Who is NICOLAUSCOPERNICUS ?

Birth

 Nicolaus Copernicus was born in the city of Torun, in the PrinceBishopric of Warmia, northern Poland on February 19, 1473.His name at birth was Mikolaj Kopernik. At university he started calling himself the Latin form of his name, Nicolaus Copernicus.

What did he invert ?

Nicolaus Copernicus was a Polish astronomer known as the father of modern astronomy. He was the first modern European scientist to propose that Earth and other planets revolve around the sun, or the Heliocentric Theory of the universe

Why he is famous for ?

Nicolaus Copernicus was an astronomer who proposed a heliocentric system, that the planets orbit around the Sun; that Earth is a planet which, besides orbiting the Sun annually, also turns once daily on its own axis; and that very slow changes in the direction of this axis account for the precession of the equinoxes.

 The basic starting points of his theory:

 • The earth is not the center of the universe.

 • The center of the universe is near the sun The earth-sun distance is negligible compared to the distance to the stars. 

• Earth’s rotation on its own axis accounts for the apparent daily rotation of the stars. 

• The apparent annual cycle of movements of the sun is seen because the earth is orbiting it. 

• The apparent retrograde motion of the planets is caused by the fact we observe them from a moving location, because the earth is orbiting the sun. 

• With these starting points, he had relegated our planet from a special, highly privileged position at the center of the universe, to nothing very special – another planet moving around the sun. 

Facts about him

• 1) He never earned a bachelor's degree. ...
• 2) He practiced medicine. ...
• 3) He was an economist. ...
• 4) He didn't actually think the earth revolves around the sun. ...
• 5) Give some of the other guys credit, too. ...
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What happened during his revolution ?

Copernican Revolution, shift in the field of astronomy from a geocentric understanding of the universe, centre around Earth, to a heliocentric understanding, centre around the Sun, as articulated by the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus in the 16th century.

Major works

Copernicus's major work on his heliocentric theory was Dē revolutionibus orbium coelestium , published in the year of his death, 1543. He had formulated his theory by 1510. "He wrote out a short overview of his new heavenly arrangement , also probably in 1510 , and sent it off to at least one correspondent beyond Varmia . That person in turn copied the document for further circulation, and presumably the new recipients did, too..."

Copernicus's Commentariolus summarized his heliocentric theory. It listed the "assumptions" upon which the theory was based, as follows:

1.     There is no one center of all the celestial circles or spheres.

2.     The center of the earth is not the center of the universe, but only the center towards which heavy bodies move and the center of the lunar sphere.

3.     All the spheres surround the sun as if it were in the middle of them all, and therefore the center of the universe is near the sun.

4.     The ratio of the earth's distance from the sun to the height of the firmament  is so much smaller than the ratio of the earth's radius to its distance from the sun that the distance from the earth to the sun is imperceptible in comparison with the height of the firmament.

5.     Whatever motion appears in the firmament arises not from any motion of the firmament, but from the earth's motion. The earth together with its circumjacent elements performs a complete rotation on its fixed poles in a daily motion, while the firmament and highest heaven abide unchanged.

6.     What appear to us as motions of the sun arise not from its motion but from the motion of the earth and our sphere, with which we revolve about the sun like any other planet. The earth has, then, more than one motion.

7.     The apparent retrograde and direct motion of the planets arises not from their motion but from the earth's. The motion of the earth alone, therefore, suffices to explain so many apparent inequalities in the heavens.

DEATH

According to legend, he first saw a published copy of his work from his deathbed. Copernicus died of a cerebral hemorrhage on May 24, 1543.