BU ID: 11552961

The Effort of Two Titans

Nicholas Copernicus and Johannes Kepler served as inspirations in the field of

astronomy. Copernicus proposed a theory of cosmology that challenged the theory of his time.
His theory introduced a heliocentric model where the sun acts as the center of the universe. At
the time astronomers at large believed in a geocentric system. As the apprentice of Copernicus
student, Kepler came along to protect the Copernican view adding slight modifications. Both of
these powerhouses agreed mostly on the same ideas but differed in some areas.
In his work On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, Copernicus explained his
ideas of how the universe functioned. The first question Copernicus attacked was the debate
over the shape of the Earth. His logic seemed fairly simple. Spheres were considered the closest
to perfection. Thus Copernicus concluded the Earth was a sphere and so were the heavens.
However debate not only revolved around the shape of the Earth, but the movement of the
planets. Copernicus argued that movement occurred in uniform circular/perpetual motion. The
observations he made supported his hypothesis. The planets always returned to the same location
validating that the celestial components followed a circular path. Copernicus final question
reveals the reason for the cause of the motion. Most astronomers at the time believed that the
Earth was responsible for the motion. A special force emitted from Earth somehow drew together
the universe. However Copernicus argued that this characteristic could be found on other
celestial components, specifically the sun. The sun remains motionless as the center of the
universe while the planets revolve around the sun because of a gravitational attraction. Even

though Copernicus furnished the area of astronomical study with his many theories, his ideas
still had flaws.
About a century later, Johannes Kepler emerged as the next major proponent in the
Copernican Revolution. Kepler agreed that the universe was a heliocentric system, but did not
agree with everything. He proposed his own theories about the motion of the planets. Using the
data that Tycho gathered from Mars, Kelper determined the motion of the planets to be ellipses
instead of perfect circle. With the Prutenic Tables (data gathered from Tycho) in his arsenal,
Kepler derived a formula to predict the position of Mars with no error. This provided Kepler
evidence to prove the motion of the planets was elliptical. He not only challenged the theory of
motion, but also differs from Copernicus on the subject of gravity. Everything has a gravitational
pull according to Kepler, not just the planets. He argued that gravity is a mutual relationship
where the objects attract each other. It just depends on which attractions larger. The sun in this
case has the strongest pull causing the planets to revolve around it. Ironically, it would be the
student of Copernicus student to help further his hypothesis.
Both men revolutionized cosmology and astronomy. One obsessed over circles, the other
discovered the real shape the planets revolved in. In a sense, Kepler started the idea of applying
physics to astronomy while Copernicus relied on mathematics. Still, Copernicus and Kepler
helped mankind take a step closer to discovering the truth of the universe.