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Nicolaus Copernicus 1473-1543
Nicolaus (or
Nicholas) Copernicus was
a Polish astronomer.
And
I know you're just dying
to know where this man's dead
skull is at.
Copernicus' 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.
Copernicus' 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.
More History
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