"According to Copernicus the earth is only a planet like the others, and not even the biggest one, while the sun is the most important body in the system, and the stars probably too far away for any motion of the earth to affect their apparent places. ...He shows that the revolution of the earth will account for the seasons, and for the stationary points and retrograde motions of the planets. He corrects definitely the order of the planets outwards from the sun, a matter which had been in dispute. A notable defect is due to the idea that a body can only revolve about another body or a point, as if rigidly connected with it, so that, in order to keep the earth’s axis in a constant direction in space, he has to invent a third motion."
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Kepler
Kepler is a short history of events leading to the astronomical discoveries of Johannes Kepler. It was written by Walter William Bryant, a staff member of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. The book was published in 1920 by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, and by The MacMillan Company, New York, within a series of books called "Pioneers of Progress."
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