Solar System and Biography

Copernicus Background and Education Astronomer from Poland, Nicolaus Copernicus, was most famous for his following thesis: the sun, rather than our planet, forms the universe's center.[footnoteRef:1] Born on 19th February, 1473 in West Prussian city, Torun, to Barbara Watzenrode and Nicolaus Copernicus Senior, a wealthy copper merchant, he was the youngest of four siblings. To be precise, Copernicus hailed from Germany, considering his birthplace at the time and his first language -- German. However, a few historians claim Copernicus knew the Polish language too.

Sometime after he turned ten, Nicolaus lost his father. Lucas Watzenrode, the Varmian Bishop and his mother's brother, raised him then on. In the year 1491, Copernicus joined the Cracow University to learn mathematics and painting. It was here that he began to show interest in cosmos studies, and began collecting works on this subject.[footnoteRef:2] [1: BBC. "History - Copernicus." July 15, 2011. Accessed November 8, 2016. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/copernicus.shtml.] [2: "Nicolaus Copernicus Biography." 2016. Accessed November 8, 2016.

http://www.biography.com/people/nicolaus-copernicus-9256984.] Established as Canon By the mid-1490s, Copernicus was appointed as a Frombork Cathedral canon, a post he retained throughout his life. This proved to be a lucky break for him -- the clergy post helped him finance his education and research for the remainder of his days. In the year 1496, he embarked on a vacation to Italy, and signed up for the Bologna University's religious law course. It was here that Copernicus's momentous meeting with Domenico Maria Novara, another astronomer, took place.

The two astronomers started exchanging their theories and notes on the subject, and eventually became housemates.[footnoteRef:3] [3: ibid] The year 1501 saw Copernicus enroll in the Padua University, for a practical medicine course. But because of the imminent expiration of his clergy position following his two-year absence, he didn't complete his medical degree.

Two years later, he once again joined university (this time, the Ferrara University), completed the requisite tests for earning his canon law doctoral degree, and quickly returned home to his canon job, recommencing residence at Lucas Watzenrode's Episcopal castle in Lidzbark-Warminski for many years hence. He resumed work, studied astronomy, and looked after his aged and ill uncle.

In the year 1510, he relocated to a Frombork cathedral residence, where he stayed until his death.[footnoteRef:4] [4: ibid ] Heliocentric Solar System Nicolaus kept up with his astronomy studies in all the years he lived with his uncle. According to researchers, Copernicus had already started on his celestial heliocentric solar-system model by about 1508.

Ptolemy, in the 2nd century, had come up with a geometric model of planets featuring eccentric epicycles and circular movement -- a markedly different notion from Aristotle's premise that planets and other celestial objects revolve about our Planet Earth, along a constant circular path. In a bid to resolve these discrepancies, Copernicus, in his heliocentric model of the solar system, labeled the sun, and not our earth, as constituting the universe's center.

Thus, according to him, the speed and size of individual planetary orbits was dependent on how far they were located from the center (i.e., the sun).[footnoteRef:5] [5: ibid] While scholars of the age found his ideas revolutionary, the model sparked much debate. Nonetheless, Copernicus's heliocentric model was the most precise and comprehensive model thus far, and included a more effective formula to calculate the positions of planets.

He posited that, were the sun to remain stationary and the earth, dynamic, the other planets would fall in a well-ordered relationship by which their sidereal times from the center (the sun) increase: Hence, Mercury's complete revolution around the sun takes 88 days; Venus's, 225 days; the Earth's, a year; Mars's, 1.9 years; Jupiter's, a dozen years; and Saturn's, three decades. The theory effectively resolved the conflict regarding planetary order.[footnoteRef:6] [6: Encyclopedia Britannica, 2016. s.v Nicolaus Copernicus - Facts, Accomplishments, & Theory. Accessed November 8, 2016.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nicolaus-Copernicus.] In the year 1513, Copernicus's commitment helped him erect an independent, though simple, observatory. His observations occasionally resulted in erroneous conclusions (such as his original classical notion that planetary orbits were perfectly circular). Only in the seventeenth century did Kepler suggest the concept of elliptical orbits for planets[footnoteRef:7]. [7: Nola, Taylor. "Nicolaus Copernicus Biography: Facts and Discoveries." 2013. Accessed November 8, 2016.

http://www.space.com/15684-nicolaus-copernicus.html.] 'Commentariolus' and Controversy In about 1514, Copernicus finished his forty-page book, Commentariolus, summarizing his heliocentric model of planets and hinting at upcoming mathematical formulae as proofs.

The draft presented 7 axioms, explaining heliocentricity components: 1) No planet revolves about a fixed spot; 2) Our planet doesn't constitute the cosmos's center; 3) It is the sun that forms the universe's center, and every heavenly body rotates around the sun; 4) The earth-sun distance is just a small fraction of the distance of stars from the sun and the earth; 5) Stars are stationary; they only seem to be in motion due to the earth's motion; 6) The earth's orbit about the sun is spherical, thus leading to the apparent yearly movement of the sun; and 7) Because of the earth's motion, it seems like other planets move along the reverse direction.[footnoteRef:8] [8: "Nicolaus Copernicus Biography." 2016.

Accessed November 8, 2016. http://www.biography.com/people/nicolaus-copernicus-9256984.] Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium and Commentariolus sparked considerable debate. Critics believed he couldn't explain the parallax (which is the apparent displacement.