Chapter 4: Tycho’s Compromise: Planting Seeds of Cosmic Doubt
“Professor? What brings you here at this hour?”
“Aren, I’m sorry, but can you come out right now? It’s about the sun-centered theory you mentioned this morning.”
“Now?”
“I’m really sorry. It’s not quite bedtime yet, so I thought it’d be okay to come by.”
When I opened the door, I saw excitement and urgency in Nihir’s eyes.
It looked like she’d spent the whole day calculating.
Still, her expression suggested she’d realized something, so she was indeed living up to her reputation as the smartest person in this world.
“Alright, let’s go.”
With the mindset of mentoring a scholar, I quickly grabbed my coat and followed Nihir outside.
Nihir seemed less like she was walking of her own will and more like she was being drawn by the starlight.
We crossed the campus to her office.
Upon arriving, Nihir began digging through the piles of papers strewn across her desk.
They were densely packed with astronomical results and calculations.
“Aren, your idea of placing the sun at the center with elliptical orbits—it solved everything that hadn’t been explained before. Mercury’s retrograde, Venus’s phase changes, even the rhythm of seasonal variations.”
“Oh, really? Let’s take a look.”
Nihir spoke with a thrill before the new truth, but honestly, it wasn’t enough to excite me.
I’d say I was just pleased she understood what I taught her.
“Here, this is the new picture of the universe.”
“The universe, huh…”
She showed me a solar system that only went up to Saturn.
There were glaring errors from the start, and I almost laughed but managed to hold it back.
As a fellow scientist, I didn’t want to ruin Nihir’s moment.
Her calculations were embarrassingly basic compared to modern math, so I skimmed them mentally.
Looking at the elliptical orbits she drew, which differed from what I knew, it was clear she’d miscalculated something.
“There seem to be some errors.”
“How do you know that? Did you already calculate it?”
“Not exactly, just an approximation.”
“Well… there are some errors, but I didn’t expect you to notice…”
Does this elf think I just guessed the elliptical orbits correctly?
I pointed to the orbit of Mars.
“Look here. Mars’s orbit is too skewed to one side of the ellipse. The sun should be at one of the foci. Also, applying the law of equal areas, a planet moves faster when closer to the sun and slower when farther away.”
Nihir tilted her head.
“What law?”
“Oh, I’ll explain now.”
Kepler, by analyzing centuries of astronomical data, discovered three laws of planetary motion.
First, planetary orbits are ellipses with the sun at one focus.
Second, the line connecting a planet to the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal time intervals.
Third, the law governing the periods of planetary orbits.
Thanks to making science YouTube videos, I hadn’t forgotten these.
But honestly, the movements of the solar system can mostly be explained by Newton’s law of gravity.
Kepler’s explanations were merely empirical observations, limited by placing the sun at the universe’s center.
Newton’s law not only theoretically explains celestial motion but also discards the idea that the sun is the universe’s center.
‘Wait, so Nihir calculated and drew all this without even knowing Kepler’s laws?’
Thinking back, all I explained to Nihir this morning was the heliocentric theory and a rough mention of elliptical orbits from Kepler’s first law.
This was surprising.
Could I have done this with just those two pieces of information?
‘This woman really is a genius.’
She’s just trapped by the limitations of her era.
As I explained all three of Kepler’s laws, Nihir’s eyes filled with awe, captivated by the new principles.
“It’s… like expressing the heartbeat of the universe.”
Her voice grew reverent, like a pilgrim bowing before truth.
“How did you…”
“It’s explainable with existing astronomical data. They were just misinterpreted because the Earth was placed at the center.”
“That’s incredible.”
Determined not to miss this chance to approach the truth, Nihir immediately began refining the orbits using Kepler’s laws.
I helped from the side.
At first, she found it unfamiliar and difficult, but she quickly got the hang of it and finished the calculations.
Before dawn broke, we had drawn an entirely new solar system on the blackboard.
The planets moved in harmonious, regular elliptical orbits around the sun.
It finally looked like the solar system I was used to, even if it only went up to Saturn.
“This… this is the truth I’ve been searching for my entire life.”
Nihir’s voice trembled with emotion.
“Student Aren. No, Mr. Aren.”
“Mr. Aren?”
“I don’t know. Calling someone greater than me a student and speaking informally feels…”
“Do as you like.”
I didn’t care.
She was using polite speech, not informal, so I’d respond in kind.
“Mr. Aren, we need to announce this to the world right away. This completely turns everything we know upside down.”
“That’s true, but…”
Outside the office, these medieval people were only just learning at the academy that the Earth is spherical.
Even Nihir, considered the smartest person, had been researching to refine geocentrism, believing it to be the truth.
Could we make these medieval minds understand a near-perfect heliocentric theory all at once?
I didn’t think so.
History shows that revolutionary theories often get buried for being too difficult.
If someone has the intellect to verify it themselves, they might understand, but how many medieval people, who firmly believe in geocentrism, could verify it like Nihir?
Given her genius, probably none.
“Don’t you think it’s too much?”
“What do you mean?”
“How many people could understand this? Tell me.”
Nihir seemed to grasp what I meant.
She touched her chin, thought for a moment, and spoke.
“Not to boast, but honestly… probably just me.”
“Exactly.”
“But still, we have to try, don’t we?”
I walked toward the window.
The Milky Way, painted by the stars, was visible in the night sky.
Even modern humans haven’t unraveled the universe’s mysteries.
These medieval people are just beginning to dismantle their old worldview and embark on a cosmic adventure.
“Let’s start with something simple. Make them doubt that the Earth is the center of the universe.”
“We already know this, and you want to start with just that? Of course, since you’ve done all this, I’ll follow, but…”
Next to the window was a crudely made telescope.
It used refractive lenses.
I ran my hand over it.
“There are four moons orbiting Jupiter, not the Earth. I’ll present a compromise theory that blends geocentrism and heliocentrism.”
“Orbiting Jupiter? That’s amazing. That would definitely spark doubt in people’s minds. It doesn’t make sense for them to orbit Jupiter. There’s still so much I don’t understand.”
Nihir doesn’t yet know the law of gravity.
Yet, her ability to grasp heliocentrism and follow along is impressive.
“A transitional compromise theory might be something people can accept.”
“That could work. But how do we create it?”
“I’ll handle that.”
“If there’s anything I can help with, let me know. I’ll support whatever you’re doing unconditionally.”
Nihir looked at me with pure, wondrous eyes, like a child gazing at a mentor.
“Once I write the paper, help me present it at the academy. If you assist me well, I’ll teach you later how Jupiter’s moons orbit it.”
Nihir’s eyes widened.
“You know that too? To know even that… Mr. Aren, you’re…”
“Anyway, let’s call it a day.”
I said goodbye to Nihir and returned to the dormitory.
Nihir looked reluctant and awestruck.
She didn’t know the full extent of the wisdom I held, but she now recognized its existence.
The night was still dark, with stars visible in the sky.
I took out paper and a pencil and began writing a paper.
The paper I’d present to this medieval world was based on Tycho Brahe’s compromise theory.
A brilliant astronomer who lived between Copernicus and Kepler, Tycho Brahe wanted to verify heliocentrism but was limited by his era.
He created a compromise between geocentrism and heliocentrism.
The Earth was the center of the world, but only the sun orbited it, while the other planets orbited the sun.
Before Kepler proved everything orbited the sun, Tycho Brahe’s cosmology was revolutionary in itself.
He was even gifted an island by a king for proposing this compromise.
Since the library had astronomical observation data, it was easy for me, with knowledge of modern math, to adapt geocentrism into this compromise theory.
After a few sleepless nights, I had Nihir present the completed paper.
*
Days later, while Aren, exhausted from research, slept soundly, the academic world was in an uproar.
The theory was so groundbreaking that it quickly spread to the capital’s residents through newspapers.
For a thousand years, no one had cracked the solid worldview, and people believed it was the absolute, unchangeable truth.
Who could have caused such a revolutionary event?
When people tried to uncover the author’s identity and learned it was a mere academy student, they were even more shocked.
Shouldn’t he be given a professorship and invited to the academy?
How could an academy student achieve what even members of the Royal Academy couldn’t?
While keeping the premise that the Earth was the center, the theory explained planetary movements far more simply.
Mercury’s retrograde, Venus’s phase changes, and seasonal variations—all were explained by Aren’s theory.
Moreover, at the end of the paper was a drawing of Jupiter’s moons, along with a provocative statement no student could have made.
[These are the four moons orbiting Jupiter. Henceforth, they will be called Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. These four moons orbit Jupiter, not the Earth or the sun. Perhaps the center of the universe is neither the Earth nor the sun.]
The streets of the capital were filled with fervor day and night.
Drunkards gazed at the stars, whispering about the nature of the world they lived in.
The number of people observing stars from the mountains skyrocketed, and even ordinary people began discussing cosmology at the dinner table, sparking a massive shift in perception.
The idea that the Earth was flat became an outdated joke, fading away.
A new worldview began to take root.