Nicolaus Copernicus under Historical Context

BBC Sky at Night Magazine

Nicolaus Copernicus’ (Feb. 19, 1473 – May 24, 1543) contributions to the field of astronomy are best summarized as the “Copernican Revolution”, where he rejected the long-held theory of a geocentric model of the solar system, meaning that Earth was stationary at the center while celestial objects orbited around it. Instead, he put forth the heliocentric model, where the Sun is at the center of the solar system and causes all other nearby celestial bodies to orbit around it, including Earth. He devised three laws to explain the behavior of planetary motion around the Sun: one, that these orbits were elliptical (oval) and not circles; two, while a planet’s speed will change as its distance from the Sun increases or decreases, it will always encompass equal amounts of space over the same time frame between it and the Sun; three, the period of a planet’s revolution about the Sun is directly proportional to its distance from the sun.

During Copernicus’ lifetime, the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci completed his work on the most famous painting of all time: the Mona Lisa in 1506. The painting is generally crowned as the singular masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance. Copernicus also witnessed the Church of England splitting from the Catholic Church over a political power struggle between King Henry VIII and Pope Clement VII in 1532. Lutherism, which was born out of Martin Luther’s 95 theses and the impact of the Protestant Reformation – another ideological split within the church about a decade before – took on a major role and influence within the new Church of England as they supported King Henry’s attempt to break away from the Catholic Church.

Martin Luther (Nov. 10, 1483 – Feb. 18, 1546) was a German, Catholic priest responsible for the Protestant Reformation. He published his 95 Theses to challenge the Catholic Church on the practice of religious indulgences, where worshippers were able to pay to “lessen” the weight of their sins for when they reached the afterlife, and the ensuing fallout of the Church’s attempt to smear his claims and kill him lead to a major split in Christianity that gave birth to the Protestant branch of the religion.

Researching the lifespans of the five astronomers in question raised the observation that, barring Galilei and Kepler, these great scientists rarely overlapped with each other. It can be taken further if including more recent astronomical figures such as Charles Messier, who cataloged deep-sky objects like galaxies and nebulas in the mid 1700-1800s, and Albert Einstein in the 1900s. The concentration of brilliant astronomers who left a meaningful discovery on the field has increased in the past century or two, likely caused by education becoming much more widespread around the world. It was rather obvious that many of the historical astronomers were white, well-connected men, often of noble backgrounds, as they were the few who could have the education, resources, and opportunity to pursue their studies.