Discoveries made by Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus worked on his Heliocentric Theory for more than 25 years. He never unveils his complete book: De revolutionibus orbium coelestium or "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres" to the public until the year of death. Copernicus was a religious person since he is a canon of Roman Catholics Church. During Renaissance, scientists including the Catholic Church would go look up Ancient Greek and Roman for information about the world. And if anyone goes against the Catholics Church, they will be put in trial by the Church, so Copernicus kept his book to himself until his last year of his life. He would usually work on his theory during his spare time. Copernicus first publication book was the Commentarious or "Little Commentary" and he distributed it to only to his friends and family member. It introduced his new "cosmological" idea and Heliocentric.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_revolutionibus_orbium_coelestium
Copernicus discovery was that Earth rotates on its own axis, and that each planet has its own center of gravity. Earth is not a center of the universe even though it seems like planets and stars is moving around the Earth. Movement of the sun is caused by the rotation of the Earth. But, there was an error to his discovery. He claimed that Sun is the center of the universe and not solar system due to unavailability of the telescope. His heliocentric theory did not fully explains why the planets orbits the way it did. Copernicus was also wrong on the path of the orbit of the Earth and planets around the Sun where he thought that they orbit in a circle.
https://pgapworld.wikispaces.com/Heliocentric+theory
|
all the sphere revolve about the sun...therefore the sun is the center of the universe," Copernicus- 1543 from the final version of Commentarious |
Many people did not believe in Copernicus' Theory. He was called a fool by many such as Martin Luther. But, he was proven right by Galileo and many other scientists after him.
Copernicus published his book: De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, which was his final book before he died. Catholics Church banned that book from 1616 to 1835 which was for more than 200 years. Copernicus died on May 24, 1543 at age 70.
