Geocentric model
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Figure of the heavenly bodies — An illustration of the Ptolemaic geocentric system by Portuguese cosmographer and cartographer Bartolomeu Velho, 1568 (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris)
In astronomy, the geocentric model (also known as geocentrism, or the Ptolemaic system) is a description of the cosmos where Earth is at the orbital center of all celestial bodies. This model served as the predominant cosmological system in many ancient civilizations such as ancient Greece including the noteworthy systems of Aristotle (see Aristotelian physics) and Ptolemy. As such, they believed that the Sun, Moon, stars, and naked eye planets circled Earth.Two commonly made observations supported the idea that Earth was the center of the Universe. The stars, the sun, and planets appear to revolve around Earth each day, making Earth the center of that system. The stars were thought to be on a celestial sphere, with the earth at its center, that rotated each day, using a line through the north and south pole as an axis. The stars closest to the equator appeared to rise and fall the greatest distance, but each star circled back to its rising point each day. The second observation supporting the geocentric model was that the Earth does not seem to move from the perspective of an Earth-bound observer, and that it is solid, stable, and unmoving.Ancient Roman and medieval philosophers usually combined the geocentric model with a spherical Earth. It is not the same as the older flat Earth model implied in some mythology, as was the case with the biblical and postbiblical Latin cosmology. The ancient Jewish Babylonian uranography pictured a flat Earth with a dome-shaped rigid canopy named firmament placed over it. (????- raqîa').However, the ancient Greeks believed that the motions of the planets were circular and not elliptical, a view that was not challenged in Western culture until the 17th century through the synthesis of theories by Copernicus and Kepler.The astronomical predictions of Ptolemy's geocentric model were used to prepare astrological and astronomical charts for over 1500 years. The geocentric model held sway into the early modern age, but from the late 16th century onward was gradually superseded by the heliocentric model of Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler. There was much resistance to the transition between these two theories. Christian theologians were reluctant to reject a theory that agreed with Bible passages (e.g. "Sun, stand you still upon Gibeon", Joshua 10:12 – King James 2000 Bible). Others felt a new, unknown theory could not subvert an accepted consensus for geocentrism.
^ Cite error: The named reference Lawson2004 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Kuhn 1957, pp. 5–20.
^ Abetti, Giorgio (2012). "Cosmology". Encyclopedia Americana (Online ed.). Grolier.
^ Tirosh-Samuelson, Hava (2003). "Topic Overview: Judaism". In van Huyssteen, J. Wentzel Vrede. Encyclopedia of Science and Religion 2. New York: Macmillan Reference USA. pp. 477–83.
^ Gandz, Solomon (1953). "The distribution of land and sea on the Earth's surface according to Hebrew sources". Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 22: 23–53. Like the Midrash and the Talmud, the Targum does not think of a globe of the spherical earth, around which the sun revolves in 24 hours, but of a flat disk of the earth, above which the sun completes its semicircle in an average of 12 hours.
^ Browning, W. R. F. (1997). "firmament". Dictionary of the Bible (Oxford Reference Online ed.). Oxford University Press.
^ Wright, J. Edward (2000). The Early History Of Heaven. Oxford University Press. p. 155.
^ Wright 2000, pp. 55–6
^ Wright 2000, p. 201
^ Selley, Richard C.; Cocks, L. Robin M.; Plimer, Ian R., eds. (2005). "Biblical Geology". Encyclopedia of Geology 1. Amsterdam: Elsevier. p. 253 – via Gale Virtual Reference Library. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
^ Applebaum, Wilbur (2009). "Astronomy and Cosmology: Cosmology". In Lerner, K. Lee; Lerner, Brenda Wilmoth. Scientific Thought: In Context 1. Detroit: Gale. pp. 20–31 – via Gale Virtual Reference Library. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
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