adjective
definition
Having the sun at the center/centre; usually in reference to a solar system or orbit.
Examples of heliocentric in a Sentence
But the explanation of this phenomenon is equally consistent with the geocentric as with the heliocentric theory of the solar system.
The routine sla_PLANET produces heliocentric position and velocity in the form of equatorial for the mean equator and equinox of J2000.
The problem of determining a heliocentric orbit first presented itself to Kepler, who actually determined that of Mars.
However, true progress in understanding the solar system and the planets only came when heliocentric ideas began to supplant the old geocentric system.
His dissatisfaction with Ptolemaic doctrines was of early date; and he returned from Italy, where so-called Pythagorean opinions were then freely discussed, in strong and irrevocable possession of the heliocentric theory.
Although the heliocentric system is not mentioned in the treatise, a quotation in the Arenarius of Archimedes from a work of Aristarchus proves that he anticipated the great discovery of Copernicus.
Co-ordinates referred to.a point of observation as the origin are termed " apparent," those referred to the centre of the earth are " geocentric," those referred to the centre of the sun, " heliocentric."
He applied Alexandrian trigonometry to estimate the distances and sizes of the sun and moon, and also postulated a heliocentric universe.
Besides many papers communicated to the academy of sciences, of which he became a member in 1714, he published Memoires pour servir d l'histoire et au progres de l'astronomie (St Petersburg, 1738), in which he gave the first method for determining the heliocentric co-ordinates of sun-spots; Memoire sur les nouvelles decouvertes au nord de la mer du sud (Paris, 1752), &c.
The coordinates thus found will in the case of a body moving around the sun be heliocentric. The reduction to the earth's centre is a problem of pure geometry.
He laid the groundwork of his heliocentric theory between 1506 and 1512, and brought it to completion in De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (1543) The colossal task of remaking astronomy on an inverted design was, in this treatise, virtually accomplished.
Under these disadvantageous circumstances, it is scarcely surprising that the heliocentric theory, while admired as a daring speculation, won its way slowly to acceptance as a truth.
But the observations do not extend continuously throughout the year, and do not include a sufficient length of the central line on each evening to enable us to distinguish certainly the heliocentric latitude of the central line, as distinct from its apparent geocentric position.