To What Extent Did The Heliocentric View Of The Universe

From a Geocentric to Heliocentric Universe

Humanity’s understanding of the universe has changed and developed throughout history. The early astronomers of ancient times claimed that the Earth was the centre of the universe, and the stars and planets all moved around it. This theory matched their observations, as the Earth appeared to be still while the stars moved circularly around the Earth (disappearing on one side at night and reappearing on the other in the morning). Greek scientists modeled the stars on concentric circles around the Earth, which accounted for variation in brightness as well as matching the religious view at the time that the circle is the perfect form. The Greeks explained variation in the planet’s paths with the idea

His theory was proposed even before telescopes were invented, and his ideas were rejected. Galileo, although not the first person to build a telescope, was the first with the originality of thought to point one to the skies. His observations of planetary bodies concurred with Copernicus’ heliocentric view of the universe. Galileo published his ideas, but even with supporting evidence from his telescope, was tried and found guilty of heresy, and confined to house arrest. Over time, larger telescopes with better scales attached to the scopes were developed, which allowed for more accurate measurements. And around 1900, astronomers were able to take photographs of their observations as further proof of heliocentrism. Technological developments hugely impacted astronomy as, for the first time in history, scientists could observe the universe and prove their

In the early 17th century, Johannes Kepler was the first to do this – based on observations of Mars’ orbit around the sun, he came up with his three famous Laws on the orbits of planets. Kepler was able to accurately measure the paths of the planets, and showed that “the planets did not move along circular paths, but rather that each planet followed an elliptical course, with the Sun at one focus of the ellipse”. This became known as Kepler’s First Law (Fig. 1). His second Law explained the varying speeds during a planet’s orbit around the sun, moving fastest at the perihelion and slowest at the aphelion (Fig. 2), and his final Law mathematically related average distance from the sun to a planet’s orbital period. In 1687, Isaac Newton broadened his law of gravitation to include the whole solar system, which acted as proof for the sun-centred model of the universe. Stellar aberration, observed yearly change in the position of the stars due to Earth’s orbit, was discovered by English astronomer James Bradley, and further proved