Earth
Aristotle BC
Aristotle
Geocentric model
Nicolas Copernicus
Eyeball observations De Revolutionibus The Earth rotates on its axis once daily and revolves around the Sun once yearly.
Heliocentric Model
Tycho Brahe ( )
Johann Kepler ( )
Kepler’s 1 st Law “ellipses”
Kepler’s 2 nd Law “equal areas in equal times”
PlanetPeriodDistanceP/DP/D 2 P 2 /D 3 Mercury Venus Earth1.00 Mars Jupiter Saturn
Kepler’s 3 rd Law “Harmonic Law”
Astronomical Unit Average Distance to Sun from the Earth 1 A.U. = 150 million km Examples: Mercury 0.4 A.U. Neptune 30 A.U.