This
video tutorial provides a brief overview of the 'Copernican Revolution'. And
this video is about Kepler and Galileo.
History of Astronomy
The Greeks are generally acknowledged as the first people to elevate
astronomy from the level of prediction to that of explanation and
understanding.
Aristotle (384 - 322 BC) was one of the most influential Greek
philosophers. He made important contributions to logic, criticism, rhetoric,
physics, biology, psychology, mathematics, metaphysics, ethics, and politics
He believed (incorrectly) in separate laws for Earth and Heavens.
After Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) conquered Egypt in 332 BC, he founded
the city of Alexandria, which became a leading center of Greek civilization.
Much of the significant work of later Greek astronomers was carried out in
or near Alexandria.
Ptolemy, also Claudius Ptolemaeus, (ca A.D.
150) formulated a
geocentric model of the universe that was widely accepted until it was
superseded by the
heliocentric system of
Copernicus, some 1500 years later.
Nicolaus Copernicus
(1473-1543, Poland) developed the most coherent model at the time for the
heliocentric cosmology.
Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) collected the best
astronomical data before the age of the telescope.
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) carried
out the analysis of Tycho's data and developed a few empirical
laws which described the behavior of the planets in their orbits.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), using the
newly-invented telescope, made critical observations which
demonstrated once and for all the correctness of the heliocentric model.
Isaac Newton
(1643-1727), discovered the law of gravity and formulated the laws of motion
to explain why the planets move as they do. In this, he was encouraged by
Edmond Halley, who
brought his work to a wider audience.
Harlow Shapley (1885-1972) was the first to realize that the Milky Way
Galaxy was much larger than previously believed and extended the Copernican
principle: Not only is the Earth not the center of our Solar System, but the
Sun is also not unique, central, or special in any way. He participated in
the "Great
Debate" of 1920 with
Heber D. Curtis on these and other issues. Up to that point, most people
believe the Sun to be center of the Universe.
Edwin Hubble
(1884-1953) extended the Copernican principle even further in the 1920's by
demonstrating that even our Galaxy is not special in any way but rather one
of myriad other galaxies in a much, much larger cosmos.
Geocentric vs Heliocentric
In the geocentrism model, the Sun and the other
six visible objects in the sky revolve around the Earth.
In the heliocentric (Sun-centered) model, the
Earth is just one out of many planets, all of which orbit the Sun in
elliptical orbits.
Both models are pretty good at explaining some basic, naked-eye
observations:
days and nights
Moon phases
seasons
planets appear to "wander" across the night sky, relative to the
fixed, background stars
The order of the planets is similar in both models, with those objects
moving slower placed farther.
In the Geocentric model, the order is Earth (stationary and at
the center), Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. As
stars appeared to move much slower than the planets, they were placed in
the outermost sphere, furthest away from Earth.
In the Heliocentric model, the order is Sun (stationary and at the
center), Mercury, Venus, Earth (and Moon), Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
The Coperican model introduced several innovative ideas:
The Earth is one of several planets revolving around a stationary
Sun in different orbits.
The Earth has three motions: daily rotation, annual revolution, and
annual tilting of its axis.
Retrograde motion of the planets is explained by the Earth's motion.
The distance from the Earth to the Sun is small compared to the
distance from the Sun to the stars.
But the greatest puzzle, back in the time of Copernicus, was the
problem of
retrograde motion, the periodic backward motion of the outer planets, as
observed from Earth, particularly noticeable for Mars.
While retrograde
motion was explainable within the geocentric model by imagining deferents
and epicycles, the heliocentric model offered a much simpler explanation.
In the Copernican model, when two planets are near each other in
their respective orbits (e.g., Mars relative to Earth), the more distant
planet would appear to move backwards since the inner planet moves
faster. No correction with epicycles and deferents would be required in
this model.
The Copernican model predicted stellar parallax as a result of Earth's
orbital movement, which does occur but was not detectable at the time.
The Copernican model was closer to reality but still far from perfect.
It retained several of the Ptolemaic (incorrect)
elements, including:
circular orbits of the planets (the orbits are actually
elliptical)
uniform speeds (speeds actually vary in orbit)
epicycles, to correct for the inacurracies due circular orbits and
uniform speed
The ultimate collapse of the geocentric model would come with
Galileo's observations with the telescope,
particularly those related to the phases of Venus.
These
simulations show the phases of Venus in the heliocentric vs
Ptolamaic models.
If the geocentric model were correct, the only phase for Venus we
could ever see would be the crescent.
In reality, Venus exhibits the quarter and gibbous phases, in
addition to the crescent phase.
We can't see the full phase because it would be behind a very
bright Sun.