Aryabhatta expounded heliocentric theory before Copernicus

Born on October 15, 1931, in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, Dr Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen is a man of significance. He was known across the globe as India’s Missile Man, and as the country’s eleventh president, he became highly popular. Dr APJ Kalam graduated from Madras Institute Of Technology in Aeronautical Engineering. Before becoming India’s president, he worked as an aeronautical engineer at Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). It acted as an excellent opportunity to cultivate and address young minds. It was an excellent opportunity for him to connect and address the nation’s young minds. This article explains whether civilian people accepted this theory.

Quote from A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on Heliocentric Theory

President Dr Kalam demonstrates that Aryabhatta’s heliocentric theory of gravity was one of the first theories of gravitation, “the earliest and preceded Copernicus by a thousand years.” Aryabhatta also wrote a century before Copernicus and Galileo about eclipses and the sun as the source of moonlight.

 

Brief Definition of Heliocentric

 

As per astronomy, heliocentrism can be viewed as the Sun being in the middle of the Solar System or Universe. The word comes from Greek (Helios means “Sun” and kentron means “Centre”). Historically it can be said to be opposed to geocentrism, which takes Earth as its centre. Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler resurrected and maintained the thesis in the 16th and 17th centuries, sparking a great debate.

 

Evolution of Heliocentric Theory 

In astronomy, Nicolaus Copernicus, the man credited with inventing the Heliocentric model of the cosmos, was unquestionably the most significant academic. Copernicus postulated a model of the cosmos. The Earth, planets, and stars circled the sun based on continual measurements of the planets’ movements and preceding conceptions from ancient antiquity and the Islamic World. He handled the mathematical issues and contradictions that arose from the original geocentric model in this way, laying the groundwork for modern astronomy.

Copernicus was not the first to propose a solar system where the Earth and planets circled the sun. His heliocentric universe model was classical and modern. 

 

Origin of Geocentric Model

It occurred when European astronomers were trying the mathematical and empirical issues that came out from the then-accepted Ptolemaic model of the cosmos, a geocentric model formed in the 2nd century CE. Ptolemy’s model was also the first astronomical system to provide a comprehensive and detailed analysis of how the cosmos functioned. Not only did his model fix flaws in the Ptolemaic system, but it also provided a more clear vision of the world that eliminated the need for intricate mathematical devices that the geocentric model required.

 

Aryabhatta expounded heliocentric theory before Copernicus.

The first one to introduce heliocentric theory before Copernicus was none other than Aryabhatta.

Aryabhatta:

Working in what is now Patna, Aryabhata I (born 476 CE). Present the theory which dealt methodically with breakthroughs in mathematics and astronomy. It explored time units and celestial sphere characteristics, defined the globe as a revolving sphere suspended in space, and generated a table of the planets’ mean locations, among other things. 

Aryabhatta on Heliocentric Theory

The Earth, according to Aryabhatta, rotates on its axis, and several aspects of his planetary epicyclic models spin at the same rate as the planet’s rotation around the Sun. Some interpreters have speculated that Aryabhata’s calculations were based on a heliocentric concept in which the planets orbit the Sun.

Aryabhatta described a heliocentric model in his most significant works that assumed Earth to be rotating on its axis, and the planet’s periods were calculated concerning a stationary Sun.

 

Ptolemy’s Prediction for Heliocentric theory

In the 2nd century BCE, Egyptian-Greek scientist Claudius Ptolemaeus (aka Ptolemy) published his book Almagest. Ptolemy illustrated that the Earth was in the middle of the universe. The stars were also situated at equal distances from the centre of the universe, based on millennia of astronomical traditions dating from Babylonian to current times.

 

Drawbacks in Ptolemy’s Ptolemaic model

The hypotheses failed to account for all of the planet’s observable behaviours. There are some loopholes in the theory. A planet’s epicycle would always appear to move at a uniform speed to an observer stationed at this position. However, it would appear to move at non-uniform velocity from all other locations.

For nearly a thousand years, this system was the recognised cosmological paradigm in the Roman, Mediaeval European, and Islamic civilizations, but it was cumbersome by modern standards. Every planet in the Ptolemaic model needed an epicycle that revolved on a distinct axis and was offset by an equant that was likewise unique to each planet.

 

Modern Us of Geocentric & Heliocentric Systems 

The origin and orientation of a coordinate system must frequently be chosen in current computations. Systems with their genesis at the centre of Earth’s mass, solar mass, or the centre of mass of the solar system are usually chosen for practical reasons. In this context, the adjectives geocentric and heliocentric may be employed. Such a choice of coordinates, on the other hand, has no philosophical or physical ramifications.

Conclusion

The decades of research by Aryabhatta on the heliocentric theory that Nicolaus Copernicus later appropriately concluded changed the scenario of modern astronomy. It affects multiple theories and sectors. President Dr Kalam demonstrated this theory. This article explained whether civilian people accepted this theory and the opportunity this theory posted.