Heliocentric theories

Science has changed greatly from ancient observations of the stars to modern neuroscience about the human brain. Humankind has learned some great things from science. The human quest for knowledge has led our species on a long, hard, and sometimes dangerous path. But the quest for knowledge has made us one of the smartest animals ever to live. I am going to tell you how science got from forming a number system, to the theories to cure deadly illnesses in a hospital.

One period in time in the 17th century, some great scientific discoveries were made. The scientific revolution is called so because it was a revolution in human understanding about the  physical universe. Some of these discoveries include the scientific method and a heliocentric model of the solar system. Algebraic expressions such as x,y,z,a,b,c were invented. The scientific revolution was one of the most unique revolutions of human history.

Copernican drawing of the solar system

A diagram showing Kepler's first law

A diagram showing Kepler's second law

A diagram showing Kepler's third law

One of the greatest debates of the time was whether the solar system was geocentric (Earth centered) or heliocentric (sun centered). It was long thought that the Earth was the center of the of the solar system. It was not until 1514 when the Polish scientist Nicholas Copernicus wrote Commentariolus, a book containing his theories on heliocentrics. Copernicus faced torture by the church for his radical ideas. So he delayed publishing Commentariolus until his death in 1543.

Another scientist who believed in heliocentrics was Johannes Kepler. He was a student of Tycho Brahe who is credited with some of the greatest scientific discoveries of his time. Kepler however, did not believe in Brahe’s geocentric theories of the solar system. Kepler believed in the theory of Nicholas Copernicus. However Copernicus incorrectly assumed that the orbits of the planets were circular. Kepler came up with three laws of planetary motion.

Kepler’s first law: The orbit of every planet is an ellipse with the Sun at one of the two foci.

Kepler’s second law: A line joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas during equal intervals of time.

Kepler’s third law: The square of the orbital period of a planet is directly proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of its orbit.

         One of the last scientists of this revolution to believe in heliocentrics was Galileo Galilei. He was the first to produce scientific evidence for the heliocentric theory of Copernicus. Galileo placed the sun at the center of the solar system with the planets including earth orbiting around it. The Catholic Church condemned heliocentric theories of the universe. Believing that mankind and Earth should be the center of all things. Galileo was put on trial for his theories and was put under house arrest.

Today, many of these theories are still used in modern science. Kepler’s laws are often consulted by modern scientists when debating theories. I am truly amazed by the discoveries of these scientists. They thought of great things without any modern technology. They had only basic, tabletop telescopes and no robots or probes roaming in space. Their minds were their only calculators and their telescopes were their only eyes into the world beyond our own.

In conclusion, heliocentrics evolved over several years and several scientists. We now understand and have mapped the solar system according to these observation. If these scientists were able to forward themselves in time a couple hundred years, they would be amazed at modern technology. But they would notice that their basic principals are still used in modern science. These very principles are taught to kids like me today. The debate about heliocentrics in our solar system may be complete, but who knows? Maybe there is another solar system out there, waiting to be discovered. So grab your telescopes, and get ready to examine the sky for whatever is out there in the vast blackness that is, our universe. 
Sources
 "Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler's_laws_of_planetary_motion>. 
Fortey, Jacqueline. Great Scientists. London: DK, 2007. Print.
http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/starry/copernicuslrg.jpg
http://www.astronomynotes.com/solarsys/planmass.gif
http://www.gravitywarpdrive.com/NGFT_Images/Kepler_2nd_Law.gif
http://m.teachastronomy.com/astropediaimages/2000px-Kepler-first-law.svg.png

Galileo, The Father of Modern Science

Galileo, the father of modern observational astronomy, opened up revolutionary frontiers in what would become modern day astronomical study and research.  Our knowledge and understanding of science and astronomy would be unimaginably different

if Galileo had not developed the heliocentric

model of the solar system and validated, through telescopic viewing Venus, many constellations and several moons.  Galileo was a pioneer in the field of astronomy, and while many of his theories were considered controversial in his time, the impact which they have made in modern astronomy cannot be argued.

The heliocentric theory is one of the greatest discoveries Galileo has ever made.  The heliocentric model is a model showing that the Earth and the other planets revolve around a relatively stationary Sun at the center of the Solar System.  The word comes from the Greek words helios "sun" and kentron "center.”  Historically, heliocentrism was opposed to geocentrism, which placed the Earth at the center.  Although Galileo was not the first to support the heliocentric model of the solar system, he was entirely responsible for the idea that the

sun is the center of the universe.  Galileo was responsible for this discovery, but he had nothing but a telescope to validate his findings and it was Galileo’s findings through the telescope which supported heliocentrism stronger than at any other time in history .  Without Galileo’s research, measurement, validation and theory of heliocentric model, our beliefs and philosophies of space and time would be completely different from what they are today.   This is why I believe that Galileo could well possibly be one of the greatest scientists/astronomers the world has ever seen.


Galileo is also responsible for the discovery of Lo, Callisto, Europa and Ganymede, four of Jupiter’s moons.  The four moons were discovered sometime between 1609 and 1610 when Galileo made improvements to his telescope. Galileo’s innovative improvements to the telescope, enabled

him to observe celestial bodies more distinctly than had ever before. Galileo's discovery of Jupiter’s moons showed the importance of the telescope as a tool for astronomers by proving that there were objects in space that could not be seen by the naked eye.   More importantly, the incontrovertible discovery of celestial bodies orbiting something other than the Earth dealt a serious blow to the geocentric theory in which everything orbits around the Earth.  These were incredible discoveries at the time, and more proof of Galileo’s leadership in the research, and science of astronomy.


Part of Galileo’s contribution to astronomy were his many improvements to the mechanical devices utilized in astronomy.  The most important and impactful improvements  developed by Galileo were to the telescope.  Galileo made his first telescope in 1609, modeled after telescopes

produced in other parts of Europe at could magnify objects three times. He created a telescope later that could magnify objects twenty times.  With this telescope, he was able to look at the moon, discover the four satellites of Jupiter, observe a supernova, verify the phases of Venus, and discover sunspots.  These observations and discoveries could never have been made if it weren’t for Galileo’s amazing scientific research and beliefs.

In a time where opposing philosophies created tension in the scientific community, Galileo brought innovation, validation and discovery to his beloved astronomy.  It was his passion which enabled Galileo to persevere, despite the Spanish Inquisition, and bring never before seen technologies and discoveries to support his beliefs.  Galileo, the Father of Modern Observational Astronomy, was a scientist who supported his beliefs by creating new ways to make new discoveries, and, in the end, these discoveries supported all which Galileo believed.

Works Cited

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galilean_moonshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galilean_moons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliocentrism
http://galileo.rice.edu/bio/narrative_6.html
http://solar-center.stanford.edu/galileo/
http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/whos_who_level2/galileo.html

Programing the Heliocentric System in Python

Programming the Heliocentric System in Python

By Roy Stracovsky

To learn about the Scientific Revolution, I decided to recreate the current heliocentric system. With that in mind, I thought of how it should be made. At first, I thought that I could make it using a crude foam ball and wire system, but the planets couldn't move, and if I figured how to make them move, they would revolve around the sun in circles, and this is incorrect. I looked for other ideas, and thought about what I also wanted to learn, while learning about the heliocentric system, and it hit me, I should program the system. I decided to use Python, a language that is taught in the upper-school.

Before I go into how I programmed the system, I would like to explain when it was discovered. Previous to the system, there was a different system. This system was was the geocentric system and it displayed, that the sun and moon and planets revolve around the earth. This was created by Ptolemy.

As you can see, saturn, mars, jupiter, venus, and mercury, seem to be revolving in circles, around an invisible point, this is very odd, but back then, this was the way. In time, a scientist called Copernicus thought differently. He believed that all the planets revolved in a circular orbit around the sun. This is close to our current solar system, but this was slightly incorrect. He was missing the fact that planets revolve in ellipses. Later, Kepler, another scientist, discovered this fact through some data.

Now we can get to the program. First, we need to install Andrew Miller's Graphics Library to make the animations. Here is the webpage where you can download it.

Next we can make a new document in Python Idle. This is where we put our code.

Now we need to add the animation framework code. This is necessary for the library. It is the thing that runs the animation.

Next, we can make variables. The variables are only for mercury because I only want to test a olanet first, then add the others.

Now we need to define a function that takes a planets time it takes to orbit the sun, speed that it does that to, which place it is in in the system, and the size of the planet.
First you need to find the base size, and add it to increment of x times the orbit to the power of 1.1. Take all of this and divide it by two, and you have horizontal radius. To make the vertical radius, do the same but using the incrY instead.
To make the x position for the planet, add the horizontal radius to the cosine of the remainder of time multiplied by the speed, and 360. We will call this "degree".
For the y position, we take the radiusY, and multiply it by the sine of degree.
Now, we draw the circle, so when the function is applied, we want to make the circle. We put in the x coordinate and the y coordinate, and we put in the radius.
Now, for future planning, if the planet orbit is saturn, we want to add a ring on top of the planet.

Next, we add another function. This function draws the solar system. First, we draw a yellow circle, or the sun.
After that, we make a loop that starts at one and goes nine spaces, or to ten. We make a horizontal diameter that takes the base size and adds it to the product of incrX and the power of the time that is looped to the 1.1th. We do this to make the vertical diameter too. Now we draw an ellipse at the origin with the horizontal and vertical diameters.

Finally, we need to draw the things. We need to reset a matrix, make the origin in the center of the screen, draw the system in the current time, a variable that we create, and add one to the time.

Now for the final with mercury, you need to take away the orbit ellipse drawn, and fix up some bugs like the translate by adding 200.

Now you can add the other planets!

Nowadays, we take it for granted that the orbits are ellipses, but in reality, it is so hard to program and hard to discover. By doing this, this has been a quadruple learning situation through math, science, history, and computer science! I will forever have this seared in my brain.