Essay on The Life of Nicolaus Copernicus

Galileo might be the most famous person in the development of astronomy. He is famous, not only because of the amazing work he did to advance Copernican theory of heliocentrism, but also because of the controversy that surrounded him. Using new methods and instruments, he provided compelling new evidence to support Copernican theory. He also contributed to the development of theories of physics that could account for the movements of bodies in new terms. His observations of the movements of objects in the heavens required different explanations than the old ideas about the heavens. It required him, and others, to begin to understand the reasons to explain these new observations. His efforts to publicize his findings was met by

His discovery of astronomy was the starting point to many modern day discoveries, you know the stuff NOVA does.

Among these people were Copernicus who believed the sun was at the center of the world and the earth, stars and planets revolved around it. Danish astronomer Brahe helped contribute to this idea by contributing a large mass of data about the universe that he was able to discover. His student Kepler kept his ideas going, as he formulated many laws of planetary motion. He said the orbits around the sun were elliptical, planets don’t move in a uniform speed and the time a planet completes its orbit is related to its distance from the sun. Meanwhile, Florentine Galileo decided to use experiments to find out what happened and not what should happen, and discovered that a uniform force makes a uniform acceleration as well as inertia laws, that an object will be in motion forever unless stopped by another force.

Copernicus published "On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres" in 1543 , sparking off the scientific revolution and a new era of astronomical thought. This theory explains that the sun, not the Earth, is the center of the solar system and planets move in a circular motion around it. This had many social, intellectual and religious made of huis idea. For instance, this theory brought into question the strict reading of the Bible and philosophies of the Catholic Church.

Copernicus release his theory of the heliocentric view while he was on his death bed. Primary reason for this was because of the Catholic’s church control on society at the time and the effects it would have on religious society stating that the earth was not the center of the universe. After Copernicus released

While Copernicus was in college he started to question what he was taught. He theorized that the Sun stays in the same place, illuminating all of the planets, while the planets revolve around it in an elliptical motion. The stars also stay in the same place, but they look like they move because the Earth rotates on its axis as it revolves around the Sun. According to “Inventors and Scientists: Nicolaus Copernicus,” he made a tool that looked like multiple yardsticks combined with a tube he used to look through, almost like a telescope. He used this to measure the location of stars and planets.

Nicholas Copernicus was the first to question the universal truths and teachings of the church. He devised a theory that the earth along with the other planets revolved around the sun. This theory disagreed with Aristotle and the old teachings that the universe revolved around the earth, and that man was the center of the universe.

Nicolaus Copernicus was an astronomer who arose the Heliocentric Theory which caused the scientific revolution. Copernicus discoveries were very important, and impacted science to this day. Copernicus constructed his data from his astronomical observations of sun-centered cosmology. The Heliocentric theory is the belief that the sun is in the center of the universe and all the planets revolve around it. The Heliocentric Theory contradicts The Geocentric. “Copernicus's heliocentric solar system named the sun, rather than the earth, as the center of the solar system”. (http://www.biography.com/).

He was also very much significant to astronomy during the 1500’s. He was born in Poland on February 19th, 1473. In the early 1500’s other astronomers believed that the sun moved around the planets, but Copernicus discovered something else. He found that the planets we the ones that revolved around the sun. Everyone believed that all the planets, the stars and even the sun, revolved around Earth.

Galileo advised heliocentricity, providing the only model that fit all his observations. Copernicus's model, which also changed the orbits of the planets, it made mathematical sense. It also explained all of his new data. His data began to make more sense.

Johannes Kepler was a mathematician, an astrologer, and an astronomer. He was a key figure in the 17th century scientific revolution and was best known for his laws of planetary motion.

As stated in the book, “His public support of Copernicus disturbed Catholic theologians, who were convinced it undermined correct belief and the authority of the church” (The Human Record, 41). So, therefore these new findings of ideas did not agree with the way the Catholic Church was organized or the power of which the church held. Copernicus created this theory that was supported by Galileo. This theory argued about what was at the center of the universe, which was not the earth, but it was the sun (The Human Record, 41). Finding new discoveries regarding science was the idea Copernicus had in mind.

Let's say that you worked extremely hard on a project and you did extremely well. You get that paper back and you failed! This is exactly what happened to Nicolaus Copernicus because the church rejected his ideas. Why would they do that? They did this because Nicolaus Copernicus proved everyone wrong when he discovered that actually we lived in a heliocentric universe. Nicolaus Copernicus was a very important figure in the Renaissance. He was a leading astronomer, mathematician, and scientist. He created the idea of a heliocentric universe which meant he created the idea that the Sun was the center of the universe instead of the Earth. He was correct. During his time the church had so much power it could reject his ideas, which they did by banning his book to be read.

During the 16th century, Nicolaus Copernicus was a very influential astronomer, whom Galileo Galilei, an aspiring scientist in that field, admired and studied diligently. Copernicus theorized that the Earth rotated around the sun, also known as the heliocentric theory (Paolucci and Brophy). This was in contrast to the Ptolemaic theory (and Catholic doctrine) that everything else in our galaxy pivoted around the Earth. Galileo spent his life attempting to prove the Copernican Theory.

Copernicus is extremely significant because he is credited as the first astronomer to put forward a comprehensive heliocentric version of the solar system. He publishes a book that had an idea that the Earth revolved around the sun.