Models of the Universe
Ever wonder why we don't feel the Earth moving? For centuries, people believed we weren't! The Geocentric Model placed Earth at the center of everything, with planets, stars, and the Sun orbiting around us. Ancient astronomers like Aristotle and Ptolemy championed this view, making it the accepted theory for most of human history.
The Heliocentric Model turned everything upside down by putting the Sun at the center. Though the idea existed in ancient times, it wasn't until 1543 when Nicolaus Copernicus developed a mathematical theory supporting it. This revolutionary concept suggested Earth rotated on its axis while orbiting the Sun along with other planets.
Galileo Galilei didn't invent the heliocentric model, but his observations provided evidence supporting it. This put him in direct conflict with the Catholic Church, which preferred the geocentric model based on scripture. The Church believed Earth was central because God created it first, and they had difficulty explaining why planets sometimes appeared to move backward (retrograde motion) in a Sun-centered system.
Fun Fact: The Catholic Church banned Copernicus's theory in 1616 and accused Galileo of heresy for supporting it. Talk about an astronomical disagreement!
The Scientific Revolution gained momentum with Johannes Kepler's Three Laws of Planetary Motion and Galileo's telescope discoveries, including Jupiter's moons and sunspots. Later, Sir Isaac Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation explained the force keeping planets in orbit around the Sun, solidifying the heliocentric model's acceptance.