Early Astronomers and Thinkers ponder this question before technology proved the results!

By Miss O.

IS THE EARTH THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE OR THE SUN?

ARISTOTLE

He was wrong!

ARISTOTLE• Greek philosopher• Born in 384 BC• Thought that the earth was

the center of the solar system• Geocentric model

PTOLEMY

He was wrong!

PTOLEMY• Roman citizen who lived in Egypt

• Born in AD 90

• Mathematician and astronomer

• Studied Aristotle’s writings

• He thought he had “proved” through math that the earth was the center of the universe

• But some theories about the universe that Ptolemy had used to do his calculations were NOT actually accurate

• The Catholic Church supported the geocentric system, and so many other people thought this was truth!

COPERNICUS: THINGS BEGIN TO CHANGE!

COPERNICUS• Born in Poland in 1473

• Lived during the Renaissance

• Mathematician and astronomer who began to question if the church and Aristotle and Ptolemy were right.

• Formulated the model that the Sun was the center of the solar system

• Wrote a book about the helio-centric theory!

COPERNICUS

COPERNICUS

GALILEO• Born in Italy in 1564

• Physicist, mathematician, engineer,

astronomer, and philosopher

• Lived during the Renaissance too!

• He invented the telescope. First to see Jupiter’s moons and Saturn’s rings!

• He improved many of the theories of Copernicus, proving through OBSERVATION that the Sun is really the center of the solar system.

GALILEO• The Church was very angry at Galileo for his ideas,

because they went against what the Catholic Church said was true (that the Earth was the center).

• Even though he was right, Galileo was arrested by the Church and put under house arrest until he died.

• He is known as the “Father of Modern Science.”

GALILEO