Copernicus' Work / Accomplishments
Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance mathematician and astronomer. He was the first to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology with the Sun, instead of the Earth, as the center of the Universe. The distance of the planets from the sun was in direct relationship to the size of their orbits. At the time his idea was very controversial, yet it still changed the way the world was viewed. It also helped major advancements in astronomy.
In around 1514 Copernicus wrote the "Commentariolus" ("Little Commentary"), a forty-page manuscript describing his ideas about the heliocentric hypothesis. It contained seven basic assumptions (detailed below). Then afterward he continued gathering data for a more detailed work. Then about 1532 Copernicus completed his work on the manuscript of De revolutionibus orbium coelestium; but he didn’t want to publish his views, not wanting to risk the scorn. Yet, Copernicus' major theory was finally published in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), in 1543 (in the year of his death), even though he had formulated the theory several decades earlier. He had summarized his heliocentric theory into a list of assumptions.
Which are as follows:
1. There is no one center of all the celestial circles or spheres.
2. The center of the earth is not the center of the universe, but only of gravity and of the lunar sphere.
3. All the spheres revolve about the sun as their mid-point, and therefore the sun is the center of the universe.
4. The ratio of the earth's distance from the sun to the height of the firmament (outermost celestial sphere containing the stars) is so much smaller than the ratio of the earth's radius to its distance from the sun that the distance from the earth to the sun is imperceptible in comparison with the height of the firmament.
5. Whatever motion appears in the firmament arises not from any motion of the firmament, but from the earth's motion. The earth together with its circumjacent elements performs a complete rotation on its fixed poles in a daily motion, while the firmament and highest heaven abide unchanged.
6. What appear to us as motions of the sun arise not from its motion but from the motion of the earth and our sphere, with which we revolve about the sun like any other planet. The earth has, then, more than one motion.
7. The apparent retrograde and direct motion of the planets arises not from their motion but from the earth's. The motion of the earth alone, therefore, suffices to explain so many apparent inequalities in the heavens.
Legend has it that the first printed copy of De revolutionibus was placed in his hands on the very day that he died, allowing him to take farewell of his life's work. He is reputed to have awoken from a stroke-induced coma, looked at his book, and then died peacefully. And Copernicus was right, there was a lot of controversy. Little did he know that less than a century later Kepler would come up with the modern day view of the Universe with the help of all the brilliant astronomers before him.
Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance mathematician and astronomer. He was the first to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology with the Sun, instead of the Earth, as the center of the Universe. The distance of the planets from the sun was in direct relationship to the size of their orbits. At the time his idea was very controversial, yet it still changed the way the world was viewed. It also helped major advancements in astronomy.
In around 1514 Copernicus wrote the "Commentariolus" ("Little Commentary"), a forty-page manuscript describing his ideas about the heliocentric hypothesis. It contained seven basic assumptions (detailed below). Then afterward he continued gathering data for a more detailed work. Then about 1532 Copernicus completed his work on the manuscript of De revolutionibus orbium coelestium; but he didn’t want to publish his views, not wanting to risk the scorn. Yet, Copernicus' major theory was finally published in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), in 1543 (in the year of his death), even though he had formulated the theory several decades earlier. He had summarized his heliocentric theory into a list of assumptions.
Which are as follows:
1. There is no one center of all the celestial circles or spheres.
2. The center of the earth is not the center of the universe, but only of gravity and of the lunar sphere.
3. All the spheres revolve about the sun as their mid-point, and therefore the sun is the center of the universe.
4. The ratio of the earth's distance from the sun to the height of the firmament (outermost celestial sphere containing the stars) is so much smaller than the ratio of the earth's radius to its distance from the sun that the distance from the earth to the sun is imperceptible in comparison with the height of the firmament.
5. Whatever motion appears in the firmament arises not from any motion of the firmament, but from the earth's motion. The earth together with its circumjacent elements performs a complete rotation on its fixed poles in a daily motion, while the firmament and highest heaven abide unchanged.
6. What appear to us as motions of the sun arise not from its motion but from the motion of the earth and our sphere, with which we revolve about the sun like any other planet. The earth has, then, more than one motion.
7. The apparent retrograde and direct motion of the planets arises not from their motion but from the earth's. The motion of the earth alone, therefore, suffices to explain so many apparent inequalities in the heavens.
Legend has it that the first printed copy of De revolutionibus was placed in his hands on the very day that he died, allowing him to take farewell of his life's work. He is reputed to have awoken from a stroke-induced coma, looked at his book, and then died peacefully. And Copernicus was right, there was a lot of controversy. Little did he know that less than a century later Kepler would come up with the modern day view of the Universe with the help of all the brilliant astronomers before him.