Nicolaus Copernicus "Almagest" circa 150 CE; the Earth was the stationary center of the universe. Stars were embedded in a large outer sphere which rotated rapidly, approximately daily, while each of the planets, the Sun, and the Moon were embedded in their own, smaller spheres. Ptolemy's system employed devices, including epicycles, deferents and equants, to account for observations that the paths of these bodies differed from simple, circular orbits centered on the Earth. Copernicus' major work on his heliocentric theory was "Dē revolutionibus orbium coelestium" ("On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres"), published in the year of his death, 1543. He had
Gardens of the Sun Brazil attempted to return most of the planet to a "natural" state, to the extent that most of Earth's population inhabits a few megacities. The Outers, by contrast, survive by terraforming the moons of Jupiter and the other outer planets and practicing genetic engineering, which caused ideological tension with Greater Brazil, ultimately flaring into a full-scale conflict called the "Quiet War". By the time of "Gardens of the Sun", the war is over. The surviving Outers have been forced to Uranus, Neptune and Pluto as the superpowers of Earth raid the moons of Jupiter and Saturn for Outer knowledge. However,