2. •Nicolaus Copernicus was born on February
19, 1473, in Torun, Poland.
•He studied at the University of Cracow from
1491 to 1494.
(he did not attend any classes in astronomy, it
was during his student years there that
Copernicus began to collect books on
mathematics and astronomy (the study of the
universe).
4. •He is best known for the astronomical
theory that the Sun was near the center
of the universe and that the Earth and
other planets rotated around the center.
5. •He also stated that the
Earth spinning on its
axis, rotates once daily
and makes a full
revolution around the
Sun in a year.
6. •Copernicus did not believe that the Earth
and other planets were infuenced by or
revolved due to the Sun, instead he believed
that the Sun was located near the center of
the universe.
7. •It was this center of the universe which
influenced those bodies and caused them to
revolve. This theory is called the heliocentric
or sun-center theory of the universe.
8. The reasons for seasons – the Earth travels around the sun,
and its axis of rotation is tilted by 23.5 degrees to the plane
of the orbit. In July, the northern hemisphere is getting more
sunlight than in January.
