Copernicus Coloring Page

Nicolaus Copernicus was born in 1473 in Toruń, Poland, and spent most of his life as a church official who studied the stars in his spare time. Most people then believed the Sun, Moon and planets all circled the Earth. Copernicus worked out that the Earth is a planet that circles the Sun, and that it spins once a day, which is why the Sun seems to rise and set.

He published his idea in a book in 1543, the year he died. It started a big change in how people understood the sky, and we still use the word "revolution" for both a turn around a center and a huge change in thinking.