Lecture 3e. Copernicus & Heliocentric Picure

1. Copernicus hypothesized the Earth and the planets orbit the Sun.
So Earth was no longer the center of the universe!

2. This assertion had a number of consequences, which could be used to make predictions that observers could check:

Each of these would eventually be observed, but none were seen in Copernicus' lifetime.

3. BUT this cosmology also cleared up some difficulties: