When did Copernicus discover that the Earth goes around the sun?
Copernicus Copernicus’ major theory was published in the book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) during the year of his death, 1543, though he had arrived at his theory several decades earlier. The Copernican system can be summarized in seven propositions, as Copernicus himself collected them in a Compendium of De revolutionibus that was found and published in 1878. The major parts of Copernican theory are: 1. Heavenly motions are uniform, eternal, and circular or compounded of several circles (epicycles). 2. The center of the universe is near the Sun. 3. Around the Sun, in order, are Mercury, Venus, Earth and Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the fixed stars. 4. The Earth has three motions: daily rotation, annual revolution, and annual tilting of its axis. 5. Retrograde motion of the planets is explained by the Earth’s motion. 6. The distance from the Earth to the sun is small compared to the distance to the stars. The work itself was the
