Copernican system

(Astronomy) the theory published in 1543 by Copernicus which stated that the earth and the planets rotated around the sun and which opposed the Ptolemaic system

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Noun

Copernican system - (astronomy) Copernicus' astronomical model in which the Earth rotates around the sun

framework, model, theoretical account - a hypothetical description of a complex entity or process; "the computer program was based on a model of the circulatory and respiratory systems"

astronomy, uranology - the branch of physics that studies celestial bodies and the universe as a whole

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References in periodicals archive

The Copernican method is based on the Copernican principle, which claims the Earth is not the center of the universe and was coined by great Renaissance astronomer Copernicus

Author of doomsday book warns human race could be completely gone in 760 years; Author William Poundstone discusses a formula developed by Princeton University astrophysicist John Richard Gott III in the The Doomsday Calculation

Implications of the Copernican principle for our future prospects.

Reports of the Death of the Microscope Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

Life in the Universe may be rarer than what the naive conclusions of the Copernican principle predict.

The Copernicus Complex: Our Cosmic Significance in a Universe of Planets and Probabilities

(3) So named by Hermann Bondi in the mid-twentieth century, the Copernican principle has had its greatest influence in cosmology, where it has been indispensable in providing a paradigm for interpreting observations concerning our universe.

Physics at the theological frontiers

The Copernican Principle simply states that the Earth is not in any special or central location in the cosmos.

Refuting the Copernican principle

Such proposals reject the Copernican principle, which holds that the Earth occupies a typical location in the cosmos.

Earth not so special

Since then, astronomers have extended the idea and formed the Copernican Principle, which says that our place in the Universe as a whole is completely ordinary.

Earth's location in the Universe is 'utterly unremarkable'

As Carter put it, "That what we can expect to observe must be restricted by the condition necessary for our presence as observers." In other words--and contrary to the Copernican principle, which states that we do not occupy a special point in space or time--our situation is privileged in some sense.

The anthropic principle's astronomical roots