Happy Birthday: Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus (born February 19, 1473 – died May 24, 1543) was a Polish astronomer of German origin, who is remembered for providing the first modern formulation of a heliocentric (Sun-centered) theory of the solar system in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium.
Copernicus worked as a church canon, governor, administrator, mathematician, economist, jurist, physician and astrologer. Amid all his responsibilities, he treated astronomy as a hobby. However, his formulation of how the Sun rather than the Earth is at the center of the universe is considered one of the most important scientific hypotheses ever made. It came to mark the starting point of modern astronomy and, in turn, modern science, encouraging young astronomers, scientists and scholars to take a more skeptical attitude toward established dogma.
posted by Fergie @ 2/19/2006 12:35:00 PM
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