Copernicus Heliocentric

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) proposed the heliocentric model of the solar system — that the Earth and other planets orbit the Sun (rather than the Earth being stationary at the center of the universe, as Ptolemy had argued). His De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) was published on the day he died (May 24, 1543) — he is said to have received a copy just hours before death. The Copernican Revolution — the shift from geocentric to heliocentric cosmology — is one of the most profound conceptual changes in human history. It removed Earth from its special central position, beginning a process of 'decentralization' that continued through Darwin (humans not specially created) and modern cosmology (the Milky Way is not the center of the universe). The Catholic Church placed De Revolutionibus on the Index of Forbidden Books in 1616 — 73 years after publication — because Galileo had made the theory controversial.