Nicolaus Copernicus

He moved the Earth. Copernicus's heliocentric model, published as De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (1543) — the same year he died — displaced Earth and humanity from the centre of the universe. The 'Copernican Revolution' became a metaphor for any wholesale reversal of assumptions. His work triggered the scientific revolution that would culminate in Newton and still resonates in every cosmological debate.

• Roles: Astronomer, Mathematician, Physician, Catholic Canon