Galileo's discoveries - including the theory of solar rotation, as suggested by shifts in sunspots - incurred the wrath of the Catholic Church, which espoused the Aristotelian system. Furthermore, the realization that the surface of the moon is rough disproved the Aristotelian view of a perfect, immutable celestial realm. The presence of moons in orbit around Jupiter suggested that the Earth was not the sole center of motion in the cosmos, as Aristotle had proposed. Galileo's observations discredited the Aristotelian theory of an Earth-centered solar system in favor of the Copernican heliocentric model. In the 16th century, Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus became the first scientist to promote a model of the solar system in which the Earth orbited its sun rather than the other way around.
