Which scientist is associated with challenging the geocentric view during the Scientific Revolution?

• A. Copernicus
• B. Columbus
• C. Magellan
• D. Vesalius

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is the shift from Earth-centered to Sun-centered cosmology during the Scientific Revolution. Copernicus challenged the long-standing geocentric view by proposing a heliocentric model in which the Sun sits near the center of the universe and Earth travels around it, with the Earth itself rotating on its axis. This was a radical departure from the Ptolemaic system that had dominated medieval astronomy and helped lay the groundwork for later work by Galileo and Kepler.

Columbus and Magellan are known as explorers who navigated and mapped new parts of the world, not as scientists changing astronomical models. Vesalius was a pioneer in anatomy, not astronomy. So the figure most closely associated with contesting the geocentric view is Copernicus, whose ideas began the move toward a sun-centered understanding of the cosmos.