Who first proposed that the Sun, rather than the Earth, lay at the centre of our local bit of the cosmos? That the Sun was the hub around which the planets, the comets and the other celestial bodies moved?
Most people would say Copernicus, just under 500 years ago. He certainly challenged the prevailing world view — endorsed by great ancient minds such as Aristotle and Ptolemy, and blessed by the Church — that the Earth, as home to Man, lay unmoving at the centre of the entire cosmos… all of which, including the distant ‘fixed stars,’ rotated around the Earth once per day. This vision, which also appears to conform with common sense and everyday experience, had been undisputed for more than 1,500 years, until Copernicus summoned up the…