Yesterday, if you didn't notice from the Google Doodle, was Copernicus' 540th birthday. He is one of the men responsible for getting the ball rolling (pun totally intended) of accepting that the Earth moves around a central Sun, and not the other way around.
Feel free to party at this point - I'll wait...
...Ok, welcome back! Copernicus was a devout Catholic Christian who did not want to upset the Church, but for largely unknown reasons began to work out a heliocentric model of the solar system. To us it is common sense that the Sun is at the center, but in his day, it was common sense that the Earth was at the center. Heliocentrism was not largely accepted for another 150 years or so.
Happy Birthday, Nick!
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