Latitudes and Longitudes - Ciência Viva

2
The Earth around the Sun!
From a very young age, we get used to seeing that day follows night and night follows day. Why?
Because we see the sun rising, moving across the sky and lighting up the world and, at the end of the day, it
disappears behind the mountains or into the sea. Then the moon and the stars come out,
rising and disappearing again in their turn to give way to the Sun.
People who lived long ago thought the Sun revolved around the Earth. Around 450
years ago, Nicholas Copernicus proved that it is the Earth that revolves around the
Sun and day follows night and night follows day because the Earth spins on its
own axis.
The Earth moves in an almost circular path on its journey around the Sun.
The Moon revolves around the Earth, accompanying it in its movement around the Sun.
• Do you think that the reason we cannot see the stars during the day is because the sunlight is too bright?
• Watch the sky closely at dusk and see how the stars become clearer and clearer.
Nicholas Copernicus was born in Poland in 1473, at the time that the Portuguese had just discovered the African
Coast as far as the Gulf of Guinea.
Copernicus dedicated himself to the study of medicine, law and astronomy.
He was the first to present clear evidence that the Earth revolved around the Sun. He compiled his ideas in the
book On the Rotation of Celestial Bodies, published in 1543 in Nuremburg, Germany. This was the year in which
D. João III was king in Portugal and the Portuguese began their voyages to Japan.