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From: dgary@ecsvax.UUCP (D Gary Grady)
Newsgroups: sci.astro
Subject: Re: StarDate: November 10 The Moon and Jupiter
Message-ID: <2250@ecsvax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 11-Nov-86 13:51:05 EST
Article-I.D.: ecsvax.2250
Posted: Tue Nov 11 13:51:05 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 12-Nov-86 21:56:17 EST
References: <1394@utastro.UUCP>
Reply-To: dgary@ecsvax.UUCP (D Gary Grady)
Organization: Datalytics, Inc.
Lines: 20

>. . .  Galileo used his observations of the jovian moons to confirm
>the theory that the planets of the solar system all revolve around the
>sun -- not the Earth.

>Script by Diana Hadley.
>(c) Copyright 1985, 1986 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin

I guess this proves that people parrot what they read without bothering
to engage the brain.  What Galileo demonstrated with the Jovian
satellites was merely that not all bodies orbited the Earth.  While this
gave credence to the Copernican view (and to the Tychonean, for that
matter), there is obviously no way he could "confirm" helicentrism with
this.  If anything, it might be argued as evidence that the solar
system revolves about Jupiter!  (Of course, we wouldn't call it the
solar system then :-).
-- 
D Gary Grady
(919) 286-4296
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