Nicolaus Copernicus Biography

Nicolaus Copernicus was a famous astronomer at the time of the Renaissance and was who formulated the heliocentric theory of the solar system, initially interpreted by Aristarchus of Samos. Nicolaus was born in Frombork Poland on February 19, 1473. He was the son of Niklas Koppernigk and Barbara Watzenrode.

At the age of 10, Nicholas would be orphaned and his maternal uncle Lucas Watzenrode who was canon and later bishop of the Warmia region would adopt him. While studying, Copernicus would be oriented toward the clerical field in the Cathedral School of Wloclawek, due to his uncle influence.

Between 1491 and 1494 he entered the University of Krakow motivated by his uncle. However, in 1496 he moved to the University of Bologna where he pursued careers in law, medicine, Greek, philosophy and at the same time worked as an assistant of the well-known astronomer Domenico da Novara. At the end of 1499, Copernicus graduated from the University of Bologna and traveled to Rome at the beginning of 1500, where he took a science and astronomy course in which he acquired many skills that will help him later on for the formulation of his theories.

Copernicus returned to his native country in 1501 to be appointed canon of the cathedral of Frauenburg, position conceived with the help of his uncle Lucas. Despite having this position, the astronomer was always motivated to complement his studies, so he again traveled to Italy to do complementary studies of law and medicine in the city of Padua, also making a pass through Ferrara where he obtained the title of doctor in canon law in the year 1503.

Around 1523, Copernicus settled definitively in his native country, where he dedicated his time to the administration of the Diocese of Warmia, managed to work as a doctor, performed some administrative positions and began the development of his great field work of astronomy.

Nicolaus Copernicus in his career and life managed to make great contributions to science and astronomy among which stand out:

 

THE HELIOCENTRIC THEORY

In 1536, Copernicus had almost finished his work on this theory and rumors were already heard throughout Europe about the reason why he had to expedite the completion of his work to start publishing it from different parts of the continent. Despite this pressure, Copernicus delayed a bit the publication of his work for fear of criticism from various groups.

In his theory, Copernicus stated a series of ideas, which explained the conception of the universe:

• The celestial movements are uniform, circular, eternal or are formed by several cycles.
• The central location of the universe is close to the sun.
• The celestial bodies rotate around the sun in orbitals and in order: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Uranus and Neptune were not known at that time.
• Stars are distant objects that are still, so they do not rotate around the sun.
• The earth performs three movements: the rotation that it does daily, the annual translation and the annual inclination of its axis.
• The retrograde movement made by the other planets of the solar system is explained by the movement of the earth.
• The distance between the sun and the earth is small compared to the distance between the sun and the stars.

 

ON THE REVOLUTIONS OF HEAVENLY SPHERES

This was the greatest work that Nicolaus Copernicus could create in his life and was written between 1507 and 1532, were 25 years of work that the world would know in 1543 when it was published by Andreas Osiander. Copernicus had to study Pythagorean writings, Heraclides Ponticus and other philosophers which he used as a reference to analyze the problem of terrestrial movement. This work was highlighted by being divided into 6 precise and clear books:

• Overview of the heliocentric theory, and a short explanation of its conception of the world.
• Basically theoretical, it presents the principles of spherical astronomy and a list of stars (as a basis for the arguments developed in subsequent books).
• Dedicated mainly to the apparent movements of the sun and related phenomena.
• Description of the moon and its orbital movements.
• A concrete explanation of the new system.

Nicolaus Copernicus would die on May 24, 1543, in Frombork, Poland. He could not see the great impact that his work has caused in humanity and science.

Undoubtedly, the legacy left by Nicolaus Copernicus is unique as he is considered the pioneer of modern astronomy, as well as providing bases that served Newton to complete the astronomical revolution by passing from a geocentric universe to a heliocentric cosmos. To sum up, what is known as the Copernican revolution refers to the formulation of the Heliocentric theory, which states that the earth and other planets revolve around the sun.