In 1543 the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus challenged the prevailing view of the world: he claimed that the Earth was not the immovable centre of the world but a planet in orbit around the sun. To the Christian church this was a heresy that contradicted the Bible. For centuries to come great scientists like Tycho Brahe, Kepler, Galileo and Newton wrestled with the question of a moving earth in the face... see more