February 19, 1473. Nicolaus Copernicus was born on this date, 540 years ago. Copernicus was a Renaissance astronomer and mathematician. He lived at a time when people believed Earth lay enclosed within crystal spheres at the center of the universe.
For all his efforts, Nicolaus Copernicus is at the centre of the space-exploration universe. The astronomer, born 540 years ago today, has a crater on the moon and a NASA trajectory system. In 2009, German scientists honoured Copernicus with his own
Nicolaus Copernicus's book, titled "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres," was published the year the Polish astronomer died, in 1543. It marked the beginning of an eclipse of a worldview dominated by the ideas of Aristotle, who believed that the
Copernicus, who was born Feb. 19, 1473, is considered the founder of modern astronomy.
Copernicus never solved one other glitch. In his view, orbits were round, and that caused problems because observations kept showing planets in places that didn't fit this theory. The realization that orbits are elliptical (sort of stretched-out
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