dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (02/19/86)
Our perception of the universe grew from the ideas of someone born five centuries ago. More -- after this. February 19 Nicolaus Copernicus Today is the birthday of Nicolaus Copernicus, a medieval astronomer who became the catalyst for a whole new way of thought. During the time of Copernicus, everyone seemed to be comfortable with a model of the universe that placed Earth at its center. It was a good model that seemed to work. People had believed it for 14 hundred years. There are a couple of factors that may have caused Copernicus to propose a different idea. As a liberal arts student, Copernicus had studied philosophy. He was probably familiar with an ancient philosophy praising the sun as the source of all knowledge. Copernicus didn't go that far -- but he found the idea of a sun-centered universe very pleasing to the mind. Also, errors that he uncovered in the old Earth-centered model made a different model seem possible. The idea of a sun-centered universe had been around for nearly two thousand years. But it was never given much thought until Copernicus took it seriously. He spent 20 years working out the details. The end result was an aesthetically appealing design, but it had some flaws. For one thing there was no way to stand back and observe the earth revolving around the sun. And Copernicus' calculations of planetary positions weren't precise. There was also no way to explain how the Earth could spin on its axis and move through space without objects flinging off its surface. Copernicus felt that the strongest aspect of the sun-centered model was its harmony. It was the incomplete nature of his theory that inspired other astronomers to search for answers that would make the rest of the world believe it. Script by Holly Clark. (c) Copyright 1985, 1986 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin