Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus; German: Nikolaus Kopernikus; 19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance mathematician and astronomer who formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe. The publication of this model in his book De revolutionibus orbium coelestiumjust before his death in 1543 is considered a major event in the history of science, triggering the Copernican Revolution and making an important contribution to the Scientific Revolution...
NationalityPolish
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth19 February 1473
CountryPoland
For what could be more beautiful than the heavens which contain all beautiful things.
Not only the phenomena of the others followed from this, but also it so bound together both the order and magnitude of all the planets and the spheres and the heaven itself, that in no single part could one thing be altered without confusion among the other parts and in all the universe.
Those who know that the consensus of many centuries has sanctioned the conception that the earth remains at rest in the middle of the heavens as its center, would, I reflected, regard it as an insane pronouncement if I made the opposite assertion that the earth moves.
The massive bulk of the earth does indeed shrink to insignificance in comparison with the size of the heavens.
Of all things visible, the highest is the heaven of the fixed stars.
Moreover, there is no difference between the earth's centers of gravity and magnitude.
To be sure, heretofore there has been virtually unanimous acceptance of the belief that the middle of the universe is the earth.
Every observed change of place is caused by a motion of either the observed object or the observer or, of course, by an unequal displacement of each.
Near the sun is the center of the universe.
The earth also is spherical, since it presses upon its center from every direction.
Yet if anyone believes that the earth rotates, surely he will hold that its motion is natural, not violent.
Not a few other very eminent and scholarly men made the same request, urging that I should no longer through fear refuse to give out my work for the common benefit of students of Mathematics.
The two revolutions, I mean the annual revolutions of the declination and of the centre of the Earth, are not completely equal; that is the return of the declination to its original value is slightly ahead of the period of the centre. Hence it necessarily follows that the equinoxes and solstices seem to anticipate their timing, not because the sphere of the fixed stars moves to the east, but rather the equatorial circle moves to the west, being at an angle to the plane of the ecliptic in proportion to the declination of the axis of the terrestrial globe.
Astronomy is written for astronomers