INT 1 Task 1

Part 1 How science has changed our view of the universe.
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Up until the late 14th and early 15th centuries most early astronomers believed the sun, planets, and stars revolved around the earth.
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Astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus published his book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial
Spheres) right before his death in 1543.
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It was based on a theory by Ptolemy a 2nd century AD Greek mathematician and astronomer . (Sheila, 2010)

In it he worked out a heliocentric mathematical theory that suggested the earth rotated around the sun.

Additional Advances have continued to change our understanding of the solar system ever since. (Sheila, 2010)

Example 1: geocentric view
 Greco-Roman mathematician and astronomer Ptolemy (c. AD 90 – c.

AD 168) believed the movements of the sun, stars, and planets could be explained mathmatically.
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He created a set of astronomical tables which he called his Handy Tables which allowed astronomers to calculate the positions of the Sun, Moon, and planets. It also allowed astronomers to predict eclipses. (Gribben, J.)

 He believed the universe was geocentric meaning the universe

revolved around the Earth.
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This view would with some minor changes hold until Copernicus published his theories in 1543.

Example 2:
A heliocentric view
 In 1543 Nicolaus Copernicus published his book On the Revolutions

of the Celestial Spheres. (Sheila, 2010)
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In his book Copernicus proposed a heliocentric Universe meaning the earth revolved around the Sun.
It also influenced many of the great scientists who would come after.

 In 1610 Galileo Galilei used a new invention the telescope to

discover four moons around Jupiter and that there were many more stars in the sky than could be seen with the naked eye.
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While he did