This was the case when early European astronomers recorded data of the planets' movements through the sky. While the stars, Moon, and Sun all revolved around the Earth in simple, seemingly circular patterns, the planets moved forward and backward in wild loops, and no one knew exactly why this happened. This was until Johannes Kepler guessed that maybe the planets move around the Sun, not in circular orbits, but in ellipses. This was an idea that no one else had thought of, and when it was compared to recorded data, it proved to be correct.

What does this example illustrate about the process of science?