THE EARTH-CENTRED VIEW OF THE UNIVERSE

WE EXPLORE WHY THE GEOCENTRIC MODEL WAS ACCEPTED FOR SO LONG

Reported by Daisy Dobrijevic

Once widely accepted, the geocentric model is now the debunked theory that the Earth is the centre of the universe, with the Sun and planets revolving around it – though nevertheless, some people still believe the universe revolves around them. In a 2012 survey conducted by the National Science Foundation of 2,200 people in the United States, when asked “does the Earth go around the Sun, or does the Sun go around Earth?”, a quarter answered incorrectly.

This antiquated view was once our only perspective of the cosmos. The ancient Greeks were the first to suggest a geocentric view of the universe. Eudoxus was the first to create a model of the geocentric universe in around 380 BCE. Aristotle then came up with a more detailed geocentric model, which was later refined by Claudius Ptolemaeus, also known as Ptolemy, in his treatise Almagest, released in the 2nd century CE. NASA states that “Ptolemy represents the epitome of knowledge of Grecian astronomy”. This is reflected in the fact that the geocentric model stood the test of time and was accepted for nearly 1,500 years.

For thousands of years humans have tried to make sense of the skies above, and our understanding of the universe has evolved alongside technological advances and scientific knowledge. When gazing up at the sky from what feels like a fixed reference point and witnessing the stars and planets dance across the sky, we can understand why the ancient Greeks adopted the geocentric view of the universe. They believed that the Earth they stood on was at the centre, with the sky, or ‘heavens’, rotating around it in a series of layered spheres.