NICOLAUS
COPERNICUS
A Polish astronomer known for his (at the time) highly contro-
versial heliocentric theory of the universe which stated that the earth and all of the other planets orbit around the sun, which lay at the center. Up until that time, most everyone believed that the earth was the center of the universe and all of the stars, planets, and the sun revolved around us. He postulated his theory in his work "De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium"("On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres"), but this book was not published until just before his death in 1543, because he somewhat feared the church and his colleagues and what would be thought of his new ideas.
Although, his ideals made sense, his calculations were not much better than any made before and so some of his theory was ignored, while other parts were kept. Some accepted this view of the universe, while still others did not. It would take the work of others like Brahe, Kepler and Galileo to bring acceptance to the sun-centered universe theory.