<P> In 1543 , the geocentric system met its first serious challenge with the publication of Copernicus ' De revolutionibus orbium coelestium ( On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres ) , which posited that the Earth and the other planets instead revolved around the Sun . The geocentric system was still held for many years afterwards , as at the time the Copernican system did not offer better predictions than the geocentric system , and it posed problems for both natural philosophy and scripture . The Copernican system was no more accurate than Ptolemy 's system , because it still used circular orbits . This was not altered until Johannes Kepler postulated that they were elliptical ( Kepler 's first law of planetary motion ) . </P>
<P> In 1543 , the geocentric system met its first serious challenge with the publication of Copernicus ' De revolutionibus orbium coelestium ( On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres ) , which posited that the Earth and the other planets instead revolved around the Sun . The geocentric system was still held for many years afterwards , as at the time the Copernican system did not offer better predictions than the geocentric system , and it posed problems for both natural philosophy and scripture . The Copernican system was no more accurate than Ptolemy 's system , because it still used circular orbits . This was not altered until Johannes Kepler postulated that they were elliptical ( Kepler 's first law of planetary motion ) . </P>
the first scientist to question the geocentric model was
the first scientist to question the geocentric model was
Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler