Nicolaus Copernicus

Dumitrascu Elena Alina

 Who was Nicolaus Copernicus?

 Astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus(1473-1543) was instrumental in establishing the concept

of a heliocentric solar system, in which the sun, rather than the earth, is the center of the
solar system.
 Circa 1508, Nicolaus Copernicus developed his own celestial model of a heliocentric
planetary system. Around 1514, he shared his findings in the Commentariolus. His second
book on the topic, “De revolutionibus orbium coelestium”, was banned by the Roman
Catholic Church decades after his May 24, 1543 death in Frombork.
 Early life and Education

 Famed astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (Mikolaj Kopernik, in Polish) came into the
world on February 19, 1473. The fourth and youngest child born to Nicolaus
Copernicus Sr. and Barbara Watzenrode, an affluent copper merchant family in Torun,
West Prussia, Copernicus was technically of German heritage. By the time he was
born, Torun had ceded to Poland, rendering him a citizen under the Polish crown.
German was Copernicus' first language, but some scholars believe that he spoke some
Polish as well.
 In 1491, Copernicus entered the University of Cracow, where he studied painting and
mathematics. He also developed a growing interest in the cosmos and started collecting
books on the topic.
 Having completed all his studies abroad, 30-year-old Copernicus returned to
Warmia,Poland where he would live out the remaining 40 years of his life.
 Copernicus' Theory: Heliocentric Solar System
 Though his theory was
In a book called On the
Revolutions of the Heavenly
Bodies (that was published as
Copernicus lay on his deathbed
in 1943), Copernicus proposed
that the Sun, not the Earth,
was the center of the Solar
System. Such a model is called
a heliocentric system.
Scholars believe that by
around 1508, Copernicus had
begun developing his own
celestial model, a heliocentric
planetary system.
viewed as revolutionary and
met with controversy,
Copernicus was not the first
astronomer to propose a
heliocentric system.
Centuries prior, in the third
century B.C., the ancient
Greek astronomer
Aristarchus of Samos had
identified the sun as a central
unit orbited by a revolving
earth. Still, Copernicus'
heliocentric system proved to
be more detailed and
accurate than Aristarchus',
including a more efficient
formula for calculating
planetary positions.
 Controversy

 Around 1514, Copernicus completed a written

work, Commentariolus (Latin for "Small Commentary"), a 40-page
manuscript which summarized his heliocentric planetary system and
alluded to forthcoming mathematical formulas meant to serve as proof. 
 Copernicus' theories incensed the Roman Catholic Church and were
considered heretical. When De revolutionibus orbium coelestium was
published in 1543, religious leader Martin Luther voiced his opposition
to the heliocentric solar system model. His underling, Lutheran minister
Andreas Osiander, quickly followed suit, saying of Copernicus, "This
fool wants to turn the whole art of astronomy upside down."
 Memory

 On 22 May 2010 Copernicus was given a second funeral in

a Mass led by Józef Kowalczyk, the former papal nuncio
to Poland and newly named Primate of Poland.
Copernicus's remains were reburied in the same spot in
Frombork Cathedral where part of his skull and other
bones had been found. A black granite tombstone now
identifies him as the founder of the heliocentric theory and
also a church canon. The tombstone bears a representation
of Copernicus's model of the Solar System—a golden un
encircled by six of the planets.