Copernicus Biography

Nicolaus Copernicus was born in 1473 and died in 1543. Copernicus is considered one of the most important astronomers of Earth's history because he put the heliocentric model of the universe into action. Around the time of Copernicus's life, the most popularly held belief about how our solar system is structured was that it was geocentric, or the belief that everything in the universe revolved around the Earth. Copernicus was not one of the first proponents of the heliocentric idea but he revived the idea once he was able to mathematically prove it. He developed a book in 1514 to his friends that expanded upon his view of the universe, one correct proposition in the book being that Earth's motion through space causes the retrograde motion of epicycles of the planets across the night sky.

This heliocentric view, although mathematically proven to be correct by Copernicus, was met with opposition by the church because it goes against everything that they teach. The reason his views were not published until 1514, when he was 41 years old, was because of how it goes against church views and he was not too fond of the idea of being labeled a heretic. Copernicus was met with mild opposition and continued to promote his ideas, later on proving (in a publication from his deathbed) that each planet in the solar system has their own orbit around the sun. This completely disproved the Ptolemaic model which was the popular model for about 1500 years. He made his observations about the universe simply by doing naked eye measurements.

Some of Copernicus's published beliefs were proven to be not true but the ones that were true, were possibly some of the greatest advancements in astronomy. His legacy was expanded upon by the works of Tycho Brahe with his great observation tools. More succession to add to the Copernican views was Johannes Kepler who formulated Kepler's laws, such as the planet's orbits are elliptical not circular. Copernicus's beliefs and views have been great points to spark interest in uncommon views of the world and have given us our view of the world today. Copernicus's proving of the heliocentric universe spoke magnitudes in shaping our modern understanding of the entirety of the universe.