Pseudoscience/Heliocentricism: Difference between revisions
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(Poland) Nicolaus Copernicus (a [[Agencies/Jesuits|'''Jesuit''']]) (1473-1543) astronomer, physician, '''priest''', famous for the heliocentric planetary '''theory'''. He '''formulated''' a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than Earth at its center.
In his model, Copernicus maintained that Earth was not the center of the universe. Instead, Copernicus '''believed''' that Earth and the other planets revolved around the Sun. Copernicus' system offered a simple explanation for many of the observed phenomena that could not be easily explained within the old system. Retrograde motion was one such phenomenon.
Retrograde motion is the apparent change in direction that is observed in a planet's motion as it travels across the sky. The Ptolemaic system '''attempted to account for''' retrograde motion with epicycles. According to the Ptolemaic system the planet moves on a circle (called the epicycle) while this circle revolves around Earth on a larger circle. With the Sun at the center of the universe, however, retrograde motion is easily explained. The apparent change in direction of the planet is a direct result of its orbit around the Sun.
The publication of Copernicus's model in his book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), just before his death in 1543, was a major event in the history of science, triggering the "Copernican Revolution" and making a pioneering contribution to the Scientific Revolution (A takeover of the sciences by Jesuits).
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