Nicolaus Copernicus facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Nicolaus Copernicus
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Portrait, 1580, Toruń Old Town City Hall
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| Born | 19 February 1473 Toruń (Thorn), Royal Prussia, Kingdom of Poland
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| Died | 24 May 1543 (aged 70) Frombork (Frauenburg), Prince-Bishopric of Warmia, Royal Prussia, Kingdom of Poland
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| Alma mater | Kraków University Bologna University University of Padua University of Ferrara |
| Known for | Heliocentrism Copernicus' Law |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics, astronomy, canon law, medicine, economics |
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Nicolaus Copernicus (19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was an astronomer. People know Copernicus for his ideas about the sun and the earth. His main idea was that our world is heliocentric (helios = sun). His theory was that the sun is in the middle of the solar system, and the planets go around it. This was published in his book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the revolutions of the heavenly spheres).
Copernicus was born in 1473 in the city of Thorn (Toruń), in Royal Prussia, a mainly German-speaking region that a few years earlier had become a part of the Kingdom of Poland. He was taught first in Cracow and then in Italy, where he graduated as a lawyer of the church. He studied also medicine to serve his fellow clerics. Copernicus spent most of his life working and researching in Frauenburg (Frombork), Warmia, where he died in 1543.
Copernicus was one of the great polymaths of his age. He was a priest, mathematician, astronomer, doctor, jurist, physician, classical scholar, governor, administrator, diplomat, economist, and soldier. During all these jobs, he treated astronomy as a hobby. However, his formula of how the sun, rather than the earth, is at the center of the solar system, is still one of the most important scientific hypotheses in history. It was the beginning of modern astronomy.
Images for kids
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Copernicus's maternal uncle, Lucas Watzenrode the Younger
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Collegium Maius at Kraków University, Copernicus's Polish alma mater
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Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross and St. Bartholomew in Wrocław
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Copernicus's translation of Theophylact Simocatta's Epistles. Cover shows coat of arms of (clockwise from top) Poland, Lithuania and Kraków.
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Copernicus's tower at Frombork, where he lived and worked; reconstructed since World War II
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Olsztyn Castle, where Copernicus resided from 1516 to 1521
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Copernicus holding lily-of-the-valley: portrait in Nicolaus Reusner's Icones (1587).
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1735 epitaph, Frombork Cathedral
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Frombork Cathedral
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Tusi couple
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Casket with Copernicus's remains on exhibition in Olsztyn
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German-language letter from Copernicus to Duke Albert of Prussia, giving medical advice for George von Kunheim (1541)
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Nicolaus Copernicus Monument in Kraków
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Statue of Copernicus outside of Frombork Cathedral
 | Shirley Ann Jackson |
 | Garett Morgan |
 | J. Ernest Wilkins Jr. |
 | Elijah McCoy |
