Nicolas Copernicus Biography
Nicolas Copernicus was an early
Polish scientist that found Ptolemy's ancient astronomical work to be too
complicated, leading to him to form his own theories which proved vital in
creating the layout of the solar system we know today. He laid out the foundation
that provided a support structure for other astronomers to build upon in the
Copernican Revolution, such as Kepler's discovery of elliptical orbits. His
many discoveries were responsible for giving Copernicus the title "the
founder of modern astronomy". Nicolas Copernicus was born in Thorn,
Poland on February 19, 1473. At the age of ten,
his father died and he went to live with his uncle, Bishop of Varmia Lucas
Watzenrode, where he stayed until he was eighteen years of age. At eighteen,
Copernicus attended the University of
Cracow to learn of painting and
mathematics while preparing to work at the church with his uncle. Copernicus
attended many universities, such as the University of Bologna, where he studied
religious law while rooming with and aiding an astronomy professor (Domenico
Maria de Novara); the University of Padua, where he went for medicine but never
graduated; and the University of Ferrara, which was the location of where he
took the cannon law test to take his place in the church (he remained a canon
of the church his whole life).
Copernicus' earliest recorded observation was
on March 9, 1497 and by the time March 31, 1513 rolled around, he had constructed
a small roofless tower in Frauenburg, Poland, in order to view the sky. All of
Copernicus' observations were made with the naked eye, only aided by three
instruments; a parallactic instrument to observe the moon, a quadrant for the
sun, and an armillary sphere to study the stars. His first work was De hypothesibus motuum coelestium a se
constitutis commentarioulus and in this composition, Copernicus challenged
Earth being the center of the universe, believe that instead, it was the sun in
the center (heliocentric model) and the stars were at the outermost limit of
the universe. He believed that Earth's rotation was responsible for the rising
and setting of the sun, the movement of the stars, and the cycles of the four
seasons. Copernicus also believed that Earth's motion through space was the
cause of the retrograde motion of the planets as seen when observing the sky
from Earth. His first official work was Commentariolus
or the "Little Commentary". Copernicus described the span of the
universe to be "similar to the infinite" rather than choosing one
particular side, leaving that solution to be found by other astronomers. Earth's
"motion of declination" was stated in his works and Nicolas
Copernicus believed that the axis Earth rotates on meets the firmament at the
celestial poles. In between the two celestial poles, was the celestial equator.
Copernicus named the plane that cut the celestial sphere in the ecliptic orbit
of the sun the "grand circle". On June 1542, he composed his final
ideas in his second book, Derevolutionibus
orbium coelestium (Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres); in which, he
mentioned two Pythagoreans in: Philolaus' idea that Earth orbits and imaginary
central fire, and Ecphantus' idea that Earth is on an axial rotation. After his
death on May 24, 1543, Derevolutionibus orbium coelestium was
banned by the Catholic Church.
Despite
not having the technology to prove his theories, Copernicus was an important
factor in developing modern astronomy and kick starting a hunger for the true
answers of the universe in the Copernican Revolution. Copernicus disputed conventional wisdom and
his work later upset the Church and composed groundbreaking science that we use
to this day.
