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Copernicus produced a new theory published in 1543 that had the Sun at the centre but in other respects it was similar to the Ptolemaic theory with its circles and epicycles.

He thought his model was simpler because many of the epicycles were smaller, even though there were just as many as in the Ptolemaic theory. We now know that this is because the Ptolemaic theory with the Earth at the centre required larger epicycles to 'take out' the Earth's motion round the Sun. In other words in the Ptolemaic model the Sun's orbit was the 'reverse' of the Earth's orbit. To that extent the Copernican theory was simpler.

Kepler's theory of 1609 did away with all the old circles and replaced them all with elliptical orbits for the planets, each one in its own plane, close to the ecliptic. He retained the idea that the Sun is at the centre, and devised the Three Laws of planetary motion.

After a full dynamical theory was produced by Newton that explained the elliptical orbits and Kepler's Laws, more and more people accepted that it was right, and that is the situation today, with tiny corrections due to Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.

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Q: Why did nicolaus Copernicus thought the sun was the center?
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