0
Because the Roman Catholic church had enormous power at the time. They had decided that the earth was the center of the universe, and that any other theory was heresy. Anyone who expressed agreement with Copernicus was liable to be arrested by the Inquisition; he would then risk imprisonment, torture and burning at the stake. Galileo Galilei, the foremost Italian physicist of the day, was arrested for just this, and forced to recant.
Still curious? Ask our experts.
Chat with our AI personalities
Devin
Coach
ReneAdd your answer:
Earn +20 pts
Why was Copernicus reluctant to publish his ideas?
Copernicus was reluctant to publish his ideas because he knew that the church would oppose him, so he was scared of being kill. this is why copernicus was reluctant of publishing his ideas
Was Nicolas Copernicus married?
NICOLAS COPERNICUS NO HE WAS NOTMARRIED AND DIDN'T HAVE ANYCHILDREN AND HE DIDN'T ADOPTEDANY KIDS. THIS IS DATRUTH I AM NOT LYING ATALL SO TRUST ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why did Copernicus propose his theory?
One aspect of Copernicus' life that remains a mystery is WHY he took the time to write a mammoth book showing the simplicity of astronomical calculations if one assumes our Sun, rather than our Earth, to be the center of our solar system. At the time, he as a government administrator, not a scientist. Although Ptolemy's ideas were difficult to use, they worked perfectly fine for anyone willing to use them; thus, there was no demand from anyone to abandon them. It appears that Copernicus began to speculate on a heliocentric solar system about 1510, soon after he came back from his college studies in Italy. He then spent over 30 years developing these ideas, refusing to publish his work despite repeated requests to do so. WHY he put so much effort into this idea remains a mystery.
Did Copernicus believe in a heliocentric model?
Copernicus published an alternative model of the planets' movement in 1543 that had the Sun at the centre. It was the first heliocentric model. It used orbits based on combinations of circles, as the ancient Ptolemaic system had done, which was geocentric. In Copernicus's model the paths followed by the planets were less complicated, but other than that Copernicus had no way of proving if it was right or not at that time, so it isn't known whether he believed in it.
Why did it take so long for Copernicus' ideas to become widely accepted?
Copernicus's model of the solar system was published in 1543. This model had the Sun at the centre and was taken up by Galileo in a way that caused a big row with the catholic church. Kepler produced a later model in 1609 that eventually replaced all the earlier models. It used Copernicus's idea of placing the Sun at the centre, but it used the novel idea of elliptical orbits. From a scientific point of view, whether the Earth or the Sun is at the centre is not a highly significant part of the theory. However it is of religous significance because it involves interpretation of the scriptures, and this is how Galileo's intervention led him into trouble. Newton's discoveries in gravity and the laws of motion showed that elliptical orbits, with the Sun at the centre, could be explained by theory, and so we use Kepler's model today, and everyone accepts that including the Church.
