Copernicus was born in a wealthy family in Torun-sur-Visva, Poland, and his father was a member of parliament. When his father died, 10-year-old Copernicus was raised and educated by his uncle Yankas. Lucas is a priest, but he has many friends among the progressive intellectuals in Poland and is closely related to them. Therefore, in 149 1 year, Copernicus entered the University of Krakow, Poland, which was famous for astronomy and mathematics in Europe at that time, under the arrangement of his uncle. Although he only studied for three years and dropped out of school without getting a degree, it is not difficult to see from two notebooks he kept for a long time that he studied astronomy, mathematics and geography and learned to use astronomical instruments for observation, which laid the foundation for his lifelong astronomical research.
Because Poland was often invaded by the Knights, in order to defend the peace of the motherland, my uncle, as an archbishop, was bent on cultivating his nephew into a priest who was proficient in "church law" from practical considerations, so Copernicus came to Italy, the center of the Renaissance at that time, and studied again from 65438 to 0496. He studied canon law at the University of Bologna, studied medicine at the University of Padua, and finally received his doctorate in canon law in university of ferrara on May 3, 2003.
During nearly 10 years of research, Copernicus never relaxed his favorite astronomy, although he was busy with his studies and had to support himself because of financial difficulties. He took advantage of the convenience of school study and read a large number of available documents, including Ptolemy's 13 volume "Tiandao University", to find out the causes and main points of Ptolemy's "geocentric theory"; Various arguments about the motion of the earth and planets are studied, and the contradiction between Ptolemy's wrong geocentric view and scientific method is found. At the same time, he also used every possible opportunity to make astronomical observations. Copernicus' earliest astronomical record was on1March 9, 497, when he was studying canon law at the University of Bologna. On this day, Copernicus and the famous Italian astronomer Novara stood on the tower of St. Joseph's Church in Bologna and observed how the bright star Taurus was submerged by the approaching moon in the starry night sky. They made an accurate calculation of the moon and its movement, and confirmed the contradiction between Ptolemy's theory and astronomical phenomena with conclusive data.
1503, Copernicus returned to Poland after studying in Italy and settled in Varmia as a priest. In the parish, Copernicus did a lot of heavy and trivial daily work, managing mills, breweries and bakeries, negotiating with the invading Prussian army as a messenger, serving as a doctor and serving the poor enthusiastically. Although many things consumed Copernicus' time and energy, he always loved astronomical research. He attached great importance to astronomical observation, never gave up every opportunity to use self-made simple instruments, and accumulated observation data of planetary motion, solar eclipse, lunar eclipse and other celestial phenomena for writing "New Theory of Celestial Motion". As the holy land of astronomy, the "Copernicus Tower" is an observatory built by Copernicus in Varmia. The so-called observatory is actually an arrow tower in the castle of Furongbao, and the terrace outside is his observatory; He installed extremely simple observation instruments in it, such as astrolabe, quadrant, parallax meter, etc. These instruments are made of branches, boards, self-calibrating wooden strips and glass tubes filled with ink, which are used to observe the stars, the sun and the moon respectively. Copernicus left more than 50 observation records in Frenburg alone. Copernicus' attitude of seeking truth from facts and striving for perfection in science has also become an example for future generations to learn. For example, the time of the sidereal year calculated by his observation is 365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes and 40 seconds, which is only about 30 seconds more than the value obtained by modern instruments, and the error is one millionth. It can be calculated so accurately in the years before the invention of the telescope more than 400 years ago, which also shows that Copernicus was very rigorous in his studies. After 30 years' unremitting efforts, Copernicus changed his manuscript several times, and finally poured the fruits of painstaking efforts and completed the epoch-making scientific masterpiece "On the Operation of Celestial Bodies".
The book On the Operation of Celestial Bodies is divided into six volumes. The first volume is the essence of this book. In this volume, Copernicus brilliantly expounded the main contents of Heliocentrism and listed many observation data to prove that "the universe is spherical", "the earth is spherical", "all objects tend to condense themselves into spheres" and "the sun is the relatively static center of the planet". In the remaining volumes, he demonstrated the basic laws of general motion with mathematical knowledge, as well as a series of natural phenomena such as day and night alternation and seasonal cycle caused by the earth's rotation and revolution.
The birth of "the theory of celestial movement" is of epoch-making significance in the history of natural science development. It marks the beginning of a new era, which has greatly changed the world view of mankind and won high praise from Engels, making "the development of science make great strides from now on".
But like the development of any new thing, Copernicus' first draft, written as early as 1506- 15 12, also experienced difficulties and twists and turns, and it was not published until 30 years after his death in 1543 because of the persecution of science and progressive ideas by the church.
In Europe in 15 and 16 centuries, navigation developed rapidly. The voyages of the navigators Columbus and Magellan accumulated extremely rich astronomical and geographical observation data, which made Ptolemy's geocentric theory full of loopholes. Geocentric theory was originally a proposition deduced by Ptolemy, an ancient Greek astronomer, in the 2nd century by summarizing the observation results of predecessors. 1400 for more than 400 years, with the development of science and the progress of society, people should modify, supplement or correct the geocentric theory in time. But in Europe under theocracy, the Vatican is above many countries, and the Bible has become an ideological weapon used by the church to rule the people. Ptolemy's geocentric theory holds that the earth is the center of the universe, and all celestial bodies, including the sun, revolve around the earth, which coincides with theologians' statement about the structure of the universe in the Bible. Therefore, the medieval church deified the geocentric theory and used it as the basis to prove the existence of God. Some geocentric believers, as scholars, blindly agree with the statement that the church is there. Instead of analyzing and thinking, they are trying to find the crux of the problem, but they are trying to repair Ptolemy's geocentric theory so that they can justify themselves.
After carefully studying the observation data collected and accumulated by Copernicus, he clearly put forward that "phenomena guide astronomers" and "astronomy is written for astronomers", and his Heliocentrism described a real universe to people. The earth is a huge sphere, but it is insignificant compared with the universe. The universe is an endless behemoth.
Because Copernicus' Heliocentrism was contrary to the sky advocated by theologians, it immediately caused great shock and panic in the Holy See. They regarded Copernicus' theory as heresy, not only burned many precious scientific books, but also tried every means to destroy the manuscript of "The Operation of Celestial Bodies". When they failed to achieve the purpose of destroying the book, they distorted and tampered with this masterpiece by many despicable means in an attempt to obstruct the spread of scientific truth.
At the same time, Copernicus himself was brutally persecuted by the church. On the pretext of saving Copernicus' soul, the church forced Anna, the housekeeper who was very helpful to Copernicus' writing, to leave him, and then she was deported in an attempt to force Copernicus to stop writing. They also sent spies to monitor Copernicus' words and deeds. In the name of searching for "cultists" and "banning cults", they raided Copernicus' house.
However, the obstruction and persecution of the church only strengthened Copernicus' determination to complete the manuscript of "On the Operation of Celestial Bodies" as soon as possible, and also made Copernicus' struggle supported and helped by some people. One of the young scholars, named Letick, is a professor of mathematics at the University of Wittenberg in Germany. He made a special trip to worship Copernicus as his teacher. Letick and Thiedemann, a friend of Copernicus, ran around for the publication of Copernicus' works. 1543 On May 24th, Copernicus finally delivered the newly published book "On the Operation of Celestial Bodies" to his hands as he lay dying, giving the 70-year-old man a little comfort in his vicissitudes. After Copernicus touched it with his own hands, he died with a long-cherished wish.
Thanks to the unremitting efforts of Letick and his students, Copernicus' manuscripts and books were faithfully preserved. It was not until1953,410 years after Copernicus' death that the first volume of "On the Operation of Celestial Bodies" was completely presented to the world for the first time.
Copernicus's great achievement in astronomy is the establishment of the theory of the sun center, which fundamentally changed people's view of the universe and declared the independence of natural science. Since then, the development of natural science has entered a brand-new historical period. Similarly, Copernicus' attitude and method of breaking superstition, respecting science and seeking truth from facts have also become an example for our future generations to learn.