Editing Solar System (section)

== Discovery and exploration ==
{{Main|History of astronomy}}
For thousands of years, people had no need for a name for the "Solar System". They thought the Earth stayed still at the center of everything ([[geocentrism]]). The Greek philosopher [[Aristarchus of Samos]] suggested that there was a special order in the sky.<ref>{{cite journal|title= The astronomical system of Copernicus|author=WC Rufus|journal=Popular Astronomy|year=1923|volume=31|pages=510|bibcode=1923PA.....31..510R|url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1923PA.....31..510R|accessdate=2009-05-09}}</ref> [[Nicolaus Copernicus]] was the first to develop a [[Mathematical model|mathematical system]] that described what we now call the "Solar System". This was called a "new system of the world". In the 17th century, [[Galileo Galilei]], [[Johannes Kepler]] and [[Isaac Newton]] began to understand [[physics]] more clearly. People began to accept the idea that the Earth is a planet that moves around the Sun, and that the planets are worlds, and that all worlds are governed by the same [[physical law]]s. More recently, telescopes and [[space probe]]s sometimes let us see details directly. All inner planets have surface features. The gas giants (as the name suggests) have surfaces whose make-up is gradually being discovered.