Nicolaus Copernicus

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Nicolaus Copernicus
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-was a Polish astronomer known as
the father of modern astronomy.
-He was the first modern European

scientist to propose that Earth and
other planets revolve around the sun,
or the Heliocentric Theory of the
universe.
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PROFILE
- February 19, 1473 (Torun, a city in north-central
Poland on the Vistula River)
-He was given the best education of the day and

bred for a career in canon (church) law. At the
University of Krakow, he studied liberal arts,
including astronomy and astrology, and then, like
many Poles of his social class, was sent to Italy to
study medicine and law.
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While studying at the University of Bologna,

he lived for a time in the home of Domenico
Maria de Novara, the principal astronomer at
the university. Astronomy and astrology
were at the time closely related and equally
regarded, and Novara had the responsibility
of issuing astrological prognostications for
Bologna.
Nicolaus Copernicus: Against The Ptolemaic
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The cosmology of early 16th-century Europe held that
Earth sat stationary and motionless at the center of
several rotating, concentric spheres that bore the
celestial bodies: the sun, the moon, the known planets,
and the stars.
From ancient times, philosophers adhered to the belief that

the heavens were arranged in circles (which by definition
are perfectly round), causing confusion among
astronomers who recorded the often eccentric motion of
the planets, which sometimes appeared to halt in their
orbit of Earth and move retrograde across the sky.
In the second century A.D., the Alexandrian 06
geographer and astronomer Ptolemy sought to
resolve this problem by arguing that the sun,
planets, and moon move in small circles around
much larger circles that revolve around Earth.
These small circles he called epicycles, and by

incorporating numerous epicycles rotating at
varying speeds he made his celestial system
correspond with most astronomical
observations on record.
NICOLAUS COPERNICUS AND THE HELIOCENTRIC THEORY
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Sometime between 1508 and 1514, Nicolaus Copernicus
wrote a short astronomical treatise commonly called the
Commentariolus, or “Little Commentary,” which laid the
basis for his heliocentric (sun-centered) system.
For Copernicus, his heliocentric theory was by no means a
watershed, for it created as many problems as it solved. For
instance, heavy objects were always assumed to fall to the
ground because Earth was the center of the universe.
Because of these problems and others, Copernicus delayed
publication of his major astronomical work, De revolutionibus
orbium coelestium libri vi, or “Six Books Concerning the
Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs,” nearly all his life. Completed
around 1530, it was not published until 1543–the year of his
death.
What Did Nicolaus
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Copernicus Discover?
In “Six Books Concerning the Revolutions of the Heavenly

Orbs,” Copernicus’ groundbreaking argument that Earth
and the planets revolve around the sun led him to make a
number of other major astronomical discoveries.
While revolving around the sun, Earth, he argued, spins on

its axis daily. Earth takes one year to orbit the sun and
during this time wobbles gradually on its axis, which
accounts for the precession of the equinoxes.
Major flaws in the work include his concept of the sun as the
center of the whole universe, not just the solar system, and his
failure to grasp the reality of elliptical orbits, which forced him to
incorporate numerous epicycles into his system, as did Ptolemy.
With no concept of gravity, Earth and the planets still revolved

around the sun on giant transparent spheres.
In his dedication to De revolutionibus–an extremely dense scientific work–

Copernicus noted that “mathematics is written for mathematicians.” If the work
were more accessible, many would have objected to its non-biblical and hence
heretical concept of the universe. For decades, De revolutionibus remained
unknown to all but the most sophisticated astronomers, and most of these men,
while admiring some of Copernicus’ arguments, rejected his heliocentric basis.
Nicolaus Copernicus Death
and Legacy

Nicolaus Copernicus died on May 24, 1543 in what is now Frombork, Poland.
He died the year his major work was published, saving him from the outrage
of some religious leaders who later condemned his heliocentric view of the
universe as heresy.
It was not until the early 17th century that Galileo and Johannes Kepler
developed and popularized the Copernican theory, which for Galileo
resulted in a trial and conviction for heresy. Following Isaac Newton’s work
in celestial mechanics in the late 17th century, acceptance of the
Copernican theory spread rapidly in non-Catholic countries, and by the late
18th century the Copernican view of the solar system it was almost
universally accepted.
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01

-He was the first modern European

-He was given the best education of the day and

While studying at the University of Bologna,

From ancient times, philosophers adhered to the belief that

These small circles he called epicycles, and by

In “Six Books Concerning the Revolutions of the Heavenly

While revolving around the sun, Earth, he argued, spins on

With no concept of gravity, Earth and the planets still revolved

In his dedication to De revolutionibus–an extremely dense scientific work–

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