Today, near the altar of St. Anna's Church, affiliated to the University of Krakow, we can see such an inscription. It reads succinctly in Latin: "Nicolaus Copernicus is the glory of the motherland, and he brings great glory to our motherland, our city, and our university". From the inscription, we can see that although he died 400 years ago, his immortal fame is still respected and supported by scientists around the world.
Copernicus's heliocentric theory overthrew the Earth-centered cosmology and became the basis of later astronomy, ushering in a new era of science.
In the distant primeval times, human beings looked up at the sky with curious eyes. The Bible says, "God created two lights, the great light ruling over the day, and the small light controlling the night." And he created countless stars, and placed them in the sky and illuminated the earth..." But this is only a myth, if according to the Old Testament, all this is the will of God. However, there are still many questions that cannot be answered in the Bible.
In the 2nd century AD, the Greek astronomer Ptolemy, based on Aristotle's view, published a very surprising theory about the mysterious sky, arguing: "The earth is the center of the universe, everything is gathered around it, and it is undoubtedly the core of huge matter." The sun, the moon, and the stars all constantly revolve around the earth, sometimes changing their positions. Everything is scattered around us around the center of this universe.
This statement seems very correct, and there is little room for rebuttal. But this theory has disturbed the human mind. Although it has always been confusing, no one has objected to it for 14 centuries. In medieval Europe, Ptolemy's doctrine was seen as a matter of course, and the Roman Church supported this theory, violating it, and was called heresy.
Until one day in the Middle Ages, Copernicus was at the entrance of the cave, watching the sun rise in the east, and when the shining sunlight shone on him, he thought without any doubt that the sun must be turning. When the sun rises over the horizon, humans can clearly feel its rotation. It rises leisurely, slowly, and slowly, and its light fuels the prosperity of all things. The sun continued to run until late afternoon, when it sank into darkness.
On February 19, 1473, Copernicus was born in St. Ana Lane, Toruń, on the banks of the Vistula River. His father, a former merchant from Krakow, moved to Toruń in 1458 and later served as mayor and councillor of toruń, and his mother Babana was the daughter of a wealthy local merchant. When Gorzhny was 10 years old, his father died and he was sent to be raised in the home of his uncle, Archbishop Ukas Vadslord.
At the age of 18, Copernicus was sent by his uncle to the University of Krakow to study astronomy and mathematics. His uncle expected him to become a priest. He had to accept it. In 1496, Copernicus studied canon law at the University of Bologna in northern Italy, but his main focus was on mathematics and astronomy. In 1500, Copernicus went to Rome to work as a mathematics teacher due to financial difficulties. But he never stopped studying astronomy and mathematics, he gave lectures on these two topics in Rome, and during his time in Italy, he also made many astronomical observations and measurements. He discussed issues and exchanged views with local astronomers. He recorded this bold insight: "The sky, the sun, the moon, the stars, and everything stand still, and nothing in the universe is moving except the earth." The Earth rotates around the axis at a tremendous speed, which gives rise to the feeling that the Earth is standing still while the sky is spinning."
In the summer of 1501, Copernicus returned to China with the support of the church, and then went to Badua, Italy, to study medicine and continue to study canon law. During this time he took a degree examination at a neighboring university and received a doctorate in canon law.
Upon his return to His country, Copernicus was approved to join the Order of Priests at the Cathedral of Ferenburg, where he served as secretary and personal physician to his uncle Bishop Ukas in Fort Hels, helping his uncle write letters in addition to treating the poor and helping to preside over the struggle against the Teutonic Knights. In his spare time during the war, medical treatment, and the administration of church property, he also went to organize his research materials and wrote an outline of the "heliocentric theory" in Latin, "On the Hypothesis of the Movement of Celestial Bodies". In the book, he put forward his hypothesis: "The earth is not the center of the universe. All celestial bodies revolve around the sun, which is the center of the universe. The Earth, like any other planet, revolves around a circle. It rotates 1 week around the Earth's axis 1 day and night, and 1 week around the Earth in 1 year."
This theory was hard to believe at the time. Dr. Desi Slemes, in his research paper on Copernicus, lamented that "this triumph of reason and imagination is an original undertaking that can be expected, but it cannot flow from any source of wisdom."
Copernicus was not only a thinker who dared to make bold assumptions, but he was also a warrior in the pursuit of truth. For his own theory, he showed a very careful attitude. He knew that this radical idea of the movement of the celestial bodies would infuriate the Church. But he deeply felt that this kind of refinement and attitude towards the exploration of the sky could not be regarded as a sin.
When he was about to publish the paper, he repeatedly examined his arguments, and in the preface to the book, he made the following statement: "My ideas are not without theoretical basis. For fear of being scorned by others, I used to have to: set it aside."
He had also been advised to add an explanation to the preface, pointing out that this theoretical system was only helpful for the calculation of the calendar, not for absolute truth, but it was only a hypothesis, but Copernicus did not accept this suggestion. When his tome was introduced in Seilenburg on 24 May 1543, Copernicus was bedridden for more than a year due to illness, unable to see with his eyes, and only touched the cover of the book and died. Although the manuscript of "running" was changed by the publisher of Schönenberg, the original preface was replaced by a pseudo-preface, and the title of the book was changed to "TheOry of the Movement of Celestial Bodies", the publication of this immortal work is still of epoch-making significance.
Copernicus's theory of the heliocentric system overthrew the "geocentric theory" that had long ruled astronomy, and natural science began to be liberated from theology. Kepler and Galileo, along with other scholars, continued to develop Copernicus's theory, while Newton was the master of it. Without this theory, Kepler would not have been able to discover the normal orbits of the planets. Without the heliocentric theory, Newton could not have produced the concept of gravity. Any celestial body can calculate its gravitational attraction from its mass function, and if this fact is not understood, modern astronomy and various astronomical activities cannot be discussed.
Copernicus's cosmology transcended what we now call the solar system. There are several planets in this planetary system, surrounded by their own moons, and themselves orbit the sun by relying on the sun's gravity. Today, we understand that the sun and the solar system are only part of the infinite universe. By a huge number of stars, a huge system of rotation is being made. Astronomers have understood that the Sun is just a tiny star, and the Earth rotates around it in an orbit 150 million kilometers away.
Copernicus's theoretical system made our knowledge of astronomy more concrete. The sun is the center of the solar system, and the earth orbits the sun, and itself has the phenomenon of rotation, which produces day and night. The Earth's axis is at an inclined angle of about 22.3 °, pointing to the center of the rotation - the sun, because of this tilted state, so that the earth in the rotation cycle, when the northern hemisphere towards the sun, is the northern hemisphere summer season, after 6 months of time, the southern hemisphere will turn to the sun, so summer will fall in the southern hemisphere.
Before Copernicus, there were some doctrines that were not accepted, and it was only because of the proposal of helioscentrism that they appeared correct and credible. Today, Einstein's theory of relativity, although it has ushered in a new era for astronomy and physics, cannot overturn Copernicus's fundamental theory.
The German poet Goethe once praised: "The Copernican theory of geokinesis has shaken the depths of human consciousness, and since ancient times there has been no insight or invention, which can be compared."
References: History of the Development of Science and Technology in the West, Copernicus, Past and Present Lives of Astronomy