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Celestial spheres. The celestial spheres, or celestial orbs, were the fundamental entities of the cosmological models developed by Plato, Eudoxus, Aristotle, Ptolemy, Copernicus, and others. In these celestial models, the apparent motions of the fixed stars and planets are accounted for by treating them as embedded in rotating spheres made of ...
On the Heavens. On the Heavens (Greek: Περὶ οὐρανοῦ; Latin: De Caelo or De Caelo et Mundo) is Aristotle 's chief cosmological treatise: written in 350 BC, [citation needed] it contains his astronomical theory and his ideas on the concrete workings of the terrestrial world. It should not be confused with the spurious work On the ...
Aristotelian physics is the form of natural philosophy described in the works of the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 BC). In his work Physics, Aristotle intended to establish general principles of change that govern all natural bodies, both living and inanimate, celestial and terrestrial – including all motion (change with respect to place), quantitative change (change with respect to ...
Aristotle deemed the Sun, Moon, planets and the fixed stars to be perfectly concentric spheres in a superlunary region above the sublunary sphere. Aristotle had asserted that these bodies (in the superlunary region) are perfect and cannot be corrupted by any of the classical elements: fire, water, air, and earth. Corruptible elements were only ...
As early as Plato, philosophers considered the heavens to be moved by immaterial agents. Plato believed the cause to be a world-soul, created according to mathematical principles, which governed the daily motion of the heavens (the motion of the Same) and the opposed motions of the planets along the zodiac (the motion of the Different). [12]
This understanding was accompanied by models of the Universe that depicted the Sun, Moon, stars, and naked eye planets circling the spherical Earth, including the noteworthy models of Aristotle (see Aristotelian physics) and Ptolemy. [8] This geocentric model was the dominant model from the 4th century BC until the 17th century AD.
Aristotle believed that the Moon was in the innermost sphere and therefore touches the realm of Earth, causing the dark spots and the ability to go through lunar phases. He further described his system by explaining the natural tendencies of the terrestrial elements: earth, water, fire, air, as well as celestial aether.
The first and second spheres of the planets moved exactly like the first two spheres of the sun and the moon. According to Simplicius, the third and fourth sphere of the planets were supposed to move in a way that created a curve known as a hippopede. The hippopede was a way to try and explain the retrograde motions of planets. [5]