Copernicus (feb 19, 1473 – may 24, 1543)

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Nicolaus Copernicus was a Polish astronomer who came up with the idea that the planets have the Sun as the fixed point that their motions relate to. He explained that Earth, besides orbiting the Sun annually, also turns once daily on its own axis and that slow long-term changes in the direction of its axis result in the precession of the equinoxes. Copernicus’s theory influenced later thinkers of the Scientific Revolution, such as Galileo, Kepler, Descartes, and Newton.