Nicolaus Copernicus

Introduction & Top Questions
Early life and education
Copernicus’s astronomical work
Publication of De revolutionibus

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images & Videos

Aristotle's theory of the solar system explained

How did Ptolemy explain retrograde motion?

Copernicus's revolutionary theory: The Sun as the center

Nicolaus Copernicus: heliocentric system

Tall white stone obelisk of the Astronomers Monument at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, with sculpted figures of astronomers around its base and a blue sky above.

At a Glance

Nicolaus Copernicus summary

Quizzes

View of the Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31, M31).

Astronomy and Space Quiz

Michael Faraday (L) English physicist and chemist (electromagnetism) and John Frederic Daniell (R) British chemist and meteorologist who invented the Daniell cell.

Faces of Science

Nicolaus Copernicus. Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543) Polish astronomer. In 1543 he published, forward proof of a Heliocentric (sun centered) universe. Coloured stipple engraving published London 1802. De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri vi.

All About Astronomy

Related Questions

How did Copernicus’s heliocentric model explain the order of the planets?
How did Copernicus’s model use uniform circular motion?
How did Erasmus Reinhold use Copernican methods in the Prutenic Tables?
How did Galileo’s discovery of Jupiter’s moons make the Copernican system more believable?
How did Johannes Kepler improve the Copernican model of planetary motion?
How did Nicolaus Copernicus describe Earth’s daily motion?
How did Nicolaus Copernicus describe Earth’s yearly motion?
How did Nicolaus Copernicus explain the precession of the equinoxes?
How did Nicolaus Copernicus influence Galileo Kepler Descartes and Newton?
How did Rheticus help Nicolaus Copernicus publish De revolutionibus?
How did the heliocentric model explain the retrograde motion of Mars Jupiter and Saturn?
How many recorded astronomical observations by Nicolaus Copernicus are known?
In which subject did Nicolaus Copernicus earn a doctorate in 1503?
What ideas about the solar system did Nicolaus Copernicus present in the Commentariolus?
What is the English title of De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri VI?
What orbital periods did Nicolaus Copernicus assign to Mercury and Venus?
What was Nicolaus Copernicus’s first recorded astronomical observation?
What was the purpose of Rheticus’s Narratio prima?
What work did Nicolaus Copernicus do as a church canon in Poland?
When and where was Nicolaus Copernicus born?
When did Nicolaus Copernicus develop his main heliocentric idea?
When did Nicolaus Copernicus die?
When was De revolutionibus orbium coelestium published?
Where did Nicolaus Copernicus spend his final years?
Where did Nicolaus Copernicus study before going to Italy?
Which Byzantine writer’s work did Nicolaus Copernicus translate into Latin?
Which subjects did Nicolaus Copernicus study at the University of Cracow?
Which universities in Italy did Nicolaus Copernicus attend?
Who was Domenico Maria de Novara?
Who was Georg Joachim Rheticus?
Who were Nicolaus Copernicus’s parents?
Why did Nicolaus Copernicus retain epicycles in his Sun-centered model?
Why did the Copernican model not immediately convince all astronomers?
Why do Mercury and Venus always appear close to the Sun from Earth?
Why is Nicolaus Copernicus associated with the Scientific Revolution?
Why was the lack of observed stellar parallax a challenge for Copernicus’s theory?
Why is Nicolaus Copernicus famous?
What did Nicolaus Copernicus do for a living?
How did Nicolaus Copernicus influence others?
What is Ptolemy best known for?
How did Ptolemy impact the world?
What were Ptolemy’s achievements?
What was Carl Friedrich Gauss’s childhood like?
What awards did Carl Friedrich Gauss win?
How was Carl Friedrich Gauss influential?
What is René Descartes known for?

Science Astronomy

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External Websites

Wolfram Research - Eric Weisstein's World of Scientific Biography - Biography of Nicholaus Copernicus
New Mexico Museum of Space History - Nicolaus Copernicus
DigitalCommons at COD - Copernican Heliocentrism
Space.com - Nicolaus Copernicus biography: Facts & discoveries
World History Encyclopedia - Nicolaus Copernicus
Culture.pl - Copernicus: Revelations about the Renaissance Man
Famous Scientists - Nicolaus Copernicus
BBC - The Compass - Stargazing: Copernicus' Heavenly Spheres
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Biography of Nicolaus Copernicus
University of Bologna - Nicolaus Copernicus

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Nicolaus Copernicus - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
Nicolaus Copernicus - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Nicolaus Copernicus

Polish astronomer

Also known as: Mikołaj Kopernik, Nikolaus Kopernikus

Written by

Robert S. Westman

Professor of History and Science Studies, University of California, San Diego, at La Jolla. Author of Johannes Kepler's Adoption of the Copernican Hypothesis and others.

Robert S. Westman

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Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Oct. 27, 2026 •History

Nicolaus Copernicus (born February 19, 1473, Toruń, Royal Prussia, Poland—died May 24, 1543, Frauenburg, East Prussia [now Frombork, Poland]) Polish astronomer who proposed that the planets have the Sun as the fixed point to which their motions are to be referred; that Earth is a planet which, besides orbiting the Sun annually, also turns once daily on its own axis; and that very slow long-term changes in the direction of this axis account for the...

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