Heliocentrism

In astronomy, heliocentrism is the theory that the Sun is at the center of the Universe and/or the Solar System. The word is derived from the Greek (Helios = "Sun" and kentron = "Center"). Historically, heliocentrism is opposed to geocentrism and currently to modern geocentrism, which places the earth at the center. (The distinction between the Solar System and the Universe was not clear until modern times, but extremely important relative to the controversy over cosmology and religion.) In the 16th and 17th centuries, when the theory was revived and defended by Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler, it became the center of a major dispute.

References

• Fantoli, Annibale (2003). Galileo—For Copernicanism and the Church, third English edition, tr. George V. Coyne, SJ. Vatican Observatory Publications, Notre Dame, IN. ISBN 88-209-7427-4
• Heilbron, J.L. (1999).The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
• Hoyle, Sir Fred (1973). Nicolaus Copernicus. Heinemann Educational Books Ltd., London.
• Koestler, Arthur (1959). The Sleepwalkers: a history of man's changing vision of the universe. Hutchinson, London.