(WKBN) -- Every year on February 19, scientists across the world celebrate Copernicus Day. Learn about the man who changed how we view the solar system.
The holiday is named after famous Polish scientist Nicolaus Copernicus who was born on this date in 1473. Copernicus was a Renaissance scientist who was fascinated by outer space and planetary motion.
When Copernicus was born, the scientific consensus was that the Earth was at the center of the solar system and the sun and planets revolved around it.
Copernicus attended the University of Krakow from 1491-1495 (while Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue) and it was there that his mind started to wander. While the geocentric model was universally agreed upon, Copernicus discovered that the math involved in the model itself was extremely complex.
It was in those four years at the university that Copernicus started to theorize about a revolutionary idea. His idea was that the Earth, planets, and everything else in the solar system rotated around the sun, otherwise known as a heliocentric model. Little did he know his ideas were about to change the world.
Copernicus would spend the rest of his life working to develop the heliocentric theory. He spent his last few years on Earth writing "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres). The book was published in 1543, but Copernicus was not able to witness the magnitude of his work because he passed away shortly after. This book resulted in a scientific revolution regarding astronomy.
Copernicus laid the groundwork for other scientists, most notably Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler, to further develop this model and many of the celestial laws that govern the universe. His work laid the foundation for what we know about our solar system today, and it is why all scientists celebrate him on this day.