Middle School
Worksheets
Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler grew up in an exciting time for scientists. During his lifetime, the way people looked at the heavens was changing.
In the old way of understanding the universe, or the solar system as we call it today, the Earth was at the center. The planets were believed to revolve around the Earth, and the stars never changed. Some scientists pictured the heavens as a series of crystal spheres that turned slowly around the Earth. The planets were fastened to these spheres, and that is how they moved.
This was not just the scientific position of that time; it was also the religious position. The Church taught that the arrangement of the solar system was part of God's plan. God was known as the Prime Mover of the spheres, and Heaven was located in the outermost sphere. This had been the accepted view of the solar system for nearly 2,000 years.
