What was nicholas copernicus major contributions to science?
Copernicus’s theory of a universe with the sun at its centre. Around 1514 he distributed a little book, not printed but hand written, to a few of his friends who knew that he was the author even though no author is named on the title page. This book, usually called the Little Commentary, set out Copernicus’s theory of a universe with the sun at its centre. The Little Commentary is a fascinating document. It contains seven axioms which Copernicus gives, not in the sense that they are self evident, but in the sense that he will base his conclusions on these axioms and nothing else; see [79]. What are the axioms? Let us state them: There is no one centre in the universe. The Earth’s centre is not the centre of the universe. The centre of the universe is near the sun. The distance from the Earth to the sun is imperceptible compared with the distance to the stars. The rotation of the Earth accounts for the apparent daily rotation of the stars. The apparent annual cycle of movements of the s
Nicolaus Copernicus 1473-1543 He proved heliocentric model of the solar system. Copernicus was a Polish mathematician, physician, canon lawyer, cleric and astronomer. Much of his early adult life was spent in studies in Italy, the center of the Renaissance movement. He returned to Poland to serve in the church, practice medicine and to apply mathematics to his increasingly favourite pursuit – astronomy. It must be remembered that Copernicus was living in the days before the invention of the telescope. Thus all his observations (done from a turret in the cathedral where he lived and worked) were accomplished using only the unaided eye. For well over a thousand years, people had believed that the Earth was the center of the universe – that all the planets and stars, the sun and the moon revolved around the Earth. This was a geocentric model. It fit well with the ancient and medieval theological idea that if God had made humankind special by creating us in His image, then we must be livin
