People once thought that the Earth was the centre of the universe, until Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) presented a new view of the world. The Renaissance-era polyglot and polymath’s heliocentric model placed the Sun at the centre of the solar system. Despite being banned by the church for over 200 years, the mathematician's book, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, formed the basis of modern astronomy.
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