Historical cosmologies. Artwork of four historical models of planetary orbits. Ptolemy's geocentric (Earth-centred) model (upper right) dominated astr

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Historical cosmologies. Artwork of four historical models of planetary orbits. Ptolemy's geocentric (Earth-centred) model (upper right) dominated astronomy for over 1000 years. Copernicus published his heliocentric (Sun-centred) model (upper left) in 1543. It was eventually recognised that the Earth orbited the Sun, but Tycho Brahe's post-Copernican model (lower left) tried to keep the Sun orbiting a stationary Earth. Theories of planetary motions included Descartes's vortices (lower right) of 1644, replaced by Newton's theory of gravity (1687). Diagram published in Paris in 1777, four years before the discovery of Uranus.

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Size: 2975px × 3015px
Photo credit: © SCIENCE, INDUSTRY & BUSINESS LIBRARY/NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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