What did Copernicus think of space?

Answer 1

The idea is simply explained by looking at the Earth and Mars orbiting the Sun, as we now know they do, and assume circular orbits for simplicity. The Earth's orbit has a radius of 1.000 and it goes round in 365.25 days, while Mars's orbit has a radius of 1.524 and it goes round in 687 days.

Now suppose some outside force has decreed that the Earth stays still. How is the movement of Mars explained now? well, all you have to do is put Mars on an epicycle so that the centre of the epicycle has the same circle with radius 1.524, going round in 687 days, but in addition to this the epicycle has a radius of 1.000 and Mars goes round that (as well) in 365.25 days.

In this way the Ptolemaic system explains all the observed behaviour of the Mars while allowing the Earth to remain fixed at the centre. Extra epicycles were added to allow for eccentricity and inclination of the orbits.

Don't forget there was no dynamical theory underlying the Ptolemaic and Copernican theories: they only aimed to reproduce the observed movements of the planets among the fixed stars.

Of course Copernicus had a different starting-point from us, he started with the Earth at the centre, but he must have been impressed about the gain in simplicity achieved by placing the Sun at the centre instead of the Earth.

Answer 2

Copernicus figured out that the sun is the center of our solar system.

------------actually he just improved upon the idea of a heliocentric universe. Aristarchus and a lot of other people had came up with the idea first. he just used math physics and cosmology together to produce a better model of a heliocentric universe :)

Answer 3

In the 16th century he put forward the theory that the Sun is fixed at the centre of the solar system, based on the idea that it would make the movements of the planets simpler to explain.

It was not until the 18th century that it was discovered that the Sun is 330,000 times more massive than the Earth, and after that it was generally accepted as the truth that the Sun is at the centre.

Answer 4

Copernicus thought that the sun was in the center of the universe and everything revolved around it.

Answer 5

I believe he saw the SOLAR SYSTEM as geo-centric, which means that the other planets and the sun revolve around the Earth. That all the info that i know about copernicus and space. sorry.