The heliocentric model

To naturalne aby podczas obserwacji Słońce zakładać, że krąży ono wokół nas. Arystarch z Samos (ok. 310-230 P.n.e.), grecki astronom, pierwszy stwierdził, że Ziemia obraca się wokół własnej osi i obraca się wokół Słońca. W tamtych czasach było to niebezpieczne twierdzenie i nie mogło przeciagnąć na jego stronę zwolenników geocentrycznego modelu, przy którym obstawano przez ponad tysiąc lat.

In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 – 1543) published “On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres”, in which he explained what many had suspected: that the sun is at the centre of the universe and we move around it along with all the other planets. This is called the Heliocentric Model.

This theory resolved the issue of retrograde motion by arguing that these pretzel orbits were an illusion due to our vantage point. It is a perfect example of Occam’s razor: if you have two competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected. The simplest explanation tends to be correct. If you look closely you'll see his model correctly assumed the moon is orbiting around us. Notice how this explains the strange wandering motion of planets when observed from telescopes based on Earth.

It's the motion of the Earth relative to Mars which causes this wandering effect. The next simulation will allow you to explore both the geocentric vs. heliocentric models of our solar system. Have fun!