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How did Nicolaus Copernicus describe Earth’s yearly motion?
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Nicolaus Copernicus
Portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus, 1580, from the Town Hall in Toruń, Poland; in the collection of Muzeum Okręgowe w Toruniu (Regional Museum in Toruń). In his book De revolutionibus, he proposed that the Sun was the center of the solar system and that the planets circle the Sun.
Nicolaus Copernicus proposed that Earth is a planet that orbits the Sun annually. In his heliocentric system, he described the Sun as the fixed point to which the motions of the planets are referred, effectively setting Earth into motion around it.12
Copernicus concluded that the observed planetary motions—such as the retrograde motion of superior planets—were not independent phenomena but were instead manifestations of Earth’s own motion as it travels in its yearly orbit. This model was detailed in his seminal work, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri VI, published in 1543.31