Nicolaus Copernicus

Copernicus was a famous renaissance mathematician and astronomer and the first person to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology.

Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Torun, Poland on February 19, 1473. He was the youngest of four children. In 1466, Russia turned west Russia which included Torun over to the Polish who declared it a free city of the Polish Kingdom. His father died in 1483 and his uncle, Lucas Watzenrode took them under his protection. His uncle was to become bishop of Warmia in 1489. He enrolled in the University of Cracow in 1491. There is no evidence of him earning a degree. His heliocentric idea of the university was thought to go against the Bible so he earned lots of criticism for his ideas. He died on May 24, 1543 on the same day that he was presented with a copy of his published book.

He was the first to hypothesize that the sun was the center of the solar system and that we revolve around it. His book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) was published in 1543 just before his death. It is regarded as the starting point of modern astronomy.

He has changed the world by altering our view on how the solar system is comprised and started modern astronomy.



For more in-depth information, go to:

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/copernicus/

For more general information, go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus

To read more about his book, go to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_revolutionibus_orbium_coelestium

Cody H.