Finding our Place in the Solar System

The Scientific Story of the Copernican Revolution

Todd Timberlake, Paul Wallace

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781107182295
• eBook ISBN:
  9781316865385
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Astronomy & Astrophysics

Finding our Place in the Solar System gives a detailed account of how the Earth was displaced from its traditional position at the center of the universe to be recognized as one of several planets orbiting the Sun under the influence of a universal gravitational force. The transition from the ancient geocentric worldview to a modern understanding of planetary motion, often called the Copernican Revolution, is one of the great intellectual achievements of humankind. This book provides a deep yet accessible explanation of the scientific disputes over our place in the solar system and the work of the great scientists who helped settle them. Readers will come away knowing not just that the Earth orbits the Sun, but why we believe that it does so. The Copernican Revolution also provides an excellent case study of what science is and how it works.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• 1 Introduction: mysterious skies
• 2 Two spheres: modeling the heavens and the Earth
• 3 Wanderers: the Moon and the planets
• 4 An Earth-centered cosmos: astronomy and cosmology from Eudoxus to Regiomontanus
• 5 Moving the Earth: the revolutions of Copernicus
• 6 Instruments of reform: Tycho's restoration of observational astronomy
• 7 Physical causes: Kepler's new astronomy
• 8 Seeing beyond Aristotle: Galileo's controversies
• 9 The system of the world: Newton's universal physics
• 10 Confirming Copernicus: evidence for Earth's motions
• Appendix Mathematical details
• Notes
• References
• Index