Nicolas Copernicus revolutionized astronomy with his heliocentric solar system theory, despite opposition from the Church. He was also a politician, economist, and diplomat, and treated astronomy as a hobby. His work reshaped astronomy and confirmed the existence of other solar systems and galaxies. Copernicus was influenced by his contemporaries and his theory was not perfect, but he is credited for his immense contributions to science.
Nicolas Copernicus, or Niclas Kopernik as he was known at birth, was an eminent scientist who revolutionized the way we look at the universe. While the concept of a sun-centered or heliocentric solar system may seem obvious to you, when Copernicus suggested it, he met with considerable opposition. He also contributed to a number of other observations and discussions in the field of astronomy, and it might surprise you to learn that Copernicus actually treated astronomy as a hobby, only engaging in it when he had the time.
Copernicus was born in Poland in 1473 and his father died young, which caused him to end up with an uncle who oversaw his extensive education in law and the sciences. Besides being an astronomer, Copernicus was also a politician, economist and diplomat, and studied classics, ethics, medicine and mathematics. He has also worked in the Church, making it even more difficult for him to go against the Church’s doctrine on the nature of the solar system.
Throughout his life, Copernicus worked as a governor, translator, church official, diplomat and military leader. Knowing that he has had such a busy life makes it all the more remarkable to consider his career as an astronomer. Many modern astronomers credit Copernicus with taking the first steps in modern astronomy, establishing it as a legitimate, interesting, and often very fruitful field of research. Already in 1514 he was evaluating the possibility of a heliocentric universe and was working on the drafts of his De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, a treatise “on the movements of the stars”.
Alas, Copernicus died in 1543, just before the book was published and distributed. He did not live to see his work completely reshape the way people thought about astronomy and our place in the universe, since his ideas about a heliocentric solar system were met largely with disbelief when he initially poses them. Furthermore, he did not live to see his work banned by the Catholic Church, an organization he had served loyally all his life. Today, people acknowledge that the Earth does indeed orbit the sun, and they also confirmed Copernicus’ long-standing suspicion that there were other solar systems and galaxies in the universe.
Of course, Copernicus did not arrive at his radical conclusions without help. He was almost certainly influenced by the writings, observations, and discussions of his contemporaries, and his theory of him was far from perfect. Some of the calculations he relied on to prove his point, for example, later proved unnecessarily complex. However, others have built on this work, duly giving Copernicus credit for his immense contributions to the field of astronomy and the sciences in general.
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