Nicolaus Copernicus (Mikołaj Kopernik in Polish) was born 550 years ago on February 19, 1473 in Toruń, in the Kingdom of Poland. He became a mathematician and astronomer, famous to this day as the one “who stopped the Sun and moved the Earth.” He was also a clergyman of the Roman-Catholic Church.

In his opus magnum “De revolutionibus orbium coelestium” (“On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres”) he formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun, rather than the Earth, at the center of the universe. In 1543 it was a major scientific event that triggered the Scientific Revolution.

„Stopped the Sun, moved the Earth”. #OTD we celebrate 550th anniversary of the birth of Nicolaus #Copernicus, the Polish Renaissance man who presented the first, since Ancient Greece, heliocentric model of the Solar System. Copernicus is the parton of 2023. pic.twitter.com/Zmb9AbRoRD

— Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland (@PremierRP_en) February 19, 2023

Copernicus, like other Renaissance scholars, had a wide range of interests. He was involved in medicine, mathematics, law, cartography, diplomacy, philology and even military strategy. He was driven by curiosity, and his courage of thought and persistence in the pursuit of truth helped him make important discoveries.

550 years ago, a man was born who turned the world upside down. Nicolaus #Copernicus was the first to discover that the Earth was not the center of the Universe, but orbited the Sun 🔭🌌

Find out in the infographic what his theory suggests 😉 pic.twitter.com/hI9qV4htiW

— The Universe Space Tech (@ust_magazine) February 19, 2023

February 19, the day of Copernicus’ birthday, is celebrated as the Day of Polish Science. Moreover, back in 2022 the Polish Senate unanimously passed a resolution establishing 2023 as the Year of Nicolaus Copernicus.