Here's an opportunity to explore the planetary orbital motions of our solar system in a live dynamic way. The interactive motion map can display either the Copernican or the Tychonian systems.
Up until approximately 100 years after Nicolaus Copernicus published his 'On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres' in 1543, every learned person in Europe knew one thing for absolutely certain: the sun and the planets travelled around the Earth. All astronomy texts said so. Tycho Brahe believed that the Sun and Moon and the stars revolve around the Earth, and the other five planets revolve around the Sun.
Dynamic Diagrams with free data source provided by NASA created an Orrery that illustrates the positions of the planets and moons in our solar system and allows a user to view their alignment at any given date in the past or present.
The default load of this interactive motion map displays the Copernican system and you can set any date, but you need to reload the page to watch the continuous animated motion of the planets and moons. This also applies each time you apply a change to the map.
