Heliocentric model and Copernicus

NICOLAUS COPERNICUS

Nicolaus Copernicus was a polish mathematician, scientist and astronomer.

He was born the 19th February 1473 in Torun, Poland and he died the 24th May 1543 in Frombork, Poland.

He described around the year 1508 the heliocentric model, although people say it had been already described by Aristarchus of Samos in ancient Greece.

It is true that Copernicus based his investigations and research studies on Aristarchus’ previous work.

He was the youngest child in a family of polish merchants. Because of the political issues in those times Copernicus’ first language was German, but their parents took him to school to study polish.

His father died when he was only 10 years and his maternal uncle took that role. He was the bishop of Varmia Lucas Watzenrode and he would ensure the best education for his loved Copernicus.

He financed the studies of Copernicus and fond him a job to ensure his future. Copernicus mother would die only some years later.

In 1491, Copernicus entered the University of Cracow, where he studied painting and mathematics. During that period he developed interest in astronomy and the cosmos.

After graduating in Cracow in 1494, his unclefound him a job in the Frombork Cathedral ascanon, so that he could continue with hisstudies on astronomy.

In 1496, Copernicus traveled to Italy, where he enrolled in a religious law program as the University of Bologna. There, he met some astronomers.

In 1500, after completing his law studies in Bologna, Copernicus went on to study practical medicine at the University of Padua, but he did not finished them.

In 1503, Copernicus attended the University of Ferrara, where he prepared to take the canon law exam. After passing it, he returned to Poland.

In those years he lived in the Episcopal residence looking after his uncle’s health. During that time he described the heliocentric model.

In 1510, Copernicus moved to a residence in the Frombork Cathedral Chapter to have more time to study astronomy. He would live there as a canon for the rest of his life.

GEOCENTRIC MODEL

Also known as Ptolemaic model. Although Plato and Aristotle had been writing about it centuries earlier, it was developed by Greek astronomers and was named after Claudius Ptolemy.

It explained how planets and the Sun revolved about the motionless Earth. It was a complex interaction of circles. Despite this difficulties and complexity, this model survived until the 16th century when Copernicus proposed the Heliocentric model.

Ptolemy believed that each planet orbited around a circle, called epicycle, and the epicycle orbited around a bigger circle, called deferent, around the Earth.

Equants were the solution that Ptolemy gave to some of the discrepancies the model had. Equants were the point at which an epicycle’s center always seemed to move at the same speed.

HELIOCENTRIC MODEL

After 1,400 years Copernicus was the first to propose a different theory from Ptolemy’s.

He used an astronomical theory to describe how the Sun was placed at the center of the universe.

This model became popular in the 16th century because of advances in technology which gained evidence in its favor.

The rotation of the Earth on its own axis in a 24 hour period could explain the daily movement of all the stars around the Earth.

Copernicus wrote a book called ‘On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies’. In this book he explained the movement of the stars and planet in a more simple way than Ptolemy did. However, both theories prediced identical planetary movements.

THE COPERNICAN REVOLUTION

When Copernicus’ heliocentric model was developed, great changes appeared in society. However, it spread a bit slowly because of the conflicts it created with the Church.

The Church was against Copernicus and his theory of heliocentrism because it contradicted the Bible. His book was banned some years after it was published.

First of all, the Holy Scripture states that the Earth is the center of the universe and the Sun revolves around it, and not otherwise; saying the opposite was considered blasphemy.

Second, if you prove the Church wrong, it would lose a great part of its power and influence. At the moment, the Church and the Bible were the only sources of truth, and they were followed blindly by most of the people, so if part of it was a lie, it would lose credibility.

At first, the heliocentric model wasn’t properly accepted by society either and it took a long time for non-educated people like peasants to believe the center of the universe was the Sun. Many progressive scientists believed in this theory, but we can´t say the same for the rest of the world. After all, there´s a great difference between thinking human beings are the centre of everything and thinking you’re just something in the Universe without importance.

Nowadays, we can see that, even though the heliocentric model wasn´t entirely correct, it has helped a lot mankind to get closer to the actual model of the Universe. It has affected our society is not only in a scientific way, but it has also made the Church lose part of it power and encouraged people to prove things instead of just believing in something blindly.