1. The discovery and significance of moons
‘The discovery and significance of moons’ begins with the long-established Earth-centred (geocentric) view of the cosmos that was eventually replaced by Nicolaus Copernicus’ heliocentric model in the early 16th century, which had the planets including the Earth going round the Sun and only the Moon going round the Earth. The discovery of more planets and their moons by Galileo Galilei, Christiaan Huygens, William Herschel, and others is described along with the process of naming moons. There are 190 known moons of our Solar System’s planets, but is knowing of them any use? The ability to determine longitude and to measure the mass of the object about which the moons orbit was important.
1779 ◽
Vol 69
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pp. 505-526