On Wed, 15 Sep 2010 12:48:03 -0700, Christopher D. Green wrote: >Just for the record, Aristarchus of Samos outlined a heliocentric model >of the universe 1700 years before Copernicus.
However, it should be pointed out that this was seen as a "heretical" position. Wikipedia's entry on Aristarchus (yada-yada) notes: |Rejection of the heliocentric view was common, as the following |passage from Plutarch suggests (On the Apparent Face in the |Orb of the Moon): | |Cleanthes (a contemporary of Aristarchus and head of the Stoics) |thought it was the duty of the Greeks to indict Aristarchus on the |charge of impiety for putting in motion the hearth of the universe … |supposing the heaven to remain at rest and the earth to revolve in |an oblique circle, while it rotates, at the same time, about its own axis. |—Tassoul, Concise History of Solar and Stellar Physics[3] | |The only other astronomer of antiquity who is known by name and |who is known to have supported Aristarchus' heliocentric model was |Seleucus of Seleucia, a Mesopotamian astronomer who lived a century |after Aristarchus.[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristarchus_of_Samos I guess the lesson to be taken away from this is that data will ultimately win the day (unless you're a fringe Catholic). -Mike Palij New York University m...@nyu.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=4868 or send a blank email to leave-4868-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
