Nicolaus Copernicus
By Sophie Mannall
1473-1543
Nicolaus Copernicus was born on the 19th of February 1473. He studied mathematics, astronomy, medicine, canon law and geography. By 1508 Copernicus started to make his model of the solar system. Nicolaus Copernicus claimed that the sun was in the centre of the solar system (heleocentrism) making the earth a planet. Copernicus used math to figure things out, using a simple compass or a straightedge. Before Copernicus' theory Ptolemy an astronomer claimed that the earth was in the centre of the universe, this theory (geocentrism) was believed by many people for almost a thousand years. Copernicus' theory contributes to our knowledge of the solar system using the heleocentric model (sun centred) rather that the geocentric model. He died on the 24th of May 1543.