Copernicus and the Heliocentric Universe

What happened

In 1543, the year he died, the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) published On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres. Against the accepted geocentric view, he argued that the Earth and planets orbit the Sun, and that the Earth turns on its own axis each day, setting the planets in a new order out from the Sun.

Why it matters

Copernicus's heliocentric model displaced the Earth from the centre of the cosmos, contradicting Church teaching and launching the astronomical revolution later carried on by Kepler, Galileo, and Newton.

Sources

• World History Encyclopedia. Nicolaus Copernicus · Reputable source