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Science and Image
Nature 393, 123 (14 May 1998) | doi:10.1038/30116
Kepler's cosmos
Martin Kemp1
Abstract
Copernicus's system of the Universe was revolutionary but his method of representing it on paper was anything but. It was left to Kepler to apply Renaissance techniques of spatial visualization to make the theory come alive.
Nicolaus Copernicus's programme to purge the Ptolemaic model of the Universe of its growing burden of disfiguring complications was driven not least by what we would call aesthetic considerations. The architecture of his heliocentric system reinstated the geometrical integrity that the Greek astronomers had sought: "At rest... in the middle of everything is the sun.
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