{{Short description|Sun-centered astronomical model}}
{{Redirect-distinguish|Heliocentric|Heliocentric (disambiguation)|Heliocentric orbit}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2012}}
[[File:Heliocentric.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Andreas Cellarius]]'s illustration of the Copernican system, from the ''Harmonia Macrocosmica'']]
'''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]] {{Transliteration|grc|[[Helios]]}} ({{lang|grc|ἥλιος}}) "Sun" and {{Transliteration|grc|kentron}} ({{lang|grc|κέντρον}}) "center"; the adjective ''heliocentric'' is first recorded in English (as ''heliocentrick'') in 1685, after [[Neo-Latin]] {{lang|la|heliocentricus}}, in use from about the same time (as in [[Johann Jakob Zimmermann]], ''{{lang|la|Prodromus biceps cono ellipticæ et a priori demonstratæ planetarum theorices}}'', 1679).{{pb}}
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''), modelled after German {{lang|de|Heliocentrismus}} or {{lang|de|Heliozentrismus}} ({{circa|1870}}).}} (also known as the '''heliocentric model''') is a [[List of superseded scientific theories#Astronomy and cosmology|superseded astronomical model]] that placed the [[Sun]] at the center of the [[universe]], with the [[Earth]] and the [[Solar System|planets]] in its orbit. It superseded [[geocentrism]], which placed the Earth at the center of the universe. In modern astronomy, heliocentrism has been superseded by models based on relativity, in which the universe does not have an absolute center or preferred [[frames of reference]].
Historically, heliocentrism was opposed to [[geocentric model|geocentrism]], which placed Earth at the center. The notion that Earth revolves around the Sun had been proposed as early as the 3rd 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 [[Greece|Greek]] [[Philosophy|philosopher]] [[Philolaus]] had the thought on different occasions that Earth was spherical and revolving around a "mystical" [[Pythagorean astronomical system#Central Fire|central fire]], and that this fire regulated the universe.[{{cite journal | last=Huffman| first=Carl| title= Philolaus and the central fire | journal=Brills Studies in Intellectual History |volume=161|pages=57–58| year=2008}}] 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}}]}}
It was not until the 16th century that a [[mathematical model]] of a [[Copernican heliocentrism|heliocentric system]] was presented by the [[Renaissance]] mathematician, astronomer, and [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] cleric, [[Nicolaus Copernicus]], leading to the [[Copernican Revolution]].{{Citation needed|reason=While Copernicus' model was heliostatic, it was not heliocentric|date=November 2025}} In the following century, [[Johannes Kepler]] introduced [[Elliptic orbit|elliptical orbits]] for all planets discovered up to his time (genuinely heliocentric), and [[Galileo Galilei]] presented observations of the Solar System made using his [[Refracting telescope#Galilean telescope|telescope]].
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 central in the universe. Modern astronomy does not distinguish any universal center. After these discoveries, informal language still holds to the remaining truth value of the term, narrowed to the scope of our [[planetary system]].[{{Citation |title=heliocentrism |date=2025-08-18 |work=Wiktionary, the free dictionary |url=https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=heliocentrism&oldid=86012517 |access-date=2025-09-13 |language=en}}]
==Ancient and medieval astronomy==
While the [[Spherical Earth|sphericity of Earth]] was widely recognized in [[Ancient Greek astronomy|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 }}] Earth's [[Earth's rotation|daily rotation]] and [[Earth's orbit|yearly orbit around the Sun]] was never universally accepted until the [[Copernican Revolution]].
While a moving Earth was proposed at least from the 4th century BCE in [[Pythagoreanism]], and a fully developed heliocentric model was developed by [[Aristarchus of Samos]] in the 3rd century BCE, these ideas were not successful in replacing the view of a stationary spherical Earth, and from the 2nd century CE the predominant model, which would be inherited by medieval astronomy, was the [[Ptolemaic system|geocentric model]] described in [[Ptolemy]]'s ''[[Almagest]]''.{{Citation needed|reason=this entire paragraph lacks any references|date=November 2025}}
[[File:geoz wb en.svg|thumb|upright=1.2|The movements of the Moon, the planets, and the Sun around the static Earth in the Ptolemaic geocentric model (upper panel) in comparison to the orbits of the planets and the daily-rotating Earth around the Sun in the Copernican heliocentric model (lower panel). In both models, the Moon rotates around Earth.]]
===Classical antiquity===
{{See also|Ancient Greek astronomy}}
====Pythagoreans====
The first non-geocentric model of the [[universe]] was proposed by the [[Pythagoreans|Pythagorean]] philosopher [[Philolaus]] (d. 390 BCE), who taught that at the center of the universe was a "central fire", around which [[Earth]], the [[Sun]], the [[Moon]], and [[planet]]s revolved in [[uniform circular motion]]. This system postulated the existence of a [[Counter-Earth]] [[Collinearity|collinear]] with Earth and central fire, with the same period of revolution around the central fire as Earth. The Sun revolved around the central fire once a year, and the stars were stationary. 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}}]
[[Heraclides Ponticus|Heraclides of Pontus]] (4th century BCE) said that the [[Earth's rotation|rotation of 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 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]] (CE 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}}]
====Aristarchus of Samos====
[[File:Aristarchus working.jpg|thumb|right|[[Aristarchus of Samos|Aristarchus']] 3rd century BCE calculations on the relative sizes of Earth, the Sun, and the Moon, from a 10th-century CE Greek copy]]
The first person known to have proposed a heliocentric system was [[Aristarchus of Samos]] {{nowrap|({{circa|270}} BCE)}}. Like his contemporary [[Eratosthenes]], Aristarchus calculated the size of 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 Earth, and thought that the larger object would have the most attractive force.{{Citation needed|reason=this entire paragraph lacks any references|date=November 2025}}
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.]
{{blockquote|You are aware {{bracket|'you' being [[Gelo, son of Hiero II|King Gelon]]}} 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 (τὰ 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 in 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}}}}
[[Aristarchus of Samos|Aristarchus]] presumably took the stars to be very far away since if Earth's orbit were significant relative to the size of the celestial sphere, the apparent angular separations between the stars would vary over the course of the 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]].{{Citation needed|reason=this entire paragraph lacks any references|date=November 2025}}
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' account[Although it could obviously be reasonably inferred therefrom.]—namely, that Aristarchus' theory had Earth rotating on an axis. The first of these references occurs in ''{{interlanguage link|Concerning the Face Which Appears in the Orb of the Moon|es|Sobre la cara visible de la Luna}}'':[{{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 ''Concerning the Face Which Appears 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}}).]
{{blockquote|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.|Concerning the Face Which Appears in the Orb of the Moon (''De facie in orbe lunae'', c. 6, pp. 922 F – 923 A.) }}
Only scattered fragments of [[Cleanthes|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]].
The second of the references by Plutarch is in his ''Platonic Questions'':{{sfn|Heath|1913|p=[https://archive.org/stream/aristarchusofsam00heatuoft#page/305 305]}}
{{blockquote|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)}}
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 Earth's motion, but does not mention Aristarchus.{{sfn|Heath|1913|p=[https://archive.org/stream/aristarchusofsam00heatuoft#page/305 305]}}
====Seleucus of Seleucia====
{{Main|Seleucus of Seleucia}}
Since [[Plutarch]] mentions the "followers of Aristarchus" in passing, it is likely that there were other astronomers in the [[Classical Greece|Classical period]] who also espoused heliocentrism, but whose work was lost.[{{cite web |title= Plutarch, Platonicae quaestiones, Question VIII, section 1 |editor-last= Goodwin |editor-first= William W. |publisher= [[Hachette Book Group#History|Little, Brown, and Company]], press of John Wilson and son |location= Cambridge |year= 1874 |url= https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0384%3Achapter%3D8%3Asection%3D1 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}] The only other astronomer from antiquity known by name who is known to have supported Aristarchus' heliocentric model was Seleucus of Seleucia (b. 190 BCE ), a [[Hellenistic civilization|Hellenistic]] astronomer who flourished a century after Aristarchus in the [[Seleucid Empire]].[{{cite encyclopedia |chapter=Seleucus of Seleucia (c. 190 BC–?) |title=The Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics |editor1-last=Murdin |editor1-first=Paul |editor1-link= Paul Murdin |pages=3998|doi=10.1888/0333750888 |isbn=978-0-333-75088-9 | bibcode=2000eaa..bookE3998.|year=2000|citeseerx=10.1.1.255.9251 |chapter-url= https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2000eaa..bookE3998./abstract}}] Seleucus was a proponent of the heliocentric system of Aristarchus.[{{cite web |editor= Vasilios Siris |year= 2018 |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}}]
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 Earth around Earth and the Moon's [[Barycenter|center of mass]].
====Late antiquity====
There were occasional speculations about heliocentrism in Europe before Copernicus. In [[Carthage#Roman Carthage|Roman Carthage]], the [[pagan]] [[Martianus Capella]] (5th century CE) expressed the opinion that the planets Venus and Mercury did not go about 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 = . }}] Also [[Macrobius]] (420 CE) described a heliocentric model.[{{Cite journal |last=Carman |first=Christián C. |date=2017-12-23 |title=The first Copernican was Copernicus: the difference between Pre-Copernican and Copernican heliocentrism |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00407-017-0198-3 |journal=Archive for History of Exact Sciences |volume=72 |issue=1 |pages=1–20 |doi=10.1007/s00407-017-0198-3 |issn=0003-9519|hdl=11336/72174 |hdl-access=free }}]
===Ancient India===
{{See also|Indian astronomy}}
[[Aryabhata]] (476–550), in his [[magnum opus]] ''[[Aryabhatiya]]'' (499), propounded a planetary model in which 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}}[{{Cite book|title=Mathematics in India|title-link=Mathematics in India (book)|last=Plofker|first=Kim|author-link=Kim Plofker|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2009|isbn=978-1-4008-3407-5|location=Princeton|pages=111–112|oclc=650305544}}] It has been argued that Aryabhatta's calculations were based on an underlying heliocentric model, in which the planets orbit the Sun,[The concept of Indian heliocentrism has been advocated by B. L. van der Waerden, ''Das heliozentrische System in der griechischen, persischen und indischen Astronomie.'' Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Zürich. Zürich:Kommissionsverlag Leeman AG, 1970.][B.L. van der Waerden, "The Heliocentric System in Greek, Persian and Hindu Astronomy", in David A. King and George Saliba, ed., ''From Deferent to Equant: A Volume of Studies in the History of Science in the Ancient and Medieval Near East in Honor of E. S. Kennedy'', Annals of the New York Academy of Science, 500 (1987), pp. 529–534.] although this has also been rebutted.[Noel Swerdlow, "Review: A Lost Monument of Indian Astronomy," ''Isis'', 64 (1973): 239–243.] The general consensus is that a synodic anomaly (depending on the position of the Sun) does not imply a physically heliocentric orbit (such corrections being also present in late Babylonian astronomical texts), and that Aryabhata's system was not explicitly heliocentric.[{{cite book|last=Kim Plofker|author-link=Kim Plofker|title=Mathematics in India|title-link=Mathematics in India|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton, NJ|date=2009|page=[https://archive.org/details/mathematicsindia00plof/page/n125 111]|isbn=978-0-691-12067-6}}] 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]].
===Medieval Islamic world===
{{Further|Astronomy in the medieval Islamic world|Cosmology in the Muslim world}}
For a time, [[Astronomy in the medieval Islamic world#Notable 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 Earth varies.{{sfn|Sabra|1998|pp=317f|ps=: {{blockquote|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 [[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}}][{{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 committed to a geocentric model.[[http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/stanford/entries/copernicus/index.html Nicolaus Copernicus], [[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] (2004).]
[[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.]]
Al-Biruni discussed the possibility of whether 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 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.[{{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])][{{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}}]
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).
The arguments and evidence used resemble those used by Copernicus to support 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 }}]
The criticism of Ptolemy as developed by [[Averroes]] and by the Maragha school explicitly address [[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}}]
The observations of the Maragha school were further improved at the Timurid-era [[Ulugh Beg Observatory|Samarkand Observatory]] under [[Ali Qushji|Qushji]] (1403–1474).
===Medieval India===
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 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 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}}]
==Renaissance-era astronomy==
{{See also|History of science in the Renaissance}}
===Medieval period===
[[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.]][[Martianus Capella]] (5th century CE) expressed the opinion that the planets Venus and Mercury did not go about Earth but instead circled the Sun.[{{Citation |last=Eastwood |first=Bruce S. |title=Ordering the Heavens: Roman Astronomy and Cosmology in the Carolingian Renaissance |pages=244–259 |year=2007 |location=Leiden |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-16186-3}}] and Copernicus mentions him as an influence on his own work.[{{Citation |last1=Eastwood |first1=Bruce S. |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 |year=1982 |postscript=.}}] [[Macrobius]] (420 CE) described a heliocentric model.[Nicholas of Cusa, ''De docta ignorantia'', 2.12, p. 103, cited in Koyré (1957), p. 17.] recalling [[Hermes Trismegistus]].[{{cite web |last=van Limpt |first=Cokky |date=17 February 2003 |title=Favourite quote of founder Joost R. Ritman: God is an infinite sphere |url=https://www.ritmanlibrary.com/founder/god-is-an-infinite-sphere/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181127193503/https://www.ritmanlibrary.com/founder/god-is-an-infinite-sphere/ |archive-date=November 27, 2018 |access-date=27 November 2018 |website=[[Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica]]}}]
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 }}]
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])]
While the influence of the criticism of Ptolemy by Averroes on Renaissance thought is clear and explicit, the claim of direct influence of the
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]]{{Better source 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]].[Claudia Kren, "The Rolling Device," p. 497.]{{sfn|Saliba|1999}}
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}}]
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 }}] 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 = . }}]
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 [[Georg von Peuerbach|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]}}
===Copernican heliocentrism===
{{Main|Copernican heliocentrism}}
[[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.}}]]
[[Nicolaus Copernicus]] (1473–1543) in his {{langx|la|[[De revolutionibus orbium coelestium]] |translation=On the revolution of heavenly spheres |label=none}}, 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]]''.{{Citation needed|reason=Copernicus' mathematical model was heliostatic but not, technically, heliocentric|date=November 2025}} 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{{Citation needed|reason=Copernicus' mathematical model was heliostatic but not, technically, heliocentric|date=November 2025}} 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}}
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.
==== ''De Revolutionibus'' (1543) ====
[[Nicolaus Copernicus|Copernicus]] published the definitive statement of his system in [[De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium|''De Revolutionibus'']] in 1543. He 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.{{Citation needed|reason=This entire paragraph lacks any references.|date=November 2025}}
=== Early Religious Reaction To Copernicanism ===
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]}}
In 1539, [[Martin Luther]] said:
{{blockquote|"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=https://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/pogge.1/Ast161/Unit3/response.html|title=Religious Objections to Copernicus|website=www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu}}]}}
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}}]
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.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171027030350/http://freethinker.co.uk/2014/04/25/the-twilight-of-atheism/ |date=October 27, 2017 }}]}}
==Reception in Early Modern Europe==
{{Main|Copernican Revolution}}
===Giordano Bruno===
During [[Giordano Bruno]]'s lifetime (1548–1600), he is the only known person to defend Copernicus' heliocentrism.{{sfn|Smith|1952|pp=[https://archive.org/details/manhisgods00smit/page/310 310–311]}} In 1584, Bruno published two dialogues (''La Cena de le Ceneri'' and ''De l'infinito universo et mondi'') in which he argued against the planetary spheres ([[Christoph Rothmann]] did the same in 1586 as did [[Tycho Brahe]] in 1587) and affirmed the Copernican principle.
In particular, to support the Copernican view and oppose the objection according to which the motion of Earth would be perceived by means of the motion of winds, clouds etc., in ''La Cena de le Ceneri'' Bruno anticipates some of the arguments of Galileo on the relativity principle.[{{Citation|last = [[Alessandro De Angelis (astrophysicist)|Alessandro De Angelis]] and Catarina Espirito Santo|year = 2015|title = The contribution of Giordano Bruno to the principle of relativity|url = http://www.narit.or.th/en/files/2015JAHHvol18/2015JAHH...18..241D.pdf|journal = Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage|volume = 18|issue = 3|pages = 241–248| doi=10.3724/SP.J.1440-2807.2015.03.02 |arxiv = 1504.01604|bibcode = 2015JAHH...18..241D| s2cid=118420438 |access-date = 19 January 2016|archive-date = 26 January 2016|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160126194011/http://www.narit.or.th/en/files/2015JAHHvol18/2015JAHH...18..241D.pdf|url-status = dead}}] Bruno was condemned by the [[Roman Inquisition]] and [[Death by burning|burned at the stake]] on the [[Campo de' Fiori]] in Rome in 1600.[Alberto A. Martinez: [https://www.theologie-naturwissenschaften.de/en/dialogue-between-theology-and-science/editorials/giordano-bruno-en Giordano Bruno (en)], Retrieved 4 June 2026] Note that he also uses the example now known as [[Galileo's ship]].[Giordano Bruno, Teofilo, in La Cena de le Ceneri, "Third Dialogue", (1584), ed. and trans. by S.L. Jaki (1975).]
===Tycho Brahe's geo-heliocentric system (c. 1587)===
{{Main|Tychonic system}}
[[File:Tychonian system.svg|thumb|In this depiction of the Tychonic system, the objects on blue orbits (the Moon and the Sun) revolve around 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.]]
Prior to the publication of ''De Revolutionibus'', the most widely accepted system had been proposed by [[Ptolemy]], in which [[Earth]] was the center of the universe and all celestial bodies orbited it. [[Tycho Brahe]] (1546–1601), 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 Earth, Mercury and Venus orbit the Sun inside the Sun's orbit of Earth, and Mars, Jupiter and Saturn orbit the Sun outside the Sun's orbit of Earth.{{Citation needed|reason=This entire paragraph lacks any references.|date=November 2025}}
Tycho appreciated the Copernican system, but objected to the idea of a moving Earth on the basis of [[astronomy]], [[physics]], 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]
The [[Jesuits]] 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.{{Citation needed|date=November 2025}}
===Johannes Kepler===
{{main article|Kepler's laws of planetary motion}}
[[File:Johannes Kepler by Hans von Aachen.jpg|thumb|left|150px|[[Johannes Kepler]] was one of the founders and fathers of modern [[astronomy]], the [[scientific method]], [[Natural science|natural]] and [[modern science]].[{{cite web | url=https://www.dpma.de/english/our_office/publications/milestones/greatinventors/johanneskepler/index.html | title=DPMA {{pipe}} Johannes Kepler }}][{{Cite web |url=https://www.nasa.gov/kepler/education/johannes |title=Johannes Kepler: His Life, His Laws and Times {{pipe}} NASA |access-date=1 September 2023 |archive-date=24 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624003856/https://www.nasa.gov/kepler/education/johannes/ |url-status=dead }}][{{cite web | url=https://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/optics/timeline/people/kepler.html | title=Molecular Expressions: Science, Optics and You – Timeline – Johannes Kepler }}]]]
Using [[Rudolphine Tables|measurements]] made by Brahe at the observatories on the island of [[Ven (Sweden)|Ven]], [[Johannes Kepler]] (1571–1630) developed his [[Kepler's laws of planetary motion|laws of planetary motion]] between 1609 and 1619.[{{cite web |first=David P. |last=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 {{langx|la|[[Astronomia nova]]|translation=New Astronomy|label=none}} (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 [[Orbit of Mars|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... "}}
Between 1617 and 1621, Kepler developed a genuinely heliocentric model of the Solar System in {{lang|la|[[Epitome astronomiae Copernicanae]]}}, in which all the planets have elliptical orbits, with the Sun close to one focus of the ellipse.[{{cite web | url=https://science.nasa.gov/resource/orbits-and-keplers-laws/ |title=Orbits and Kepler's Laws | publisher=NASA Science | date=26 June 2008 | access-date=18 March 2026}}] This provided significantly increased accuracy in predicting the position of the planets. Kepler's ideas were not immediately accepted, and Galilei for example ignored them. In 1621, ''Epitome astronomia Copernicanae'' was placed on the Catholic Church's [[Index Librorum Prohibitorum|index of prohibited books]].[{{cite web |url=https://bibofthedamned.com/2021/02/26/epitome-of-copernican-astronomy-1618-21/ | title=Epitome of Copernican Astronomy (1618-21) |author=Colton Adams |publisher=Bibliography of the Damned |date=25 September 2023 | access-date=9 March 2026}}] In the period 1630–1650, this book was the most widely used astronomy textbook, because it contained all three laws of the planetary motions and explained them through physical causes, and thus gained many followers for ellipse-based astronomy.[{{cite web |url=https://www.hkarsmakers.nl/The%20ellipse%20in%20astronomy.pdf | title=The ellipse in astronomy |author=H. Karsmakers |language=en | access-date=9 March 2026}}]
[[File:Ellips2.gif|thumb|Different local orbital speeds of the ellipse (yellow) and the [[Epicycle|epicyclic]] motion (turqoise) by the same observable object from different perspectives]]
The laws discovered by Kepler represented a significant step in overcoming medieval science and establishing [[modern science#Modern astronomy|modern astronomy]].[{{cite journal|doi=10.1051/photon/2017S212 |title=Famous optician: Johannes Kepler |date=26 April 2017 |last1=Haidar |first1=Riad |journal=Photonics in Europe |pages=12–14 |doi-access=free}}] They are of particular fundamental importance in astronomy.[{{cite web | url=https://www.gucdoe.in/sites/default/files/ENG_1016_2.pdf |title=The Scientific Revolution | publisher=Gauhati University |page=14 | access-date=11 March 2026}}] Kepler formulated the laws for the five [[classical planet]]s that he knew. However, according to the [[cosmological principle]], they are assumed to be valid everywhere in the universe. Kepler's laws apply equally to [[moons]], the [[asteroid belt]] and the [[Oort cloud]], or the rings of [[Jupiter]] and [[Saturn]], to [[star clusters]] as well as to objects orbiting the [[Galactic Center|center of a galaxy]], and to all other objects in space. Furthermore, they form the basis of [[Spaceflight|space travel]] and explain the orbits of [[satellites]].[{{cite web | url=https://modern-physics.org/keplers-laws/ |title=Kepler's Laws | publisher=Modern Physics Insights | date=1 March 2024 | access-date=12 March 2026}}]
===Galileo Galilei and the church ban against Copernicanism in 1616===
{{Main|Galileo affair}}
{{multiple image
|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).
|align=right
|image1 = Phases-of-Venus2.svg|
|image2 = Phases-of-Venus-Geocentric.svg|}}
[[File:Galileo.arp.300pix.jpg|thumb|In the 17th century CE, [[Galileo Galilei]] opposed the [[Roman Catholic Church]] by his strong support for heliocentrism.]]
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) was able to look at the night sky with the newly invented telescope. He published his observations 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]}}
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 Earth's rotation which gives the impression of the Sun in motion across the sky.
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}}
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}}
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 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)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210302123644/http://esmateria.com/2014/02/28/una-errata-reproducida-durante-siglos-cambia-la-censura-de-la-iglesia-a-galileo/ |date=March 2, 2021 }}; [https://arxiv.org/abs/1402.6168 arXiv:1402.6168 Original text of the decision]] Bellarmine personally ordered Galileo
{{blockquote|...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}}}}
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.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)]
and his straightforward statement,
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...
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]}}
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]
===Age of Reason===
{{further|Science in the Age of Enlightenment|17th-century philosophy|Scientific Revolution}}
[[File:Plurality of Worlds.jpg|thumb|upright|Front page of the book ''Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds'' (1701 edition)]]
[[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."[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]).]
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}}
[[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]]
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.
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_(astronomy)|aberration]], proving the relative motion of 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}}]
=== Reception in Judaism ===
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.
The first [[Jews|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]
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.
[[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 Galileo's student.{{sfn|Neher|1977}}
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}}.]
In the 19th century, two students of the [[Chasam Sofer]] wrote books that were given approbations by him 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}}]
Since the 20th century most [[:Category:Jewish astronomers|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}}
] Many of 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}}]
==Modern science==
===William Herschel's heliocentrism===
[[File:Herschel-galaxy.jpg|thumb|right| William Herschel's model of the Milky Way, 1785]]
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 |doi-access=free }}] 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|url-access=subscription }}] 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}}]
Seeing that the stars belonging to the Milky Way appeared to encircle 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
|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
}}]
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 }}]
===Replacement with galactocentrism and acentrism===
{{main|Galactocentrism|Big Bang model}}
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".
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 web |last=Fisher |first=Debra |date=2006-08-01 |title=How would astronomers in another solar system know by observing our Sun's wobble that our Sun has not just one big planet, but nine, each with a different mass? {{!}} Astronomy.com |url=https://www.astronomy.com/science/how-would-astronomers-in-another-solar-system-know-by-observing-our-suns-wobble-that-our-sun-has-not-just-one-big-planet-but-nine-each-with-a-different-mass/ |access-date=2024-07-15 |website=[[Astronomy Magazine]] |publisher= |language=en-US}}]
===Modern use of ''geocentric'' and ''heliocentric''===
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 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}}
==See also==
* [[Copernican principle]]
* [[Copernican Revolution (metaphor)]]
==Notes==
{{notelist}}
==References==
===Citations===
{{Reflist}}
===Sources===
{{refbegin|30em}}
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* {{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)
* {{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}}
* {{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}}
* {{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}}}}
* {{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}}}}
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* {{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}}
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* {{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}}
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* {{cite book |title=Galileo: Decisive Innovator |last=Sharratt |first=Michael |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=1994 |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-56671-1}}
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* {{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}}
* {{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}}
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{{refend}}
==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* {{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}}
* [http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/heliocentric-pantheon-interview-with.html The Heliocentric Pantheon: An Interview with Walter Murch]
* {{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
{{Greek astronomy}}
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