Heliocentric Versus Geocentric Systems: Galileo’s Answer

HELIOCENTRIC VERSUS GEOCENTRIC SYSTEMSByInstitution
Heliocentric Versus Geocentric Systems: Galileo’s Answer
The planetary model has been a debate that philosophers, scientists, and the church has debated for a long time. The church has held on to the Biblical account of Joshua that it was the sun that went round the earth. Some years ago, Ptolemy developed the geocentric system, suggesting that the sun and other planets went round the earth. Many have held on to that idea till 1543, when Nicolaus Copernicus developed the heliocentric system, which explained that the sun was stationery while all other planets went round it (Dutch, 1998). He also observed that the earth revolved around its own axis while at the same time going round the sun.
Tycho Brahe understood this phenomenon and used the resources given to him by the King of Denmark to construct a picture of the universe, though he wanted to reconcile the works of Ptolemy and Copernicus, by postulating that the sun and the moon went round the earth while all other planets went round the sun (Sommerville). His successor, Johannes Kepler, observed the m...