Thomas Lowbridge

Why did it take so long for the heliocentricmodel of the universe to be accepted?

Let me start by first of all explaining, what exactly is meant by a heliocentric model of the solar system, well simply it is a model of the solar systems where the sun is the centre and planets (including the earth) orbit it. This is the current theory that people believe.

The question is why we all believe this. Well to get an understanding behind this we will have to delve some thousand years in the past. Starting with a Greek astronomer and mathematician called Aristarchus of Samos, who lived around 300B.C, who first proposed the idea of a heliocentric model of the solar system.

During this period, scientists like Aristarchus of Samos were given a back seat compared to philosophers such as Aristotle. Who also had a theory stating that the sun revolved around the earth and that the earth was the centre of the solar system. This theory of Aristotle’s was accepted due to his class of philosopher over Aristarchus’s theory. This is because in these times philosophers had more power over people and more people trusted them compared to the few scientists that existed. Therefore Aristotle’s theory of a solar system (including the sun) that revolved around the earth was thought to be the general model of the universe. This is not to say no one believed Aristarchus it is just that there were a lot more that believed Aristotle

Later on in 1543, some 1800 years later, a scientist called Copernicus revived Aristarchus of Samos’s model of our solar system stating that he was right and that he also believed that earth orbited the sun, with the other planets also orbiting the sun. In the same respect Copernicus was also able to say that the moon orbited the earth. But rather than basing his model on evidence, he used arguments and that of a complex system to try to prove this heliocentric model of the solar system.

Though he even published a book stating his heliocentric model in 1566 (second edition), his model was still not accepted. This may have been because of the religious views at the time, as his model contradicted the bible, in saying that the earth is the not the centre of everything, but the sun is. Also because people had for ‘always’ believed that the sun orbited the earth it was hard to suddenly believe the reverse without any clear proof.

Then roughly 150 years later, a man called Isaac Newton came along and proved Copernicus’s model right, thanks to his laws of gravity. These stated that the mass of on an object will have a direct force on other objects, this force altering depending on the mass of an object and the distance from the object. Applied to the solar system this stated that sun, having a larger mass, will attract the earth and thus pulling it into the sun’s orbit, thanks to the earth’s own original force. Isaac Newton’s proof of Copernicus’s model was enough to prove that the earth actually orbits the sun.

Isaac Newton’s laws of gravity and motion were accepted because they made perfect sense and everyone could see them in action, throughout normal life.These simple laws are just that simple and so through Occam’s razor are the ones that are chosen as the simplest theory to understand that works

Thomas Lowbridge

So to conclude I would say that thanks to these reasons it took over 2000 years for a heliocentric model of our solar system to be accepted. Though as science is always improving we may be able to alter this model in the future with better findings.