Nicolaus Copernicus
1473 - 1543

I know you're just dying to know where this man's dead skull is at. Nicolaus (or Nicholas) Copernicus was a Polish astronomer.

HIS WORK
You can read his work De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) online for free, provided by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

The Copernican system suggests that the planets, including the earth, revolve around the sun. Brilliant. But Copernicus still had trouble figuring out that the planets don't move in perfect circles. So the world still had to wait for German astronomer Johannes Kepler and English physicist Sir Isaac Newton.

HIS LIFE
Nic's Polish name was Mikolaj Kopernik.

His father, Nicolaus, was a merchant. His mother, Barbara Watzenrode (potentially great band name), had four children. Nic was the youngest. Nicolaus senior soon died and uncle Lucas Watzenrode, a bishop, took care of wee Nic.

He studied at the Universities of Cracow, Bologna, and Padua.

Here is Nicolaus Copernicus' timeline.