Nicolaus Copernicus Research Paper

One of the most well known astronomers of all time is Nicolaus Copernicus. He was known to think outside of the box and dreamt of bigger things in life. Copernicus did not see the world and its surroundings like everyone else did. Having such a brilliant mind helped him discover an important theory. Many scientists and astronomers would never see our solar system the same. Nicolaus Copernicus established the concept of a heliocentric system that validates that the sun, rather than the earth, is at the center of our solar system. Later on, he is now known as the “Father of Modern Astronomy”.

Early Life

On February 19, 1473 in Torun, Poland, Barbara Watzenrode and Nicolaus Copernicus Sr. had their fourth child, Nicolaus Copernicus (Armitage,

His passion drove him to write a book called De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, or the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres. He dedicated his book to Pope Paul III. Nicolaus developed and revised this piece during his entire life. The body of the work falls into six books, each subdivided into a number of chapters (Armitage, 1990, pg. 69). In Book I, Nicolaus strongly argues against the geocentric theory, which states that the Earth is at the center of our solar system. Claudius Ptolemy, a Greek Geographer and Astronomer, came up with this theory. Everyone later on came to believe the geocentric theory. Controversy augmented when Nicolaus evolved the heliocentric theory, which was later included in Book I of De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium. A lot of people told Nicolaus that his findings were incorrect and irrelevant because they strongly believed in Claudius 's previous statement. Book I also sketches of the solar system that helps defend the heliocentric theory. An explanation of why we have season is mentioned as well. Book II deals with spherical astronomy, such as celestial coordinates and orbits (Armitage, 1990, pg. 69). Copernicus discusses the earth’s motions in orbit in great detail in Book III. The theory of the moon’s motions and with the determination of the distances of the sun and the moon in Book IV. Essentially, Book V is the most extensive and critical of the six books. He thoroughly elaborates and investigates the motions in longitude of the five planets and the size of their orbits in relation to that of the earth (Armitage, 1990, pg. 70). Nicolaus repeatedly overrides Ptolemy’s theory in this section of the piece. Book VI simply explains the movement of the planets in latitude. On May 24, 1543, Nicolaus suffered a hemorrhage, leading to the paralysis of his entire right side of the body. He died at the age of only 70. According to Rosen (1984), De