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Known for
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Proposing a heliocentric (sun-centered) model for the solar system, in which the Sun is stationary at the center, and Earth and the other planets orbit around it
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Career
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1491-1494 Studied mathematics at Kraków Academy (now Jagiellonian University)
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1496 Went to Italy to study astronomy and law at the University of Bologna
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1497 Began observations of the Sun, Moon, and planets
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1514? Wrote Commentariolus, an outline of his astronomical ideas, but did not circulate it widely
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1543 Published De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), which held that Earth and the other planets orbit a centrally located Sun
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Did You Know
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Before Copernican theory was accepted, astronomers believed that Earth was stationary at the center of the solar system, and the Sun and planets revolved around it.
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Copernicus was best known to his contemporaries as a doctor and the Canon of Frauenburg Cathedral.
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Italian physicist and astronomer Galileo attempted to publicize Copernican theory in the early 1600s, and was convicted of heresy as a result.
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Copernican theory was not widely accepted until the late 17th century—over 100 years after Copernicus's death.
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Copernicus's book, De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, was banned as heretical by the Catholic Church until 1835.
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