Concept Blog #1-Twinkle, twinkle little star

How would you feel if you found out that everything you knew about the world you lived in was nothing like you had thought?  Would you be curious to know what your reality was?  Would you be able to publicly display your findings despite being completely ridiculed and ostracized by your peers and even your God?  This is the story of Nicolaus Copernicus.  He was a Renaissance man for certain.  His ideas revolutionized the worldview and religious thought of his time.  His ideas are also a solid base for today's Astronomy and its reach to the future.

Prior to the Renaissance, the model of the cosmos that was accepted came from the Greek philosopher Ptolemy in 140 AD.  Simply put; the Earth was the center of the Universe and the moon, sun, planet, and all the stars orbited around it in a circular pattern.  This was the way it was and everyone knew.  Copernicus started to question this theory, it in fact became his life's work.  As an avid astronomer and star gazer he knew that there was planetary motion that could not be explained by Ptolemy's unchallenged 1300 year old theory.

Copernicus theorized a startling different world.  The reason that the stars appeared to orbit the Earth was an illusion because the Earth itself rotated on its on axis every 24 hours, hence night and day.  He dared to go further suggesting that the strange planetary motion that no one could explain was solved with the deduction that the stars orbited the Sun and not the Earth.  This of course leads to the theory that the Earth and all heavenly bodies orbit the Sun: Copernican Theory.

Copernicus was a devout Catholic and he risked heresy proposing such ideas.  He wasn't just challenging Science but also God.  The Vatican viewed the earth as unmovable and the center of the world.  Any beliefs otherwise were contrary to Holy Scripture.  He kept his ideas to himself for thirty years because of his fear of the imminent censure from the church.  Only as he was nearing death did he decide to publish his findings in 1543, in the book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium.  Legend has it that he saw it in print on his deathbed and it was immediately put on the papal index of forbidden books.

His ideas remained  forgotten for nearly 80 years till a man named Galileo started to question planetary motion.  Galileo proved Copernicus right with his brilliant mind and telescope.  These ideas caused such a sir that the church put Galileo on house arrest till his death.  These ideas were built upon by Kepler, Sir Isaac Newton...etc.  A brilliant mind builds upon the ideas of another brilliant mind.  This is how we will pave the path to the future.