Nicolaus Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus was a polnish doctor, scientist, lawyer and administrator. In his freetime he devoted himself to mathematics and astronomy.

Biography

Nicolaus Copernicus was born on the nineteenth February in the year 1473 in Thorn (Poland), as the son of merchants and municipal officials. His father, who was from Krakow, died when Nicolaus was only ten years old. So his uncle took care of the 10 year old boy instead. Nicolaus attended a school in his birthplace Thorn, and at the age of eighteen he started to study mathematics and astronomy at the university of Krakow. After studying there for several years, Copernicus travelled to Italy at the age of 24. There he studied canon law at the university of Bologna. There he lived with the Italian mathematician Domenico Maria da Novara. Together they observed the moon and the stars; Domenico aroused Nicolaus’ curiosity about the astronomy.
In the year 1503, Copernicus moved to the Heidelberg (Germany) and worked there for about six years as a secretary and doctor for his uncle. However, he was no longer interested in the religious career his uncle had planned for him. Instead, he became more and more interested in science, especially astronomy.

The astronomy, which was also the reason why we know Nicolaus Copernicus today, shaped his entire private life. In 1507, he began to write down his ideas and thoughts about a completely new world view. He believed that the sun is the center of the universe, and all planets move in circular orbits around it. According to his theory, the earth rotates once a day around its own axis and once a year around the sun.

At the age of 37, Nicolaus moved to the Polish location Frombork, where he worked in an observatory. In the following decades he also created his major scientific work “De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium” (InEnglish: “About the changes in the celestial circles”).
In this work, Nicolaus Copernicus recorded basic information that could refute the worldview established by the astronomer Claudius Ptolemy.
Nicolaus wrote three important laws, which are still considered correct today:

The planets orbit the sun.

The earth revolves around itself.

The moon orbits the earth.

However, Nicholas Copernicus did not realize that Ptolemy was also wrong about the movement of the planets. This could only be corrected at the beginning of the 17th century by the German astronomerJohannes Kepler. He realized The planets move in elliptical orbits around the Sun, whereby the sun is not in the center but in a common focal point. (Kepler summarized this and other findings in his so-called 3 Kepler’s Laws.)
Copernicus’ main work “De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium” was completed around 1530, but published shortly before his death. Copernicus was seventy years old and physically impaired (paralyzed and blind) at that time. He died in Frauenburg on the 24th May 1543 at the age of seventy. 2013 was the 540th anniversary of his birthday.

Geocentric and heliocentric world view

The geocentric world view 

The geocentric world view is a view of the structure of the universe, which was founded by the Greek philosopher Ptolemy around 100 AD. According to this theory, the center of the universe is the earth (geos = earth, so geocentrically = earth in the center). Around the earth, the other planets known at that time, the sun and the moon, move in circular orbits. The fixed stars are located on the very outside of a “bowl”.
With this worldview many astronomical occurrences, for example the change of position of celestial bodies in the sky, could be explained. The geocentric worldview was the dominant and generally (and by thechurch) recognized theory for over 1500 years, until it was finally replaced by the heliocentric worldview.

The heliocentric worldview

In the 16th century, Copernicus developed the idea that it is not the earth which is in the centre, but the sun. So over time the heliocentric worldview started to replace the geocentric world view. Copernicus assumed that the sun is in the center of the universe (helios = sun, so heliocentric = sun in the center) and that the planets are moving in circular orbits around the sun. On the outside, the heliocentric world view is closed off by a fixed starsphere that envelops the entire planetary system like a shell at a great distance.
Further research led to some additions and elaborations, but not to a fundamental change of this world view.