heliocentric model
Copernican solar system
The heliocentric model is the astronomical understanding that Earth and other planets orbit the Sun, rather than everything revolving around Earth.
Proposed by Copernicus in the 16th century and later refined by Kepler and Galileo, it replaced the geocentric model that had dominated Western thought for over a millennium.
The heliocentric model fundamentally changed humanity's view of its place in the universe.
- Scientific RevolutionEarly modern intellectual transformation
- gravityMutual mass attraction
- Tycho BraheRenaissance astronomical observer
- retrograde motionApparent reverse orbital path
- paradigm shiftWholesale replacement of frameworks
Johannes Kepler · Nicolaus Copernicus · Copernican theory · epicycles · anthropocentrism · Ptolemy · solar system · planets · heavenly bodies · celestial sphere · fixed stars · Isaac Newton · cosmology · Galileo Galilei · Copernicus · Earth · astronomy · spheres
heliocentric modelmedieval cosmology
Pre-Copernican universe structure