What was Nicolaus Copernicus best known for?

Nicolaus Copernicus was born in the city of Torun, in the Prince-Bishopric of Warmia, northern Poland on February 19, 1473. His name at birth was Mikolaj Kopernik. At university he started calling himself the Latin form of his name, Nicolaus Copernicus. Nicolaus was born into a wealthy family. read more

Nicolaus Copernicus was born on 19 February 1473 in the city of Thorn (modern Toruń), in the province of Royal Prussia, in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. His father was a merchant from Kraków and his mother was the daughter of a wealthy Toruń merchant. Nicolaus was the youngest of four children. read more

Nicolaus Copernicus was an astronomer, mathematician, translator, artist, and physicist among other things. He is best known as the first astronomer to posit the idea of a heliocentric solar system—a system in which the planets and planetary objects orbit the sun. read more