Nicolaus Copernicus was born on 19 Febuary, 1473 in Torun, Poland. He was the youngest child of Sr. Nicolause Copernicus. He had 4 siblings. He died on 24 May 1543. His name in polish is Mikolaj Kopernik. He was a polish astronomer and mathematician.
When he was a student he studied mathematics, cannon law, and medicines in many places such as at Cracow, Bologna, Rome, Padua, and Ferrara. Nicolaus Copernicus was very interested in astronomy and he published his heliocentric model of the solar system in commentariolus during 1512. In this description he described that sun is not the center of the solar system it is off by a little bit. To figure that out, he used the device Ptolemy. It is also known as the equant point. He published many things but his book De Revolutions was the most famous piece of his work.
Nicolaus Copernicus was very important to Renaissance because at that time most of the people were very religious and believed in god too much. He then studied mathematics and astronomy and he was unique in his way. He discovered new things and was against a church in a defensive way because he was being different and doing other things than just following the religion. This is why he was very important to Renaissance.
Nicolaus Copernicus made many contributions during the Renaissance. During the Renaissance, he contributed the geocentric and heliocentric theory. Geocentric theory stated that the world is in the center of the universe. Heliocentric theory also stated that the sun is in the center of the solar system. Both theories were incorrect but the heliocentric theory was close. Today, if you examine a solar system, you will notice the sun is nearly at middle of solar system and that's what Nicolaus Copernicus stated. It is amazing that he could figure that out way back then during the mid 1400s.
During the year of 1514, Nicolaus Copernicus let his friends take a look at his 6 paged hand written book called da revolutions orbium colestium which described his ideas about heliocentric. The heliocentric described that the sun is the center of the solar system and the planets revolve around it. Nicolaus Copernicus also believed that the earth rotates on its axis and takes one whole year to rotate around the sun. The heliocentric theory tells why we see Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn for a limited time from Earth.
Sources:
http://www.phy.hr/~dpaar/fizicari/xcopern.html
http://encarta.msn.com/media_461577197/nicolaus_copernicus_quick_facts.html
http://polskiinternet.com/english/nicolascopernicus.html
http://www.nndb.com/people/041/000029951/
