What was Nicholas Copernicuss contribution to knowledge of the universe?
Polish astronomer Nicholas Copernicus (1473–1543; also known as Mikolaj Kopernik) was the first scientist to gain acceptance for the theory that the Earth orbits around the Sun with other bodies in Earth’s galaxy (a large group of stars and other bodies). An astronomer is a scientist who specializes in the study of matter (anything that has form) in outer space. This heliocentric (revolving around the Sun) theory contradicted the ideas of Greek-Egyptian astronomer Ptolemy (second century A.D.), who stated that the Earth is the center of the universe. Ptolemy’s theory had been accepted for more than 1,400 years. In 270 B.C. Greek astronomer Aristarchus of Samos (c. 310–c. 230 B.C.) had suggested that the Earth revolves around the Sun, but Copernicus’s concept was the first to be accepted as a valid scientific possibility. Once…
