Nicolaus Copernicus was the Polish astronomer who revolutionized science and radically reordered the structure of the universe with his heliocentric theory. His classic work, On the Revolution of Heavenly Spheres, challenged the geocentric cosmology accepted dogmatically since the time of Aristotle and proposed that a rotating Earth revolved with the other planets about a stationary Sun.

The publication of the heliocentric theory marked the beginning of the scientific revolution, and legend holds that Copernicus received a printed copy of his treatise on his deathbed. He died on May 24, 1543.

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Stephen Lauf © 2004.11.18