It discredited many people’s theories and modern belief at the time. The heliocentric theory is important today, because it led to the advancement and accuracy in astronomical tools, both physical and mathematical and changed the way scientists understand the design of our solar system.

Galileo discovered evidence to support Copernicus’ heliocentric theory when he observed four moons in orbit around Jupiter. Over time Galileo deduced that the “stars” were in fact moons in orbit around Jupiter.

Both scientists held the same theory that the Earth revolved around the sun, a theory now known to be true. However, the Church disapproved of this theory because the Holy Scriptures state that the Earth is at the center, not the Sun.

The geocentric model says that the earth is at the center of the cosmos or universe, and the planets, the sun and the moon, and the stars circles around it. The early heliocentric models consider the sun as the center, and the planets revolve around the sun.

In both Hipparchian and Ptolemaic systems, the planets are assumed to move in a small circle called an epicycle, which in turn moves along a larger circle called a deferent….Introduction.

In order to preserve the geocentric cosmology of the time and to account for retrograde motion of Mars, Ptolemy had to make a model of planetary motion that invoked the use of epicycles. An epicycle is basically a little “wheel” that orbits on a bigger wheel.

Pythagoras developed a modern theory of vision much simpler than that of Plato. This theory maintained that light is emitted from luminous bodies, can suffer reflections, and causes the sensation of sight when it enters the eyes.

Isaac Newton

From the earliest times, many philosophers considered the question of light. Some argued it was a stream of particles, while others were certain it was composed of waves. Alongside Newton’s ideas, the idea that light was a wave had been proposed by people such as Christiaan Huyghens and Newton’s rival, Robert Hooke.

The law stating that the intensity of light decreases with the square of distance was also formulated by Johannes Kepler; this law, too, could only be demonstrated after the path of light through the eye had been discovered.