2018}} [86] => [87] => === Medieval India === [88] => In India, [[Nilakantha Somayaji]] (1444–1544), in his ''Aryabhatiyabhasya'', a commentary on Aryabhata's ''Aryabhatiya'', developed a computational system for a geo-heliocentric planetary model, in which the planets orbit the Sun, which in turn orbits the Earth, similar to the [[Tychonic system|system later proposed]] by [[Tycho Brahe]]. In the ''[[Tantrasamgraha]]'' (1501), Somayaji further revised his planetary system, which was mathematically more accurate at predicting the heliocentric orbits of the interior planets than both the Tychonic and [[Copernican heliocentrism|Copernican models]],{{sfn|Joseph|2000}}{{cite journal|title=Model of planetary motion in the works of Kerala astronomers|last=Ramasubramanian|first=K.|journal=Bulletin of the Astronomical Society of India|volume=26|pages=11–31 [23–24]|bibcode=1998BASI...26...11R|year=1998}} but did not propose any specific models of the universe.{{sfn|Ramasubramanian|Srinivas|Sriram|1994|p=788}} Nilakantha's planetary system also incorporated the Earth's rotation on its axis.{{citation|first=Amartya Kumar |last=Dutta|title=Āryabhata and axial rotation of earth|journal=Resonance|issn=0973-712X|volume=11|issue=5|date=May 2006|doi=10.1007/BF02839373|pages=58–72 [70–71]|s2cid=118434268}} Most astronomers of the [[Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics]] seem to have accepted his planetary model.{{sfn|Joseph|2000|p=408}}{{cite journal | last1 = Ramasubramanian | first1 = K. | last2 = Srinivas | first2 = M. D. | last3 = Sriram | first3 = M. S. | year = 1994 | title = Modification of the earlier Indian planetary theory by the Kerala astronomers (c. 1500 AD) and the implied heliocentric picture of planetary motion | journal=[[Current Science]] | volume = 66 | pages = 784–790}} [89] => [90] => == Renaissance-era astronomy == [91] => {{See also|History of science in the Renaissance}} [92] => [93] => === European astronomy before Copernicus === [94] => Some historians maintain that the thought of the [[Maragheh observatory]], in particular the mathematical devices known as the [[Urdi lemma]] and the [[Tusi couple]], influenced Renaissance-era European astronomy, and thus was indirectly received by Renaissance-era European astronomy and thus by [[Copernicus]].{{sfn|Saliba|1999}}{{cite journal | last1 = Roberts | first1 = V. | last2 = Kennedy | first2 = E. S. | date = 1959 | title = The Planetary Theory of Ibn al-Shatir | journal = [[Isis (journal)|Isis]] | volume = 50 | issue = 3| pages = 232–234 | doi=10.1086/348774| s2cid = 143592051 }}{{Citation | last=Guessoum | first=N. |date=June 2008 | title=Copernicus and Ibn Al-Shatir: does the Copernican revolution have Islamic roots? | journal=The Observatory | volume=128 | pages=231–239 [238] | bibcode=2008Obs...128..231G}}{{sfn|Sabra|1998}}{{citation|title=Late Medieval Planetary Theory|first=E. S. |last=Kennedy|journal=[[Isis (journal)|Isis]]|volume=57|issue=3|date=Autumn 1966|pages=365–378 [377]|doi=10.1086/350144|jstor=228366|s2cid=143569912 }} [95] => Copernicus used such devices in the same planetary models as found in Arabic sources.{{Cite book| publisher = NYU Press| isbn = 978-0-8147-8023-7| last = Saliba| first = George| title = A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary Theories During the Golden Age of Islam| year = 1995}} The exact replacement of the [[equant]] by two [[epicycles]] used by Copernicus in the ''[[Commentariolus]]'' was found in an earlier work by [[Ibn al-Shatir]] (d. c. 1375) of Damascus.{{Cite journal| issn = 0003-049X| volume = 117| issue = 6| page = 424| last = Swerdlow| first = Noel M.| title = The Derivation and First Draft of Copernicus's Planetary Theory: A Translation of the Commentariolus with Commentary| journal = Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society| date = 1973-12-31| jstor = 986461| bibcode = 1973PAPhS.117..423S}} Copernicus' lunar and Mercury models are also identical to Ibn al-Shatir's.{{cite encyclopedia | editor = Thomas Hockey | display-editors = etal | last = King | first = David A. | title=Ibn al‐Shāṭir: ʿAlāʾ al‐Dīn ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm | encyclopedia = The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers | publisher = Springer | date = 2007 | location = New York | pages = 569–570 | url=http://islamsci.mcgill.ca/RASI/BEA/Ibn_al-Shatir_BEA.htm | isbn=978-0-387-31022-0}} ([http://islamsci.mcgill.ca/RASI/BEA/Ibn_al-Shatir_BEA.pdf PDF version]) [96] => [97] => While the influence of the criticism of Ptolemy by Averroes on Renaissance thought is clear and explicit, the claim of direct influence of the [98] => Maragha school, postulated by [[Otto E. Neugebauer]] in 1957, remains an open question.N.K. Singh, M. Zaki Kirmani,''Encyclopaedia of Islamic science and scientists''[https://books.google.com/books?id=lKa9khFcKmQC&q=geocentric&pg=PA808]Viktor Blåsjö, "A Critique of the Arguments for Maragha Influence on Copernicus", ''Journal for the History of Astronomy'', '''45''' (2014), 183–195 [http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014JHA....45..183B ADS]{{Citation needed|reason= Sources up to date? Is it still "open"|date=August 2022}} Since the [[Tusi couple]] was used by Copernicus in his reformulation of mathematical astronomy, there is a growing consensus that he became aware of this idea in some way. One possible route of transmission may have been through [[Byzantine science]], which translated some of [[Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī|al-Tusi]]'s works from Arabic into [[Medieval Greek|Byzantine Greek]]. Several Byzantine Greek manuscripts containing the Tusi couple are still extant in Italy.{{cite web|first=George |last=Saliba|author-link=George Saliba|title=Islamic Science and the Making of Renaissance Europe|website=[[Library of Congress]]|date=April 27, 2006|url=https://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=3883|access-date=2008-03-01}} The Mathematics Genealogy Project suggests that there is a "genealogy" of Nasir al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī → Shams al‐Dīn al‐Bukhārī → [[Gregory Chioniades]] → [[Manuel Bryennios]] → [[Theodore Metochites]] → [[Gregory Palamas]] → [[Nilos Kabasilas]] → [[Demetrios Kydones]] → [[Gemistos Plethon]] → [[Basilios Bessarion]] → [[Johannes Regiomontanus]] → [[Domenico Maria Novara da Ferrara]] → Nicolaus (Mikołaj Kopernik) Copernicus.{{cite web | url=https://www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=217509 | title=Nasir al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī – the Mathematics Genealogy Project }} [[Leonardo da Vinci]] (1452–1519) wrote "Il sole non si move." ("The Sun does not move."){{Cite book|last=Cook|first=Theodore Andrea|author-link=Theodore Andrea Cook|title=The Curves of Life|year=1914|page=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924028937179/page/n425 390]|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924028937179|publisher=Constable and Company Ltd|location=London}} and he was a student of a student of Bessarion according to the Mathematics Genealogy Project. {{cite web | url=https://www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=217509 | title=Nasir al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī – the Mathematics Genealogy Project }} It has been suggested that the idea of the Tusi couple may have arrived in Europe leaving few manuscript traces, since it could have occurred without the translation of any Arabic text into Latin.Claudia Kren, "The Rolling Device," p. 497.{{sfn|Saliba|1999}} [99] => [100] => Other scholars have argued that Copernicus could well have developed these ideas independently of the late Islamic tradition.{{sfn|Goddu|2010|pp=261–69, 476–86}}{{cite book | last=Huff | first=T.E. | title=Intellectual Curiosity and the Scientific Revolution: A Global Perspective | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2010 | isbn=978-1-139-49535-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xNSPo_Xda_0C&pg=PA263 | access-date=31 October 2020 | page=263}}{{sfn|di Bono|1995}}{{sfn|Veselovsky|1973}} Copernicus explicitly references several astronomers of the "[[Islamic Golden Age]]" (10th to 12th centuries) in ''De Revolutionibus'': [[Al-Battani|Albategnius (Al-Battani)]], [[Averroes]] (Ibn Rushd), [[Thabit ibn Qurra|Thebit (Thabit Ibn Qurra)]], [[Al-Zarqali|Arzachel (Al-Zarqali)]], and [[Al-Bitruji|Alpetragius (Al-Bitruji)]], but he does not show awareness of the existence of any of the later astronomers of the Maragha school.{{Cite book| publisher = I.B. Tauris| isbn = 978-1-78453-138-6| last = Freely| first = John| title = Light from the East: How the Science of Medieval Islam Helped to Shape the Western World| date = 2015| page=179}} [101] => [102] => It has been argued that Copernicus could have independently discovered the Tusi couple or took the idea from [[Proclus]]'s ''Commentary on the First Book of [[Euclid's Elements|Euclid]]'',{{Citation | last1 = Veselovsky | first1 = I. N. | year = 1973 | title = Copernicus and Nasir al-Din al-Tusi | url = http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/seri/JHA../0004//0000128.000.html | journal=Journal for the History of Astronomy | volume = 4 | issue = 2 | pages = 128–130 | postscript = . |bibcode = 1973JHA.....4..128V | doi = 10.1177/002182867300400205 | s2cid = 118453340 }} which Copernicus cited.{{Citation | last = Neugebauer | first = Otto | author-link = Otto E. Neugebauer | title = A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy | place = Berlin / Heidelberg / New York | publisher = Springer-Verlag | volume = 2 | year = 1975 | page = 1035 | isbn = 978-0-387-06995-1 }} [103] => Another possible source for Copernicus' knowledge of this mathematical device is the ''Questiones de Spera'' of [[Nicole Oresme]], who described how a reciprocating linear motion of a celestial body could be produced by a combination of circular motions similar to those proposed by al-Tusi.{{Citation | last1 = Kren | first1 = Claudia | year = 1971 | title = The Rolling Device of Naṣir al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī in the ''De spera'' of Nicole Oresme | journal=Isis | volume = 62 | issue = 4| pages = 490–498 | doi = 10.1086/350791 | s2cid = 144526697 | postscript = . }} [104] => [105] => The state of knowledge on planetary theory received by Copernicus is summarized in [[Georg von Peuerbach]]'s ''Theoricae Novae Planetarum'' (printed in 1472 by [[Regiomontanus]]). By 1470, the accuracy of observations by the Vienna school of astronomy, of which Peuerbach and Regiomontanus were members, was high enough to make the eventual development of heliocentrism inevitable, and indeed it is possible that Regiomontanus did arrive at an explicit theory of heliocentrism before his death in 1476, some 30 years before Copernicus.{{sfn|Koestler|1990|p=[https://archive.org/details/sleepwalkershist00koes_0/page/212 212]}} [106] => [107] => === Copernican heliocentrism === [108] => {{Main|Copernican heliocentrism}} [109] => [110] => [[File:Kopernikus, Nikolaus - Reußner 1578 Portrait1.jpg|thumb|upright|Portrait of [[Nicolaus Copernicus]] (1578){{efn|The image shows a woodcut by Christoph Murer, from Nicolaus Reusner's ''Icones'' (printed 1578), allegedly after a (lost) self-portrait by Copernicus himself; the Murer portrait became the template for a number of later (17th century) woodcuts, copper engravings and paintings of Copernicus.}}]] [111] => [[Nicolaus Copernicus]] in his ''[[De revolutionibus orbium coelestium]]'' ("On the revolution of heavenly spheres", first printed in 1543 in Nuremberg), presented a discussion of a heliocentric model of the universe in much the same way as [[Ptolemy]] in the 2nd century had presented his geocentric model in his ''[[Almagest]]''. [112] => Copernicus discussed the philosophical implications of his proposed system, elaborated it in geometrical detail, used selected astronomical observations to derive the parameters of his model, and wrote astronomical tables which enabled one to compute the past and future positions of the stars and planets. In doing so, Copernicus moved heliocentrism from philosophical speculation to predictive geometrical astronomy. In reality, Copernicus' system did not predict the planets' positions any better than the Ptolemaic system.{{cite book|last=Henry|first=John|title=Moving heaven and earth : Copernicus and the solar system|date=2001|publisher=Icon|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-1-84046-251-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/movingheaveneart00john_0/page/87 87]|url=https://archive.org/details/movingheaveneart00john_0/page/87}} This theory resolved the issue of planetary [[retrograde motion]] by arguing that such motion was only perceived and apparent, rather than [[reality|real]]: it was a [[parallax]] effect, as an object that one is passing seems to move backwards against the horizon. This issue was also resolved in the geocentric [[Tychonic system]]; the latter, however, while eliminating the major [[epicycle]]s, retained as a physical reality the irregular back-and-forth motion of the planets, which Kepler characterized as a "[[pretzel]]".{{sfn|Gingerich|2004|p=51}} [113] => [114] => Copernicus cited Aristarchus in an early (unpublished) manuscript of ''De Revolutionibus'' (which still survives), stating: "Philolaus believed in the mobility of the earth, and some even say that Aristarchus of Samos was of that opinion."Gingerich, O. "Did Copernicus Owe a Debt to Aristarchus?" ''Journal for the History of Astronomy'', Vol.16, No.1/Feb, P. 37, 1985. Philolaus had the Earth moving around a Central Fire which was not the Sun, so Copernicus's reference to Aristarchus's model as possibly geodynamic does not necessarily imply that he thought it was heliocentric. However, in the published version he restricts himself to noting that in works by [[Cicero]] he had found an account of the theories of [[Hicetas]] and that [[Plutarch]] had provided him with an account of the [[Pythagoreans]], [[Heraclides Ponticus]], [[Philolaus]], and [[Ecphantus]]. These authors had proposed a moving Earth, which did not, however, revolve around a central sun. [115] => [116] => == Reception in Early Modern Europe == [117] => {{Main|Copernican Revolution}} [118] => [119] => === Circulation of Commentariolus (published before 1515) === [120] => The first information about the heliocentric views of [[Nicolaus Copernicus]] was circulated in manuscript completed some time before May 1, 1514.A library catalogue of a 16th-century historian, Matthew of Miechow, bears that date and contains a reference to the manuscript, so it must have begun circulating before that date ({{harvnb|Koyré|1973|p=85}}; {{harvnb|Gingerich|2004|p=32}}). In 1533, [[Johann Albrecht Widmannstetter]] delivered in Rome a series of lectures outlining Copernicus' theory. The lectures were heard with interest by [[Pope Clement VII]] and several Catholic [[Cardinal (Catholicism)|cardinals]].{{sfn|Speller|2008|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=jviElHq-kEcC&pg=PA51 51]}} [121] => [122] => In 1539, [[Martin Luther]] purportedly said: [123] => [124] => {{quote|"There is talk of a new astrologer who wants to prove that the earth moves and goes around instead of the sky, the sun, the moon, just as if somebody were moving in a carriage or ship might hold that he was sitting still and at rest while the earth and the trees walked and moved. But that is how things are nowadays: when a man wishes to be clever he must … invent something special, and the way he does it must needs be the best! The fool wants to turn the whole art of astronomy upside-down. However, as Holy Scripture tells us, so did Joshua bid the sun to stand still and not the earth."{{cite web|url=http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Ast161/Unit3/response.html|title=Religious Objections to Copernicus}}}} [125] => [126] => This was reported in the context of a conversation at the dinner table and not a formal statement of faith. [[Melanchthon]], however, opposed the doctrine over a period of years.{{cite book |author=Melanchthon |title=Elements of Physics |edition=|date=1549}}{{cite book |title=Revolution in Science |first=I. Bernard |last=Cohen |page=497}} [127] => [128] => === Publication of ''De Revolutionibus'' (1543) === [129] => [[Nicolaus Copernicus]] published the definitive statement of his system in [[De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium|''De Revolutionibus'']] in 1543. Copernicus began to write it in 1506 and finished it in 1530, but did not publish it until the year of his death. Although he was in good standing with the Church and had dedicated the book to [[Pope Paul III]], the published form contained an unsigned preface by [[Andreas Osiander|Osiander]] defending the system and arguing that it was useful for computation even if its hypotheses were not necessarily true. Possibly because of that preface, the work of Copernicus inspired very little debate on whether it might be [[heresy|heretical]] during the next 60 years. There was an early suggestion among [[Dominican Order|Dominicans]] that the teaching of heliocentrism should be banned, but nothing came of it at the time. [130] => [131] => Some years after the publication of ''De Revolutionibus'' [[John Calvin]] preached a sermon in which he denounced those who "pervert the order of nature" by saying that "the sun does not move and that it is the earth that revolves and that it turns".{{sfn|Rosen|1995|p=159|ps=. Rosen disputes the earlier conclusion of another scholar that this was referring specifically to Copernicus' theory. According to Rosen, Calvin had very likely never heard of Copernicus and was referring instead to "the traditional geokinetic cosmology".}}{{efn|On the other hand, Calvin is ''not'' responsible for another famous quotation which has often been misattributed to him: "Who will venture to place the authority of Copernicus above that of the Holy Spirit?" It has long been established that this line cannot be found in any of Calvin's works.Rosen, Edward (1960), ''Calvin’s attitude toward Copernicus'' in ''Journal of the History of Ideas'', volume 21, no. 3, July, pp. 431–441. Reprinted in {{harvnb|Rosen|1995|pp=161–171}}.Gingerich, Owen (2004), ''The Book Nobody Read''. New York: Walker and Co.Hooykaas, R. (1973). ''Religion and the rise of modern science''. Reprint, Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1977. It has been suggested that the quotation was originally sourced from the works of [[Lutheran]] theologian [[Abraham Calovius]].Bye, Dan J. (2007). ''McGrath vs Russell on Calvin vs Copernicus: a case of the pot calling the kettle black?'' in ''[[The Freethinker (journal)|The Freethinker]]'', volume 127, no. 6, June, pp. 8–10. [http://freethinker.co.uk/2014/04/25/the-twilight-of-atheism/ Available online here.]}} [132] => [133] => === Tycho Brahe's geo-heliocentric system (c. 1587) === [134] => {{Main|Tychonic system}} [135] => [[File:Tychonian system.svg|thumb|upright=1.2|In this depiction of the Tychonic system, the objects on blue orbits (the Moon and the Sun) revolve around the Earth. The objects on orange orbits (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) revolve around the Sun. Around all is a sphere of fixed stars, located just beyond Saturn.]] [136] => [137] => Prior to the publication of ''De Revolutionibus'', the most widely accepted system had been proposed by [[Ptolemy]], in which the [[Earth]] was the center of the universe and all celestial bodies orbited it. [[Tycho Brahe]], arguably the most accomplished astronomer of his time, advocated against Copernicus' heliocentric system and for an alternative to the Ptolemaic geocentric system: a geo-heliocentric system now known as the [[Tychonic system]] in which the Sun and Moon orbit the Earth, Mercury and Venus orbit the Sun inside the Sun's orbit of the Earth, and Mars, Jupiter and Saturn orbit the Sun outside the Sun's orbit of the Earth. [138] => [139] => Tycho appreciated the Copernican system, but objected to the idea of a moving Earth on the basis of physics, astronomy, and religion. The [[Aristotelian physics]] of the time (modern Newtonian physics was still a century away) offered no physical explanation for the motion of a massive body like Earth, whereas it could easily explain the motion of heavenly bodies by postulating that they were made of a different sort substance called [[Aether (classical element)|aether]] that moved naturally. So Tycho said that the Copernican system "... expertly and completely circumvents all that is superfluous or discordant in the system of Ptolemy. On no point does it offend the principle of mathematics. Yet it ascribes to the Earth, that hulking, lazy body, unfit for motion, a motion as quick as that of the aethereal torches, and a triple motion at that."{{cite book | last=Gingerich | first=Owen | title=The eye of heaven: Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler | publisher=American Institute of Physics | publication-place=New York| year=1993 | isbn=0-88318-863-5 | oclc=24247242 | page=181}} Likewise, Tycho took issue with the vast distances to the stars that Aristarchus and Copernicus had assumed in order to explain the lack of any visible parallax. Tycho had measured the [[Apparent magnitude|apparent sizes of stars]] (now known to be illusory), and used geometry to calculate that in order to both have those apparent sizes and be as far away as heliocentrism required, stars would have to be huge (much larger than the sun; the size of Earth's orbit or larger). Regarding this Tycho wrote, "Deduce these things geometrically if you like, and you will see how many absurdities (not to mention others) accompany this assumption [of the motion of the earth] by inference."Blair, Ann, "Tycho Brahe's critique of Copernicus and the Copernican system", ''Journal of the History of Ideas'', 51, 1990, 364. He also cited the Copernican system's "opposition to the authority of Sacred Scripture in more than one place" as a reason why one might wish to reject it, and observed that his own geo-heliocentric alternative "offended neither the principles of physics nor Holy Scripture".Gingerich, O. & Voelkel, J. R., [http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1998JHA....29....1G# ''J. Hist. Astron.'', Vol. 29, 1998], pp. 1, 24 [140] => [141] => The Jesuit astronomers in Rome were at first unreceptive to Tycho's system; the most prominent, [[Christopher Clavius|Clavius]], commented that Tycho was "confusing all of astronomy, because he wants to have [[Mars]] lower than the Sun."{{sfn|Fantoli|2003|p=109}} However, after the advent of the telescope showed problems with some geocentric models (by demonstrating that Venus circles the Sun, for example), the Tychonic system and variations on that system became popular among geocentrists, and the Jesuit astronomer [[Giovanni Battista Riccioli]] would continue Tycho's use of physics, stellar astronomy (now with a telescope), and religion to argue against heliocentrism and for Tycho's system well into the seventeenth century. [142] => [143] => [[Giordano Bruno]] (d. 1600) is the only known person to defend Copernicus' heliocentrism in his time.{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Homer W.|url=https://archive.org/details/manhisgods00smit|title=Man and His Gods|date=1952|publisher=[[Grosset & Dunlap]]|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/manhisgods00smit/page/310 310–311]|url-access=registration}} Using measurements made at Tycho's observatory, [[Johannes Kepler]] developed his [[Kepler's laws of planetary motion|laws of planetary motion]] between 1609 and 1619.{{cite web |last=David P. |first=Stern |title=Kepler and His Laws |url=http://www.phy6.org/stargaze/Skeplaws.htm |website=From Stargazers to Starships |date=10 October 2016 |access-date=5 September 2019}} In ''[[Astronomia nova]]'' (1609), Kepler made a diagram of the movement of Mars in relation to Earth if Earth were at the center of its orbit, which shows that Mars' orbit would be completely imperfect and never follow along the same path. To solve the apparent derivation of Mars' orbit from a perfect circle, Kepler derived both a mathematical definition and, independently, a matching ellipse around the Sun to explain the motion of the red planet.{{sfn|Koestler|1990|p=[https://archive.org/details/sleepwalkershist00koes_0/page/338 338]|ps=: "I laid [the original equation] aside, and fell back on ellipses, believing that this was quite a different hypothesis, whereas the two ... are one in {{sic}} the same... "}} [144] => [145] => Between 1617 and 1621, Kepler developed a heliocentric model of the Solar System in ''[[Epitome astronomiae Copernicanae]]'', in which all the planets have elliptical orbits. This provided significantly increased accuracy in predicting the position of the planets. Kepler's ideas were not immediately accepted, and Galileo for example ignored them. In 1621, ''Epitome astronomia Copernicanae'' was placed on the Catholic Church's index of prohibited books despite Kepler being a Protestant. [146] => [147] => === Galileo Galilei and 1616 ban against Copernicanism === [148] => {{Main|Galileo affair}} [149] => [[File:Galileo.arp.300pix.jpg|thumb|In the 17th century AD, [[Galileo Galilei]] opposed the Roman Catholic Church by his strong support for heliocentrism.]] [150] => {{multiple image [151] => |footer=In 1610 [[Galileo Galilei]] observed with his telescope that [[Phases of Venus|Venus showed phases]], despite remaining near the Sun in Earth's sky (first image). This proved that it orbits the [[Sun]] and not [[Earth]], as predicted by [[Copernicus]]'s [[heliocentric model]], and disproved Ptolemy's [[geocentric model]] (second image). [152] => |align=right [153] => |image1 = Phases-of-Venus2.svg| [154] => |image2 = Phases-of-Venus-Geocentric.svg|}} [155] => Galileo was able to look at the night sky with the newly invented telescope. He published his discoveries that [[Galilean moons|Jupiter is orbited by moons]] and that the Sun rotates in his ''[[Sidereus Nuncius]]'' (1610){{sfn|Smith|1952}} and ''[[Letters on Sunspots]]'' (1613), respectively. Around this time, he also announced that [[Phases of Venus|Venus exhibits a full range of phases]] (satisfying an argument that had been made against Copernicus).{{sfn|Smith|1952}} As the Jesuit astronomers confirmed Galileo's observations, the Jesuits moved away from the Ptolemaic model and toward Tycho's teachings.{{sfn|Koestler|1990|p=[https://archive.org/details/sleepwalkershist00koes_0/page/433 433]}} [156] => [157] => In his 1615 "[[Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina]]", Galileo defended heliocentrism, and claimed it was not contrary to Holy Scripture. He took [[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]]'s position on Scripture: not to take every passage literally when the scripture in question is in a Bible book of poetry and songs, not a book of instructions or history. The writers of the Scripture wrote from the perspective of the terrestrial world, and from that vantage point the Sun does rise and set. In fact, it is the Earth's rotation which gives the impression of the Sun in motion across the sky. [158] => In February 1615, prominent Dominicans including Thomaso Caccini and Niccolò Lorini brought Galileo's writings on heliocentrism to the attention of the Inquisition, because they appeared to violate Holy Scripture and the decrees of the [[Council of Trent]].{{sfn|Langford|1998|pp=56–57}}{{sfn|Drake|1978|p=240}}{{sfn|Sharratt|1994|pp=110–111}}{{sfn|Favaro|1907|pp=[https://web.archive.org/web/20151208071722/http://moro.imss.fi.it/lettura/LetturaWEB.DLL?VOL=19&VOLPAG=297 297–298]|ps=. {{in lang|it}}.}} Cardinal and Inquisitor [[Robert Bellarmine]] was called upon to adjudicate, and wrote in April that treating heliocentrism as a real phenomenon would be "a very dangerous thing," irritating philosophers and theologians, and harming "the Holy Faith by rendering Holy Scripture as false."{{sfn|Sharratt|1994|pp=110–115}} [159] => [160] => In January 1616, Msgr. [[Francesco Ingoli]] addressed an essay to Galileo disputing the Copernican system. Galileo later stated that he believed this essay to have been instrumental in the ban against Copernicanism that followed in February.{{harvnb|Graney|2015|pp=68–69}} Ingoli's essay was published in English translation for the first time in 2015. According to Maurice Finocchiaro, Ingoli had probably been commissioned by the Inquisition to write an expert opinion on the controversy, and the essay provided the "chief direct basis" for the ban.{{sfn|Finocchiaro|2010|pp=72}} The essay focused on eighteen physical and mathematical arguments against heliocentrism. It borrowed primarily from the arguments of Tycho Brahe, and it notedly mentioned the problem that heliocentrism requires the stars to be much larger than the Sun. Ingoli wrote that the great distance to the stars in the heliocentric theory "clearly proves ... the fixed stars to be of such size, as they may surpass or equal the size of the orbit circle of the Earth itself."{{sfn|Graney|2015|pp=71}} Ingoli included four theological arguments in the essay, but suggested to Galileo that he focus on the physical and mathematical arguments. Galileo did not write a response to Ingoli until 1624.{{sfn|Graney|2015|pp=66–76, 164–175, 187–195}} [161] => [162] => In February 1616, the Inquisition assembled a committee of theologians, known as qualifiers, who delivered their unanimous report condemning heliocentrism as "foolish and absurd in philosophy, and formally heretical since it explicitly contradicts in many places the sense of Holy Scripture." The Inquisition also determined that the Earth's motion "receives the same judgement in philosophy and ... in regard to theological truth it is at least erroneous in faith."{{sfn|Favaro|1907|p=[https://web.archive.org/web/20160513100630/http://moro.imss.fi.it/lettura/LetturaWEB.DLL?VOL=19&VOLPAG=320 320]}}[http://esmateria.com/2014/02/28/una-errata-reproducida-durante-siglos-cambia-la-censura-de-la-iglesia-a-galileo/ Domínguez (2014)]; [https://arxiv.org/abs/1402.6168 arXiv:1402.6168 Original text of the decision] Bellarmine personally ordered Galileo [163] => [164] => {{quote|to abstain completely from teaching or defending this doctrine and opinion or from discussing it... to abandon completely... the opinion that the sun stands still at the center of the world and the earth moves, and henceforth not to hold, teach, or defend it in any way whatever, either orally or in writing.|Bellarmine and the Inquisition's injunction against Galileo, 1616.{{sfn|Heilbron|2010|p=218}}}} [165] => [166] => In March 1616, after the Inquisition's injunction against Galileo, the papal [[Theologian of the Pontifical Household|Master of the Sacred Palace]], [[Congregation of the Index]], and the Pope banned all books and letters advocating the Copernican system, which they called "the false Pythagorean doctrine, altogether contrary to Holy Scripture."{{sfn|Heilbron|2010|p=218}}{{cite book|last=Finochiario|first=Maurice|title=Retrying Galileo|date=2007|publisher=University of California Press}} In 1618, the Holy Office recommended that a modified version of Copernicus' ''De Revolutionibus'' be allowed for use in calendric calculations, though the original publication remained forbidden until 1758. [167] => [168] => [[Pope Urban VIII]] encouraged Galileo to publish the pros and cons of heliocentrism. Galileo's response, ''[[Dialogue concerning the two chief world systems]]'' (1632), clearly advocated heliocentrism, despite his declaration in the preface that, [169] =>
[170] => I will endeavour to show that all experiments that can be made upon the Earth are insufficient means to conclude for its mobility but are indifferently applicable to the Earth, movable or immovable...''[[q:The Systeme of the World: in Four Dialogues|The Systeme of the World: in Four Dialogues]]'' (1661) Thomas Salusbury translation of ''Dialogo sopra i Due Massi Sistemi del Mondo'' (1632) [171] =>
[172] => [173] => and his straightforward statement, [174] =>
[175] => I might very rationally put it in dispute, whether there be any such centre in nature, or no; being that neither you nor any one else hath ever proved, whether the World be finite and figurate, or else infinite and interminate; yet nevertheless granting you, for the present, that it is finite, and of a terminate Spherical Figure, and that thereupon it hath its centre... [176] =>
[177] => [178] => Some ecclesiastics also interpreted the book as characterizing the Pope as a simpleton, since his viewpoint in the dialogue was advocated by the character [[Simplicius of Cilicia|Simplicio]]. Urban VIII became hostile to Galileo and he was again summoned to Rome.{{sfn|Koestler|1990|p=[https://archive.org/details/sleepwalkershist00koes_0/page/491 491]}} Galileo's trial in 1633 involved making fine distinctions between "teaching" and "holding and defending as true". For advancing heliocentric theory Galileo was forced to recant Copernicanism and was put under house arrest for the last few years of his life. According to J. L. Heilbron, informed contemporaries of Galileo's "appreciated that the reference to heresy in connection with Galileo or Copernicus had no general or theological significance."{{sfn|Heilbron|1999|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=mZWy0xPxj3EC&pg=PA203 203]}} [179] => [180] => In 1664, [[Pope Alexander VII]] published his ''[[Index Librorum Prohibitorum]] Alexandri VII Pontificis Maximi jussu editus'' (Index of Prohibited Books, published by order of Alexander VII, [[Pontifex Maximus|P.M.]]) which included all previous condemnations of heliocentric books."The Pontifical Decrees Against the Doctrine of the Earth's Movement, and the Ultramontane Defence of Them", Rev. William Roberts, 1885, London [181] => [182] => === Age of Reason === [183] => {{see|Science in the Age of Enlightenment|17th-century philosophy|Scientific revolution}} [184] => [[René Descartes]]' first cosmological treatise, written between 1629 and 1633 and titled ''[[The World (Descartes)|The World]]'', included a heliocentric model, but Descartes abandoned it in the light of Galileo's treatment.Weintraub, David A. ''Is Pluto a Planet'', p. 66, Princeton University Press, 2007 In his ''[[Principles of Philosophy]]'' (1644), Descartes introduced [[Mechanical explanations of gravitation#Vortex|a mechanical model]] in which planets do not move relative to their immediate atmosphere, but are constituted around space-matter [[vortices]] in [[curved space]]; these rotate due to [[centrifugal force]] and the resulting [[Centripetal force|centripetal pressure]].{{cite book|last=Gillispie|first=Charles Coulston|url=https://archive.org/details/edgeofobjectivit00char|title=The Edge of Objectivity: An Essay in the History of Scientific Ideas|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1960|isbn=0-691-02350-6|pages=92–93|author-link=Charles Coulston Gillispie}} The Galileo affair did little overall to slow the spread of heliocentrism across Europe, as Kepler's ''Epitome of Copernican Astronomy'' became increasingly influential in the coming decades."Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion: 1609–1666", J. L. Russell, ''British Journal for the History of Science'', Vol. 2, No. 1, June 1964 By 1686, the model was well enough established that the general public was reading about it in ''[[Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds]]'', published in France by [[Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle]] and translated into English and other languages in the coming years. It has been called "one of the first great popularizations of science." [185] => [186] => In 1687, [[Isaac Newton]] published ''[[Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica]]'', which provided an explanation for Kepler's laws in terms of [[universal gravitation]] and what came to be known as [[Newton's laws of motion]]. This placed heliocentrism on a firm theoretical foundation, although Newton's heliocentrism was of a somewhat modern kind. Already in the mid-1680s he recognized the "deviation of the Sun" from the center of gravity of the Solar System.Curtis Wilson, "The Newtonian achievement in astronomy", pp. 233–274 in R Taton & C Wilson (eds) (1989), ''The General History of Astronomy'', Volume 2A, [https://books.google.com/books?id=rkQKU-wfPYMC&pg=PA233 at p. 233] For Newton it was not precisely the center of the Sun or any other body that could be considered at rest, but "the common centre of gravity of the Earth, the Sun and all the Planets is to be esteem'd the Centre of the World", and this center of gravity "either is at rest or moves uniformly forward in a right line". Newton adopted the "at rest" alternative in view of common consent that the center, wherever it was, was at rest.(text quotations from 1729 translation of Newton ''Principia'', Book 3 (1729 vol.2) [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_6EqxPav3vIsC/page/n257 at pp. 232–233]). [187] => [188] => Meanwhile, the Catholic Church remained opposed to heliocentrism as a literal description, but this did not by any means imply opposition to all astronomy; indeed, it needed observational data to maintain its calendar. In support of this effort it allowed the cathedrals themselves to be used as solar observatories called ''[[Sundial#Meridian lines|meridiane]]''; i.e., they were turned into "reverse [[sundial]]s", or gigantic [[pinhole camera]]s, where the Sun's image was projected from a hole in a window in the cathedral's lantern onto a meridian line.{{sfn|Heilbron|1999|pages=147–175}} [189] => [190] => [[File:Wright of Derby, The Orrery.jpg|thumb|''[[A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery]]'' (1766) by [[Joseph Wright of Derby|Joseph Wright]], in which a lamp represents the Sun]] [191] => In the mid-18th century the Church's opposition began to fade. An annotated copy of Newton's ''Principia'' was published in 1742 by Fathers le Seur and Jacquier of the Franciscan Minims, two Catholic mathematicians, with a preface stating that the author's work assumed heliocentrism and could not be explained without the theory. In 1758 the Catholic Church dropped the general prohibition of books advocating heliocentrism from the ''[[Index Librorum Prohibitorum|Index of Forbidden Books]]''.John L.Heilbron, ''Censorship of Astronomy in Italy after Galileo'' (in McMullin, Ernan ed., ''The Church and Galileo'', University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, 2005, p. 307, IN. {{ISBN|0-268-03483-4}}) The Observatory of the [[Roman College]] was established by [[Pope Clement XIV]] in 1774 (nationalized in 1878, but re-founded by [[Pope Leo XIII]] as the [[Vatican Observatory]] in 1891). In spite of dropping its active resistance to heliocentrism, the Catholic Church did not lift the prohibition of uncensored versions of Copernicus' ''De Revolutionibus'' or Galileo's ''Dialogue''. The affair was revived in 1820, when the Master of the Sacred Palace (the Catholic Church's chief censor), [[Filippo Anfossi]], refused to license a book by a Catholic canon, Giuseppe Settele, because it openly treated heliocentrism as a physical fact.{{sfn|Heilbron|2005|pp=279, 312–313}} Settele appealed to pope [[Pius VII]]. After the matter had been reconsidered by the Congregation of the Index and the Holy Office, Anfossi's decision was overturned.{{sfn|Heilbron|2005|pp=279, 312}} Pius VII approved a decree in 1822 by the [[Sacred Congregation of the Inquisition]] to allow the printing of heliocentric books in Rome. Copernicus' ''De Revolutionibus'' and Galileo's ''Dialogue'' were then subsequently omitted from the next edition of the ''Index'' when it appeared in 1835. [192] => [193] => Three apparent proofs of the heliocentric hypothesis were provided in 1727 by [[James Bradley]], in 1838 by [[Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel]], and in 1851 by [[Léon Foucault]]. Bradley discovered the stellar aberration, proving the relative motion of the Earth. Bessel proved that the [[Stellar parallax|parallax]] of a star was greater than zero by measuring the parallax of 0.314 [[arcseconds]] of a star named [[61 Cygni]]. In the same year [[Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve]] and [[Thomas James Henderson|Thomas Henderson]] measured the parallaxes of other stars, [[Vega]] and [[Alpha Centauri]]. Experiments like those of Foucault were performed by V. Viviani in 1661 in Florence and by Bartolini in 1833 in Rimini.{{Cite web | url=https://www.newscientist.com/letter/mg18524814-100-vivianis-pendulum/ | title=Viviani's pendulum}} [194] => [195] => == Reception in Judaism == [196] => Already in the [[Talmud]], Greek philosophy and science under the general name "Greek wisdom" were considered dangerous. They were put under ban then and later for some periods. [197] => The first Jewish scholar to describe the Copernican system, albeit without mentioning Copernicus by name, was [[Judah Loew ben Bezalel|Maharal of Prague]], in his book "Be'er ha-Golah" (1593). Maharal makes an argument of [[radical skepticism]], arguing that no scientific theory can be reliable, which he illustrates by the new-fangled theory of heliocentrism upsetting even the most fundamental views on the cosmos.[https://www.jstor.org/stable/3653968 Noah J. Efron. Jewish Thought and Scientific Discovery in Early Modern Europe.] ''Journal of the History of Ideas'', Vol. 58, No. 4 (Oct., 1997), pp. 719–732 [198] => [199] => Copernicus is mentioned in the books of [[David Gans]] (1541–1613), who worked with Brahe and Kepler. Gans wrote two books on astronomy in [[Hebrew]]: a short one, "Magen David" (1612), and a full one, "Nehmad veNaim" (published only in 1743). He described objectively three systems: those of Ptolemy, Copernicus and Brahe, without taking sides. [200] => [[Joseph Solomon Delmedigo]] (1591–1655) in his "Elim" (1629) says that the arguments of Copernicus are so strong, that only an imbecile will not accept them.Sefer Elim, Amsterdam, 1629, стр. 304 Delmedigo studied at [[Padua]] and was acquainted with Galileo.{{sfn|Neher|1977}} [201] => [202] => An actual controversy on the Copernican model within Judaism arises only in the early 18th century. Most authors in this period had accepted Copernican heliocentrism, with opposition from [[David Nieto]] and [[Tobias Cohn]], who argued against heliocentrism on the grounds it contradicted scripture. Nieto merely rejected the new system on those grounds without much passion, whereas Cohn went so far as to call Copernicus "a first-born of Satan", though he also acknowledged that he would have found it difficult to proffer one particular objection based on a passage from the Talmud.In a marginal note in his ''Massé Touvia'' (part 2, p. 52b): "Remark of the author: I fear that the incredulous may draw an objection from a text of ''Midrash Bereshit Rabba'' (V,8) in which our Teachers, the Rabbis, of blessed memory, explain that if the Earth is called in Hebrew "''eretz''" it is because it hastens ("''ratseta''") before the Creator in order to accomplish His will. I acknowledge that the answer to this objection seems difficult for me to find", as translated by {{harvtxt|Neher|1977|p=220}}. [203] => [204] => In the 19th century, two students of the [[Moses Sofer|Hatam sofer]] wrote books that were given approbations by him{{who|date=October 2023}} even though one supported heliocentrism and the other geocentrism. One, a commentary on [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]] titled ''Yafe’ah le-Ketz''{{Cite web|url=https://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=32691&st=&pgnum=13&hilite=|title=יפח לקץ – חלק א – שלזינגר, ישראל דוד (page 13 of 134)|website=www.hebrewbooks.org|access-date=2017-08-14}} written by R. Israel David Schlesinger resisted a heliocentric model and supported geocentrism.{{Cite journal|last=Jeremy|first=Brown|date=2008–2009|title=Rabbi Reuven Landau and the Jewish Reaction to Copernican Thought in Nineteenth Century Europe|url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54694fa6e4b0eaec4530f99d/t/54a04248e4b0d99a53e347fc/1419788872031/Torah+Umaddah-+Reuven+Landa.pdf|journal=The Torah U-Madda Journal|volume=15|page=142}} The other, ''Mei Menuchot''{{Cite web|url=http://hebrewbooks.org/6262|title=HebrewBooks.org Sefer Detail: מי מנוחות – נויזץ, אליעזר ליפמן|website=hebrewbooks.org|access-date=2017-08-14}} written by R. Eliezer Lipmann Neusatz encouraged acceptance of the heliocentric model and other modern scientific thinking.{{Cite web|url=http://www.rationalistjudaism.com/2010/11/key-to-everything.html|title=The Sun's Path at Night: The Revolution in Rabbinic Perspectives on the Ptolemaic Revolution|last=Rabbi Natan |first=Slifkin |website=Rationalist Judaism|access-date=August 8, 2017}} [205] => [206] => Since the 20th century most Jews have not questioned the science of heliocentrism. Exceptions include [[Shlomo Benizri]]{{Cite book|title=New heavens and a new earth : the Jewish reception of Copernican thought|last=Brown |first=Jeremy|date=2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-975479-3|location=Oxford|page=262|oclc=808316428}} and [[Menachem Mendel Schneerson|R. M.M. Schneerson]] of [[Chabad]] who argued that the question of heliocentrism vs. geocentrism is obsolete because of the [[Relative velocity|relativity of motion]]."on the basis of the presently accepted scientific view (in accordance with the theory of Relativity) that where two bodies in space are in motion relative to one another, it is impossible scientifically to ascertain which revolves around which, or which is stationary and the other in motion. Therefore, to say that there is, or can be, 'scientific proof' that the earth revolves around the sun is quite an unscientific and uncritical statement."{{cite web |title="Igrot Kodesh" v. 7, p. 134, letter number 1996 |url=http://otzar770.com/library/display_page.asp?nPageNumber=134&ilSC=40&nBookId=11&cPartLetter=B |publisher=Otzar770.com |access-date=2012-12-04}} [207] => Schneerson's followers in Chabad continue to deny the heliocentric model.{{Cite book|title=New heavens and a new earth : the Jewish reception of Copernican thought|last=Brown |first=Jeremy|date=2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-975479-3|location=Oxford|page=362|oclc=808316428}} [208] => [209] => == Modern science == [210] => === William Herschel's heliocentrism === [211] => [[File:Herschel-galaxy.jpg|thumb | right| William Herschel's model of the Milky Way, 1785]] [212] => In 1783, amateur astronomer [[William Herschel]] attempted to determine the shape of the universe by examining stars through his handmade [[telescopes]]. Herschel was the first to propose a model of the universe based on observation and measurement. {{cite journal |last1=Herschel |first1=William |title=XII. On the construction of the heavens |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London |date=1 January 1785 |volume=75 |pages=213–266 |doi=10.1098/rstl.1785.0012 |s2cid=186213203 |url=https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstl.1785.0012}} At that time, the dominant assumption in cosmology was that the [[Milky Way]] was the entire universe, an assumption that has since been proven wrong with observations.{{cite journal |last1=Berendzen |first1=Richard |title=Geocentric to heliocentric to galactocentric to acentric: the continuing assault to the egocentric |journal=Vistas in Astronomy |date=1975 |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=65–83 |doi=10.1016/0083-6656(75)90049-5 |bibcode=1975VA.....17...65B |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0083665675900495 |accessdate=26 August 2020}} Herschel concluded that it was in the shape of a [[spiral galaxy|disk]], but assumed that the Sun was in the center of the disk, making the model heliocentric.{{cite journal |last1=Berendzen |first1=Richard |title=Geocentric to heliocentric to galactocentric to acentric: the continuing assault to the egocentric |journal=Vistas in Astronomy |date=1975 |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=65–83 |doi=10.1016/0083-6656(75)90049-5 |bibcode=1975VA.....17...65B }}{{cite web |title=The Shape of the Milky Way from Starcounts |url=https://www.e-education.psu.edu/astro801/content/l8_p3.html |website=Astro 801 |accessdate=5 June 2018}}{{cite web |title=Meet the Stargazers |url=https://www.pbs.org/seeinginthedark/meet-the-stargazers/in-history.html |website=WHYY |accessdate=6 June 2018}} [213] => [214] => Seeing that the stars belonging to the Milky Way appeared to encircle the Earth, Herschel carefully counted stars of given apparent magnitudes, and after finding the numbers were the same in all directions, concluded Earth must be close to the center of the Milky Way. However, there were two flaws in Herschel's [[methodology]]: magnitude is not a reliable index to the distance of stars, and some of the areas that he mistook for empty space were actually dark, obscuring nebulae that blocked his view toward the center of the Milky Way.{{Citation |title=Coming of Age in the Milky Way |pages=150–159 [215] => |first= Timothy |last=Ferris |date=2003 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0-06-053595-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k0vCHGD5Y00C&q=Coming+of+Age+in+the+Milky+Way&pg=PA17 [216] => }} [217] => [218] => The Herschel model remained relatively unchallenged for the next hundred years, with minor refinements. [[Jacobus Kapteyn]] introduced motion, [[density]], and [[luminosity]] to Herschel's star counts, which still implied a near-central location of the Sun.{{Citation |title=The Galactocentric Revolution, A Reminiscent Narrative |date=October 1965 |last=van de Kamp |first=Peter |journal=Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific |volume=77 |pages=324–328 |issue=458 |bibcode=1965PASP...77..325V |doi = 10.1086/128228 |doi-access=free }} [219] => [220] => === Replacement with galactocentrism and acentrism === [221] => {{main|Galactocentrism|Big Bang model}} [222] => [223] => Already in the early 19th century, [[Thomas Wright (astronomer)|Thomas Wright]] and [[Immanuel Kant]] speculated that fuzzy patches of light called [[nebula]]e were actually distant "island universes" consisting of many [[star system|stellar systems]].{{Citation |date=2000 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=67–71 |isbn=978-0-521-66148-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-8PJbcA2lLoC&q=galactocentric+theory&pg=PA71 |title=Cosmology: The Science of the Universe |first=Edward Robert |last= Harrison }} The shape of the Milky Way galaxy was expected to resemble such "islands universes." [224] => [225] => However, "scientific arguments were marshalled against such a possibility," and this view was rejected by almost all scientists until the early 20th century, with [[Harlow Shapley]]'s work on [[globular cluster]]s and [[Edwin Hubble]]'s measurements in 1924. After Shapley and Hubble showed that the Sun is not the center of the universe, cosmology moved on from heliocentrism to [[galactocentrism]], which states that the Milky Way is the center of the universe.{{cite journal |last1=Berendzen |first1=Richard |title=Geocentric to heliocentric to galactocentric to acentric: the continuing assault to the egocentric |journal=Vistas in Astronomy |date=1975 |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=65–83 |doi=10.1016/0083-6656(75)90049-5 |bibcode=1975VA.....17...65B |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0083665675900495 |accessdate=26 August 2020}} [226] => [227] => Hubble's observations of redshift in light from distant galaxies indicated that the universe was [[expansion of the universe|expanding]] and acentric. As a result, soon after galactocentrism was formulated, it was abandoned in favor of the [[Big Bang]] model of the acentric expanding universe. Further assumptions, such as the [[Copernican principle]], the [[cosmological principle]], [[dark energy]], and [[dark matter]], eventually lead to the current model of cosmology, [[Lambda-CDM]]. [228] => [229] => === Special relativity and the "center" === [230] => [231] => The concept of an absolute velocity, including being "at rest" as a particular case, is ruled out by the [[principle of relativity]], also eliminating any obvious "center" of the universe as a natural origin of coordinates. Even if the discussion is limited to the [[Solar System]], the Sun is not at the geometric center of any planet's orbit, but rather approximately at one [[focus (geometry)|focus]] of the [[ellipse|elliptical]] orbit. Furthermore, to the extent that a planet's mass cannot be neglected in comparison to the Sun's mass, the center of gravity of the Solar System is displaced slightly away from the center of the Sun. (The masses of the planets, mostly [[Jupiter]], amount to 0.14% of that of the Sun.) Therefore, a hypothetical astronomer on an [[extrasolar planet]] would observe a small "wobble" in the Sun's motion.{{Citation needed|date=June 2020}} [232] => [233] => === Modern use of ''geocentric'' and ''heliocentric'' === [234] => In modern calculations, the terms "geocentric" and "heliocentric" are often used to refer to [[frame of reference|reference frames]].Shen, J. & Confrey, J. (2010). "Justifying alternative models in learning the solar system: A case study on K-8 science teachers’ understanding of frames of reference". ''International Journal of Science Education'', 32 (1), 1–29. In such systems the origin in the [[Center of mass#Barycenter in astrophysics and astronomy|center of mass]] of the Earth, of the Earth–Moon system, of the Sun, of the Sun plus the major planets, or of the entire Solar System, can be selected.See [[center-of-mass frame]] [[Right ascension]] and [[declination]] are examples of geocentric coordinates, used in Earth-based observations, while the heliocentric latitude and longitude are used for orbital calculations. This leads to such terms as "heliocentric [[velocity]]" and "heliocentric [[angular momentum]]". In this heliocentric picture, any planet of the Solar System can be used as a source of [[mechanical energy]] because it moves relatively to the Sun. A smaller [[physical body|body]] (either [[spacecraft|artificial]] or [[astronomical object|natural]]) may gain heliocentric velocity due to [[gravity assist]] – this effect can change the body's mechanical energy in heliocentric reference frame (although it will not changed in the planetary one). However, such selection of "geocentric" or "heliocentric" frames is merely a matter of computation. It does not have philosophical implications and does not constitute a distinct physical or [[scientific model]]. From the point of view of [[general relativity]], [[inertial reference frame]]s do not exist at all, and any practical reference frame is only an approximation to the actual space-time, which can have higher or lower precision. Some forms of [[Mach's principle]] consider the frame at rest with respect to the distant masses in the universe to have special properties.{{Citation needed|date=June 2020}} [235] => [236] => == See also == [237] => * [[Copernican principle]] [238] => * [[Copernican Revolution (metaphor)]] [239] => [240] => == References == [241] => === Footnotes === [242] => {{notelist}} [243] => [244] => === Citations === [245] => {{Reflist}} [246] => [247] => === Works cited === [248] => {{refbegin|30em}} [249] => * Baker, A. and Chapter, L. (2002), "Part 4: The Sciences". In M. M. Sharif, "A History of Muslim Philosophy", ''Philosophia Islamica''. [250] => * {{cite journal |first=Mario |last=di Bono |title=Copernicus, Amico, Fracastoro and Ṭūsï's Device: Observations on the Use and Transmission of a Model |journal=Journal for the History of Astronomy |year=1995 |volume=xxvi |issue=2 |pages=133–54 |doi=10.1177/002182869502600203 |bibcode=1995JHA....26..133D |s2cid=118330488}} [251] => * {{cite book |title=Galileo At Work |last=Drake |first=Stillman |author-link=Stillman Drake |publisher=University of Chicago Press |date=1978 |location=Chicago |isbn=978-0-226-16226-3|url=https://archive.org/details/galileoatwork00stil}} [252] => * {{Citation |title=Lives of Eminent Philosophers |author=Diogenes Laërtius |translator-last=Hicks |translator-first=Robert Drew |author-link=Diogenes Laërtius |translator-link=Robert Drew Hicks |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1972 |orig-year=1925 |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.01.0258 |location=Cambridge, MA |access-date=16 July 2018 }} [253] => * {{Citation |title=A History of Astronomy from Thales to Kepler |last=Dreyer |first=John Louis Emil |author-link=J. L. E. Dreyer |publisher=Dover Publications |year=1953 |orig-year=1906 |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofplaneta00dreyuoft |location=New York|isbn=978-0-486-60079-6}} [254] => * {{Citation |title=The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy |first=James |last=Edwards |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1998 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nS51_7qbEWsC |location=Oxford |access-date=16 July 2018 |isbn=978-0-19-509539-5}} [255] => * {{cite book | last=Fantoli | first=Annibale | title=Galileo, for Copernicanism and for the church |edition=3rd English |translator-last=Coyne |translator-first=George V. | publisher=Vatican Observatory Publications / University of Notre Dame Press | publication-place=Notre Dame, IN | year=2003 | isbn=88-209-7427-4 | oclc=52897897}} [256] => * {{cite book |title=Le Opere di Galileo Galilei, Edizione Nazionale |trans-title=The Works of Galileo Galilei, National Edition |volume=19 |editor-last=Favaro |editor-first=Antonio |editor-link=:it:Antonio Favaro |date=1907 |url=http://moro.imss.fi.it/lettura/LetturaWEB.DLL?AZIONE=CATALOGO |language=it |location=[[Florence]] |publisher=Barbera |isbn=978-88-09-20881-0|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070713092939/http://moro.imss.fi.it/lettura/LetturaWEB.DLL?AZIONE=CATALOGO |archive-date=July 13, 2007 |df=mdy-all}} A searchable online copy is available on the [https://web.archive.org/web/20081114183333/http://www.imss.fi.it/istituto/index.html Institute and Museum of the History of Science], Florence, and a brief overview of ''Le Opere'' is available at [https://web.archive.org/web/20090103233923/http://www.finns-books.com/fgalileo.htm Finn's fine books], and [https://web.archive.org/web/20110103231202/http://www.pacifier.com/~tpope/Additional_Info.htm#National_Edition here]. [257] => * {{Citation |title=Defending Copernicus and Galileo: Critical Reasoning in the two Affairs |last=Finocchiaro |first=Maurice |publisher=Springer |year=2010 |isbn=978-9048132003}} [258] => * {{cite book |title=The Book Nobody Read |last=Gingerich |first=Owen |author-link=Owen Gingerich |publisher=William Heinemann |date=2004 |isbn=978-0-434-01315-9 |location=London}} [259] => * {{cite book |last=Goddu |first=André |title=Copernicus and the Aristotelian tradition |year=2010 |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden, Netherlands |isbn=978-90-04-18107-6}} [260] => * {{Citation |title=Setting Aside All Authority: Giovanni Battista Riccioli and the Science against Copernicus in the Age of Galileo |last=Graney |first=Christopher M. |publisher=University of Notre Dame Press |year=2015 |bibcode=2015saaa.book.....G |isbn=978-0-268-02988-3}} [261] => * {{cite book |last=Heath |first=Sir Thomas |author-link=T.L. Heath |title=Aristarchus of Samos, the ancient Copernicus; a history of Greek astronomy to Aristarchus, together with Aristarchus's Treatise on the sizes and distances of the sun and moon : a new Greek text with translation and notes |url=https://archive.org/details/aristarchusofsam00heatuoft |date=1913 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=London }} [262] => * {{cite book | last=Heilbron | first=John L. |title=The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories |author-link=John L. Heilbron |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1999 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mZWy0xPxj3EC |location=Cambridge, MA |isbn=978-0-674-00536-5}} [263] => * {{cite book | last=Heilbron | first=John L. |contribution=Censorship of Astronomy in Italy after Galileo |editor-first=Ernan |editor-last=McMullin |title=The Church and Galileo |date=2005 |publisher=University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame |isbn=978-0-268-03483-2}} [264] => * {{cite book | last=Heilbron | first=John L. | title=Galileo | publisher=OUP | year=2010 | isbn=978-0-19-958352-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tnIVDAAAQBAJ}} [265] => * {{cite book |title=''The Crest of the Peacock: Non-European Roots of Mathematics'' |last=Joseph |first=George G. |publisher=Penguin Books |year=2000 |edition=2nd |location=London |isbn=0-691-00659-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/crestofpeacockno00jose}} [266] => * {{cite book | last=Koestler | first=Arthur | author-link=Arthur Koestler | title=[[The Sleepwalkers (Koestler book)|The Sleepwalkers: A history of man's changing vision of the universe]] | date=1990 |orig-year=1959 |publisher=Penguin Books | location=London | isbn=978-0-14-019246-9}} Available from the {{Plain link|url=https://archive.org/details/sleepwalkershist00koes_0|name=Internet Archive}}{{Limited access}}. [267] => * [[Alexandre Koyré|Koyré, Alexandre]] (1957). ''From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Pr. [268] => * {{cite book |title=The Astronomical Revolution: Copernicus – Kepler – Borelli |last=Koyré |first=Alexandre |publisher=Cornell University Press |date=1973 |author-link=Alexandre Koyré |location=Ithaca, NY |isbn=978-0-8014-0504-4}} [269] => * {{cite book |title=Galileo, Science and the Church |last=Langford |first=Jerome K. |publisher=St. Augustine's Press |edition=3rd |date=1998 |orig-year=1966 |isbn=978-1-890318-25-3}}. Original edition by Desclee (New York, 1966) [270] => * {{cite book |title=From Eudoxus to Einstein – A History of Mathematical Astronomy |last=Linton |first=Christopher M. |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2004 |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-82750-8}} [271] => * {{cite journal |title=Copernicus in the Hebraic Literature from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century |jstor=2708908 |last=Neher |first=André |author-link=André Neher |journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=221–226 |year=1977 |doi=10.2307/2708908}} [272] => * {{citation |title=On the Face Appearing within the Orb of the Moon |author=Plutarch |author-link=Plutarch |volume=5 |translator-first=A.G. |translator-last=Gent |encyclopedia=Plutarch's Morals |editor1-first=William |editor1-last=Godwin |year=1883 |pages=234–292 |url=https://archive.org/stream/plutarchsmorals51883plut#page/234 |publisher=Little, Brown, and Company |location=Boston, MA |ref={{sfnref|Gent|Godwin|1883}}}} [273] => * {{citation |title=The Face Which appears on the Orb of the Moon |author=Plutarch |author-link=Plutarch |translator-first=Arthur Octavius |translator-last=Prickard |year=1911 |url=https://archive.org/stream/plutarchonfacewh00plut#page/n6 |publisher=Warren & Son, Ltd. and Simpkin & Co. Ltd |location=Winchester and London}} [274] => * {{citation |title=Concerning the Face Which Appears in the Orb of the Moon |author=Plutarch |author-link=Plutarch |series=[[Loeb Classical Library]] |volume=406 |translator-first=Harold |translator-last=Cherniss |encyclopedia=Plutarch's Moralia XII |editor1-first=Harold |editor1-last=Cherniss |editor2-first=William C. |editor2-last=Helmbold |translator-link=Harold F. Cherniss |year=1957 |pages=1–223 |url=https://archive.org/stream/moraliainfifteen12plutuoft#page/n15 |publisher=Harvard University Press and William Heinemann Ltd. |location=Harvard, MA and London |ref={{sfnref|Prickard|1911}}}} [275] => * {{cite book | last=Qadir | first=Asghar | title=Relativity: An introduction to the special theory | publisher=World Scientific | publication-place=Singapore Teaneck, NJ | year=1989 | isbn=9971-5-0612-2 | oclc=841809663}} [276] => * {{cite book |title=Copernicus and his Successors |last=Rosen |first=Edward |publisher=Hambledon Press |year=1995 |isbn=978-1-85285-071-5 |location=London|bibcode=1995cops.book.....R}} [277] => * {{cite book |last1=Russo |first1=Lucio |author-link=Lucio Russo |translator-last=Levy |translator-first=Silvio |title=The Forgotten Revolution: How Science Was Born in 300 BC and Why it Had to Be Reborn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ld8lBAAAQBAJ |access-date=13 June 2017 |date=2013 |publisher=[[Springer Science & Business Media]] |isbn=978-3-642-18904-3 }} [278] => * {{cite journal |last1=Russo |first1=Lucio |first2=Silvio M. |last2=Medaglia |year=1996 |title=Sulla presunta accusa di empietà ad Aristarco di Samo |jstor=20547344 |journal=Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica |volume=New Series, Vol. 53 |issue=2 |pages=113–121 |language=it |doi=10.2307/20547344}} [279] => * {{cite journal |last1=Sabra |first1=A. I. |author-link=A. I. Sabra |year=1998 |title=Configuring the Universe: Aporetic, Problem Solving, and Kinematic Modeling as Themes of Arabic Astronomy |journal=Perspectives on Science |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=288–330 |doi=10.1162/posc_a_00552 |s2cid=117426616 }} [280] => * {{cite web |last=Saliba |first=George |author-link=George Saliba |date=1999 |url=http://www.columbia.edu/~gas1/project/visions/case1/sci.1.html |title=Whose Science is Arabic Science in Renaissance Europe? |website=Columbia University}} [281] => * {{cite book |title=The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary |year=2007 |edition=6th |location=Oxford, UK |publisher=Oxford University Press |ref=soed |isbn=978-0-19-920687-2}} [282] => * {{cite book |title=Galileo: Decisive Innovator |last=Sharratt |first=Michael |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=1994 |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-56671-1}} [283] => * {{cite book |title=Galileo's Inquisition Trial Revisited |first=Jules |last=Speller |year=2008 |location=Frankfurt am Main |publisher=Peter Lang |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jviElHq-kEcC |isbn=978-3-631-56229-1}} [284] => * {{Citation |title=Planetary astronomy from the Renaissance to the rise of astrophysics Part A: Tycho Brahe to Newton |editor1-first=René |editor1-last=Taton |editor2-first=Curtis |editor2-last=Wilson |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1989 |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-24254-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rkQKU-wfPYMC |access-date=2009-11-06}} [285] => * {{cite book |title=Early Astronomy |last=Thurston |first=Hugh |publisher=Springer-Verlag |year=1993 |location=New York |isbn=978-0-387-94107-3}} [286] => * {{cite book|author= JV Chelliah|title= Pattupattu – Ten Tamil Idylls (Tamil Verses with Englilsh Translation)| year= 1946|url = https://archive.org/details/pattupattutentamilidyllschelliahj.v._108_Q| publisher= Tamil University (1985 print)}} [287] => {{refend}} [288] => [289] => ==External links== [290] => {{Commons category|Heliocentric model}} [291] => *{{cite web|url=http://scienceray.com/astronomy/does-heliocentrism-means-that-the-sun-is-stationary/|title=Does Heliocentrism Mean That the Sun is Stationary?|website=Scienceray|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130816025648/http://scienceray.com/astronomy/does-heliocentrism-means-that-the-sun-is-stationary/|archive-date=August 16, 2013|access-date=November 27, 2018}} [292] => *[http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/heliocentric-pantheon-interview-with.html The Heliocentric Pantheon: An Interview with Walter Murch] [293] => *{{YouTube|UJ9SuchDuJc|The Heliocentric Model and Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion}} - The development of the Heliocentric model with the contributions of Nicolaus Copernicus, Giordano Bruno, Tycho Brahe, Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler [294] => [295] => {{Greek astronomy}} [296] => {{Portal bar|Astronomy|Stars|Spaceflight|Outer space|Solar System}} [297] => {{Authority control}} [298] => {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2012}} [299] => [300] => [[Category:Ancient Greek astronomy]] [301] => [[Category:Early scientific cosmologies]] [302] => [[Category:Solar System]] [] => )
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Heliocentrism

Heliocentrism is a scientific model that places the Sun at the center of our solar system, with Earth and other planets revolving around it. The concept of heliocentrism was first proposed by ancient Greek astronomer Aristarchus of Samos in the 3rd century BCE, but it was not widely accepted at the time.

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The concept of heliocentrism was first proposed by ancient Greek astronomer Aristarchus of Samos in the 3rd century BCE, but it was not widely accepted at the time. The idea gained significant support during the Renaissance period when Copernicus published his work "On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres" in 1543. Copernicus's model presented strong evidence for heliocentrism and challenged the prevailing geocentric model, which placed Earth at the center of the universe. Heliocentrism sparked a scientific revolution and led to a new understanding of our place in the cosmos. It was further advanced by subsequent astronomers and scientists, such as Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei, who made significant discoveries using heliocentric principles. The acceptance of heliocentrism was not immediate or widely embraced. Religious and philosophical beliefs, as well as the influential status quo, posed obstacles to its widespread acceptance. Galileo's support of heliocentrism, for example, led to conflict with the Catholic Church and his subsequent trial by the Inquisition. Despite the opposition, the evidence supporting heliocentrism continued to accumulate, and by the 18th century, it was widely accepted in the scientific community. Today, heliocentrism is the foundation of modern astrophysics and is taught as an essential component of scientific education. Heliocentrism has revolutionized our understanding of the universe and has paved the way for numerous astronomical discoveries and advancements. It serves as a reminder of the importance of critical thinking, evidence-based reasoning, and the constant quest for knowledge in scientific inquiry.

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