Nicolaus Copernicus's Heliocentric Model

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Long ago, people believed that the Earth was the center of the universe, and that all the stars, planets, and other celestial bodies orbited around it. However, as pivotal discoveries were made and new theories emerged, society gained a much more insightful understanding of the cosmos above. In the second century, an astronomer by the name of Claudius Ptolemy proposed his geocentric model of the solar system, which depicted Earth in the center of the universe and the planets and the Sun orbiting in concentric circles around it. There were problems with this model, however, and years later an astronomer named Nicolaus Copernicus proposed another model which showed the Sun at the center. Although heliocentric models had been proposed before, Copernicus’s was one that became convincing …show more content…
Manned and unmanned missions were travelling faster and farther than ever before, and new information about the universe was being revealed almost routinely. It was the first time rockets were actually powerful enough to reach beyond the limitations of the atmosphere. It was when the first people were sent into space, eliminating any possible doubt that the existence of humans in space was possible. Space research was conducted by astronomers and astronauts alike, allowing for the most accelerated technological growth known to history at the time.
One of the most remarkable feats of space exploration was the landing of a man on the Moon. On July 16, 1969, NASA launched its famous Saturn V rocket into orbit for a journey across the void of space to Earth’s only natural satellite. A little over a hundred hours after launch, it accomplished what many people considered impossible just a few years ago—a man from Earth walked on the lunar surface. The crew collected rock samples and performed numerous experiments, in the process greatly expanding the databases of knowledge on the Moon

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