In early times, people looked up at the stars and did not know there were other planets and had no understanding of the Solar System. The ancient civilisations started to understand more and realised that there were other planets and constellations of stars.
In Europe in the 1500s, scientists and astronomers thought that the Earth was the centre of the Universe and that all the other planets and stars were in orbit around it. If you follow the movement of the Sun and the Moon and the stars, you can see why they thought this through simple observation.
Different people in the later 1500s started to put forward the idea that the Sun was at the centre and the Earth moved around it. Copernicus thought this, and Johannes Kepler's own work started to convince him that this might be true. Galileo Galilei, an Italian astronomer built a powerful telescope for the time and he saw that there were moons orbiting Jupiter and that Earth and other planets were in orbit around the Sun.
However, people don't always like new ideas and Galileo died a disgraced man because people thought the idea was so ridiculous.
In Europe in the 1500s, scientists and astronomers thought that the Earth was the centre of the Universe and that all the other planets and stars were in orbit around it. If you follow the movement of the Sun and the Moon and the stars, you can see why they thought this through simple observation.
Different people in the later 1500s started to put forward the idea that the Sun was at the centre and the Earth moved around it. Copernicus thought this, and Johannes Kepler's own work started to convince him that this might be true. Galileo Galilei, an Italian astronomer built a powerful telescope for the time and he saw that there were moons orbiting Jupiter and that Earth and other planets were in orbit around the Sun.
However, people don't always like new ideas and Galileo died a disgraced man because people thought the idea was so ridiculous.
