For almost 2000 years, Western thinking was influenced by the concept of universe being centred around Earth, advocated by Aristotle and Ptolemy. In the 16th century, the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus proposed a new concept.
In his book On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies, Copernicus proposed that it was the Sun at the centre of the solar system and not Earth. This model was called the heliocentric system in 1543.
The Copernican model displaced Ptolemy’s geocentric model. Copernican heliocentrism became the launching point for modern astronomy. It described Earth as just another planet; placed third outward from the Sun.
Copernicus also explained that stars are distant objects that do not revolve around the Sun. Instead, Earth rotates once in 24 hours. This causes the stars to appear as if they revolve around Earth in the opposite direction.
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