Just Read About Science Ancestor Corpernicus (ASTRO SCIENTIST)

Mikolaj Kopperigk was born at Torum in Polish Pomerania on 14^th Feb 1472 born to rich parents, he studied classics, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, law and theology.

At Bologna University, he was a student of Dominico Novara, who questioned the views of ‘Ptolemy and thus influenced young Copernicus’ thinking. For him, ancient authorities are no longer infallible or sacred. He thought the heliocentric universe must be more acceptable than the geocentric.

Copernicus died at the age of 70, twenty-one years before Galileo was born. His book on the revolutions of the heavenly spheres, which outlined the heliocentric system, was published in the last year of his life.

 The first printed copy of it was handed to him on his deathbed. It was addressed, as the title page said, “to the mathematicians only”. Clumsily written and marred by inconsistencies, it aroused very little interest for more than half a century and became an all-time worst-seller.

There are indications that even Galileo did not read all through it. The reaction of the academic world was indifferent or hostile. Copernicus himself had feared that his book would be laughed at and hissed off the stage and so withheld its publication till the end of his life.

The encouragement given by his ecclesiastical superiors, including Pope Clement Vii, helped him overcome this fear. The letter of a cardinal requesting Copernicus to publish his discovery was printed as a preface to his book, which was dedicated to Pope Paul iii, Clement’s successor.

 So the legend that the church opposed the development of science, especially the theory of the motion of the earth, is a myth. The church held the view that the Copernican theory was only a convenient hypothesis for explaining the observed motions of the planets and not a true cosmogony.

When such theories openly challenged the time-honoured dogmas of the church, the church crossed swords with them.