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The idea that the whole universe circles around the Earth was not as stupid as you might think. It is exactly what you see when you watch the sky. Only when you look very carefully, make very accurate measurements, day after day, year after year, of the positions of the Sun, the Moon, the planets and the stars, you will notice that something is amiss.
Yet, you could only find this out with the help of a telescope, which the Greek astronomers did not have. They only had very simple instruments to measure the positions of heavenly bodies.
 Medieval astronomers measuring the position of the moon and stars and the height of towers with a cross staff. |
The astonishing fact is – and this is what makes Copernicus one of the greatest scientists ever – that telescopes were only invented 100 years after his death. The Italian Galileo Galilei and the Dutch Christiaan Huygens were the first to look at the sky through a telescope. They were the first astronomers to produce the scientific evidence that Copernicus was right after all.
The Earth no longer was the centre of the Universe. The Sun was, although we now know that even this is too simple. The Sun, together with billions of other stars is part of the Milky Way, which again is one of billions of galaxies moving around in a vast and almost empty space.
How did Copernicus come to his truly revolutionary conclusions without the proper instruments to prove them?
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 25 February 2007 )
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