motion.

So how could the planets’ wandering

The Copernican movements be explained in terms of circles?
Revolution The best solution astronomers could come up with
was to propose a system of epicycles. An epicycle is
The story of Copernican Revolution is the classic the path traced out by a point on circle that is itself
example of a major shift in worldview. So, before rolling around another circle. Imagine a wheel
exploring what is happening in the present day and rolling along the ground. A point on the rim of the
where it may be leading us, let us first go back and wheel is almost still relative to the ground when it is
briefly recap the salient features of this earlier at the bottom of the wheel, but moving twice the
revolution. The parallels between what happened speed of the wheel when it has reached the top. And
then and what may be about to happen now will a point beyond the rim of the wheel would actually
begin a journey that will take us far beyond the be moving backwards when it is at the bottom. So if
current worldview to a startling new vision of the planets moved around small circles that
reality that has far-reaching repercussions for both themselves rolled along the larger circular orbits
science and religion. We may be standing on the then this could explain some of the strange
threshold of changes even more fundamental and planetary motions.
far-reaching than those initiated by Copernicus.
As more accurate data was collected, it became
The Geocentric Universe apparent that simple epicycles could not account for
all the irregularities in the planetary motions. So
Five hundred years ago, as the Middle Ages began medieval astronomers proposed more complex
to give way to the Renaissance, the reality within epicycles -- circles moving along circles moving
which most people lived and conducted their affairs along circles. And when these failed, added various
was one in which human beings played a pre- other oscillations, until the system became very
eminent role; everything revolved around man, both complex indeed.
physically and in God's eyes. The Old Testament
story of Genesis was taken as historical fact. God The Copernican Revolution
had created the Earth and the Heavens around. Man
(and to a lesser extent woman) was the focus of This view of the universe, cumbersome as it was,
God's attention. survived, virtually unchallenged, for thirteen
hundred years, until the early sixteenth century
The model of the cosmos was still that formulated when the Polish astronomer, Nicolaus Copernicus,
by the Greek philosopher Ptolemy around 140 AD. put forward a radically different model. The reason
The sun, moon, planets and stars all revolved the stars appeared to orbit the earth was, he
around the earth in circular orbits. Back then, suggested, because the earth itself was moving,
everyone “knew” that the earth stood still at the rotating on its own axis once every twenty-four
center of the universe. But there were problems with hours. The apparent movement of the heavens was
this model. Although the stars move smoothly an illusion, caused by the movement of the
through the heavens along fixed circular orbits, the observer.
planets do not. They wander among the other stars
(which is where the term “planet” came from; it Suggesting that the earth moved was heresy enough.
means “wanderer” in Greek). Their speed varies, But Copernicus went on to argue that the wandering
their orbits wobble, and they occasionally reverse motion of the planets could be explained if they
their direction of travel -- what is known as were orbiting the sun rather than the earth. This led
"retrograde" motion. At that time it was believed to the theory that the earth was itself just another
that planetary motion must be based on circles. planet also in orbit around the sun. (This was not a
Plato had argued that heavenly bodies were totally new theory. A little know Greek philosopher,
governed by different laws than those that governed Aristarchus, had advanced the idea that the earth
the motion of objects on earth. Heavenly bodies and the other planets moved around the sun in 270
being perfect, displayed perfect motion, and the BC. If his views, rather than those of Plato and
perfect motion, according to Plato, was circular
Ptolemy, had held sway, history might have taken a center of things, but he still adhered to the Platonic
very different course.) ideal of circular motion, and although his model
explained planetary movements much better than
Being a distinguished churchman, Copernicus knew the old geocentric model, there were still
the views of the Vatican on the earth's all important unexplained irregularities, which Copernicus tried
position at the center of the universe, and how to account for with various epicycles. Kepler had
tenaciously it held to that view. In proposing his the good fortune to be a student of the Danish
theory, he was not just challenging orthodox astronomer Tycho Brahe, who had accumulated
science; he was challenging the established volumes of accurate astronomical observations.
religious view of reality -- which in those days held Brahe set Kepler to work on the motion of Mars, the
even greater sway than the scientific view. So, planet with the most troublesome orbit. Kepler’s
fearing the wrath of the church, he kept his ideas to breakthrough was the discovery that the movements
himself for thirty years. Only as he was nearing of Mars, and all the other planets, could be
death, and feeling that he did not want to take this accounted for, without any need for epicycles, if
important knowledge with him to the grave, did he their orbits were ellipses rather than circles. But as
finally decide to publish his little book On the to why the orbits should be circles rather than
Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres. When it was ellipses, he had no idea.
eventually published, in 1543, (Copernicus first saw
a copy on the day he died) it was immediately The final piece of the puzzle was put in place some
placed on the papal index of forbidden books. 50 years later by the English mathematician, Sir
Isaac Newton. He realized that heavenly bodies
So it remained, ignored and forgotten, for nearly were governed by exactly the same laws as earthly
eighty years, until the Italian scientist Galileo objects; the force that causes an apple to fall is the
Galilei took up an interest in planetary motions. same force that holds the moon in its orbit around
Utilizing the newly invented telescope, he found the earth. Working out the resulting equations of
convincing evidence in favor of the Copernican motion he established that any orbiting body would
model. He saw that Venus had phases, just like the indeed move in an ellipse -- just as Kepler had
moon, when only half, or just a crescent, of it would discovered.
be lit -- which is what would happen if Venus
orbited the sun. He also found that Jupiter had its The revolution was now complete. The journey had
own moons in orbit around it, dispelling the idea been started by Copernicus, but putting it all
that everything went around the earth. together had involved other equally significant
breakthroughs in thinking, and had taken nearly 150
After publishing his findings, Galileo was contacted years to complete. (Although it was not until 1992
by Pope Paul V, who demanded he retract his that the Vatican finally admitted Galileo been right.)
heretical ideas. Fearing for his life, he did so. But a
few years later, unhappy that so important a truth
should remain suppressed, he published a brilliantly
composed dialogue in which he defended and Reference:
supported the Copernican theory. Again, under https://www.peterrussell.com/Reality/RHTML/R11.php
threat of torture, he was forced to "abjure, curse,
and detest" the absurd view that the earth moves
around the sun. He was then put under house-arrest
so that he could be watched and prevented from
causing any further trouble -- and remained there till
his death.

At the same time as Galileo was making his critical

observations of the planets, a German
mathematician, Johannes Kepler, was putting into
place another key piece of the puzzle. Copernicus
had argued that the sun, not the earth, lay at the