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Happy birthday, Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus was born on February 19, 1473.

You can read about his life and how his final resting place was discovered at last, comparatively recently, at Copernicus - His Life. And if you wonder what all the fuss was about, you can also read about Copernicus - the Revolution.

In 2010 Copernicus got a cool birthday present from the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry! They officially agreed to naming an element of the Periodic Table after him. The element was first created by a laboratory in Darmstadt, Germany in 1996, but needed to be confirmed and then checked and discussed by other researchers.

The element is copernicium with symbol Cn and atomic number 112. It breaks up so quickly it can only exist in a laboratory.

I was never much into Science and its elements. But I did read something about Copernicus as a young child, just because I was fascinated by his name!

It's the 540th anniversary of the birth of Copernicus. He was born on February 19, 1473.

There is a nice Google doodle showing his model of the Sun with orbiting planets. They move!

You can find out about his life and how it took over four centuries to find his burial place in Copernicus - His Life.

Nicolaus Copernicus was born on February 19, 1473. He was an official of the cathedral of Frombork (in present day Poland) and prominent citizen of that town. In fact, his astronomy had to be a minor activity with all of his other responsibilities.

He had discussed his ideas about the Earth and other planets revolving around the Sun, instead of everything going around the Earth. It helped to explain some things that didn't work with an Earth-centered view. However it was a long time before the idea was accepted by most astronomers. You can find out by clicking here why the idea was revolutionary at the time. His major work explaining the theory was published on the day he died.

Last year he got an animated doodle from Google showing a model of the Copernican theory. Here is a link to a You Tube animation of the doodle.

Here is a picture of Copernicus's memorial stone in Frombork cathedral. This was erected when his remains were identified and reburied. I couldn't find a good picture of it when I first wrote the article.