Recentering the Universe: The Radical Theories of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton

Gr 6 Up—Beginning with the earliest ideas about the stars and their relationship to Earth, Miller chronicles how scientists challenged prevailing beliefs that the Earth was the center of the universe. For example, Copernicus's 1514 publication of his "Commentariolus," a six-page essay he distributed to his friends, proposed six new scientific cosmological explanations, including that "All the planets orbit the sun." Miller objectively explains the existing belief system upheld by the powerful Catholic Church and its resistance to change. Reproductions of ancient texts by Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, and Brahe are featured. Text boxes amplify the main text nicely. A two-page glossary provides helpful definitions of such terms as "parallax," "cosmology," and "retrograde motion." Some of these terms are included in the two-page index. This is a useful, first purchase for astronomy report writers and those seeking biographical information about important scientists.—Frances E. Millhouser, formerly at Fairfax County Public Library, VA