Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543), Polish astronomer and mathematician, was the founder of the heliocentric model of the solar system. Educated at universities in Krakow and Bologna, he spent most of his life as a Catholic canon at Frombork while pursuing astronomical research for over thirty years.
In 1543, Copernicus published his masterwork De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium on his deathbed, proposing that the Sun—not the Earth—is at the center of the universe, with Earth being merely one of several planets orbiting it. This overturned the Ptolemaic geocentric model that had dominated astronomy for over 1,400 years, igniting the Copernican Revolution.
Copernicus's heliocentric theory is considered the starting point of the Scientific Revolution, directly inspiring Galileo's telescopic observations, Kepler's laws of planetary motion, and Newton's theory of gravitation. His work fundamentally transformed humanity's understanding of its place in the cosmos and remains a milestone in the history of modern scientific thought.
