Today’s Google Doodle celebrates the 540th birthday of Nicolaus Copernicus, best known for the heliocentric theory stating that the planets orbit around the sun. He was born February 19, 1473 in Poland.
He shared his findings in a book called Commentariolus in 1514 and then wrote a second book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (“On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres”).
These theories angered the Roman Catholic Church, who banned the latter book shortly after Copernicus’ death. (Even in those days, science and religion were often at odds).
However, due to the later work of Galileo and Kepler, the heliocentric model gained acceptance, replacing the belief that the earth was at the center of everything.
Copernicus died at the age of 70 in 1543.
