NICOLAUS COPERNICUS

Biography
- Born on February 19, 1473
- Wrote the manuscript ​Commentariolus​, which explained the heliocentric solar system,
and later on, after Copernicus’s death, the book that contained his final theory, ​De
revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri vi ​was published.
- He first studied in the University of Cracow, then before earning his degree in astronomy
and astrology, he transferred to the University of Bologna in Italy.
○ He was an apprentice and lived in the house of Domenico Maria Novara, an
Italian astronomer, who taught him astronomy
○ Novara introduced him to two books, which led him to create his heliocentric
hypothesis: “​Epitoma in Almagestum Ptolemaei​” and “​Disputationes adversus
astrologianm divinatricenm”.

Theories before Copernicus

- Ptolemy
○ Believed that the center of the universe was Earth (Geocentric Theory), which
was a development from the studies of ancient Greek astronomers
○ He used mathematical explanations for his theory and calculated that each planet
revolves around the Earth in their own small circular path (epicycle), while at the
same time moving in a large circle (deferent) around the Earth
○ His ideas were collated in his book called, ​Almagest​.

Assumptions of the Copernicus Theory

- The sun, instead of the earth, was the center of the universe and that Mercury, Venus,
Earth and moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and the fixed stars rotated near the sun
- Heavenly motions are uniform, eternal and circular or compounded of several circles
- The earth has three motions: daily rotation, annual revolution and annual tilting of its axis
- Retrograde motion of the planets is explained by the Earth’s motion
- The distance from the earth to the sun is small compared to the distance to the stars

Criticisms
(Legend: - Criticism, ౦ Defense of Copernicus)
- To the question of how one can explain that things fall downwards without using the
Aristotelian idea that all things move towards the center
○ Copernicus stated that gravity is just the tendency of things to the place from
which they have been separated; hence a rock in Earth falls towards the Earth,
but one near the moon would fall there. Thus, he flatly contradicted one of the
basic claims of Aristotle regarding motion.
○ People thought the earth was the center of all things so everything was drawn
towards earth, but since Copernicus said that the Sun of all things, should not all
things are drawn to the sun.
 ○ The earth had some sort of force that draws objects to the surface, which is why
things fall downward not upward.
- To the objection that any object thrown upward would be “left behind” if the earth moves,
and would never fall in the same place
○ Copernicus argued that this will not occur as all objects in the earth’s vicinity
participate in its motion and are carried by it

Theories After Copernican Theory

1. Tycho Brahe’s System

- Combined Copernican Theory and Ptolemic System
- Assisted by Johannes Kepler
- Credited as the most accurate representation of the solar system of his time since
he did what other astronomists would not do, which is to catalogue the planets and
the stars with enough accuracy in order to determine if Copernicus or Ptolemy’s
theory best described the solar system.
- His theory proposed that the Sun orbited the Earth while the other planets orbited
the Sun.
- His system also offered a major innovation: while both the geocentric model and
the heliocentric model as set forth by Copernicus relied on the idea of transparent
rotating crystalline spheres to carry the planets in their orbits, Tycho eliminated the
spheres entirely.

2. Galileo Galilei
- Because of his invention, the telescope, he was able to observe the solar system,
and through this observation, he was able to prove Copernicus’s Theory.
- He saw 4 moons revolving around Jupiter, which proved Copernicus’s defense.
The moons do not get left behind as Jupiter moved.
- He noticed that Venus had a series of phases, just like the moon, which meant that
the Sun was the stabilized sphere at the center of the universe, however this does
not prove Copernicus right, but it also proved Ptolemy wrong.
○ Brahe proposed a model of the solar system to explain Galileo's observation
that Venus has phases without making it necessary for Earth to be moving.
His model had all the planets (except Earth) orbiting around the Sun, but
then the Sun orbited around the Earth.

3. Johannes Kepler
- The three laws of planetary motion in the early 17th century. His first and most
famous discovery was that the planets move around the Sun in orbits shaped like
ellipses.
- The three laws of planetary motion:
○ All planets move about the sun in elliptical orbits
○ A radius vector joining any planet to the Sun sweeps out equal areas in
equal lengths of time.
○ The squares of the sidereal periods (of revolution) of the planets are directly
proportional to the cubes of their mean distances from the Sun.