Who was Nicolaus Copernicus?
Q: Who was Nicolaus Copernicus?
A: Nicolaus Copernicus was a Polish astronomer who is known for his ideas about the sun and the earth, specifically that our world is heliocentric (helios = sun).
Q: When and where was he born?
A: Copernicus was born in 1473 in the city of Thorn (Toruń) in Royal Prussia.
Q: What language did he speak?
A: Copernicus spoke German as his native language.
Q: Where did he study?
A: He studied first in Cracow and then in Italy, where he graduated as a lawyer of the church. He also studied medicine to serve his fellow clerics.
Q: What jobs did Copernicus have during his lifetime?
A: During his lifetime, Copernicus had many different jobs including priest, mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, jurist, physician, classical scholar, governor, administrator, diplomat, economist and soldier.
Q: What is one of the most important scientific hypotheses attributed to him?
A: One of the most important scientific hypotheses attributed to Nicolaus Copernicus is that the sun rather than the earth is at the center of the solar system; this theory marked the beginning of modern astronomy.
