Well, once again our trusty time machine has pulled through! We are now in Poland where we will meet our next science hero Nicholas Copernicus. There he is now. "Hello Copernicus, can I ask you some questions?"

"Yes, but please remove your hat. This is a church."

"Um sorry, well I was wondering if you could tell me about your model of the universe?"

"Shhh! Don't speak loudly! If anyone hears us, we could be burned at the stake. And how did you know I had a model of the universe?"

" Lets just say, I'm a man who can read minds."

"Well okay, this is how it goes. I was recently doing calculations of the universe in my spare time. I'm a monk you see. I found that if instead you put the Sun at the center of the universe, all the calculations work out a lot better. In my model the Sun is at the center which is orbited firstly by Mercury, Venus then Earth. So the Earth really is not the center of the universe, it is actually quite a distance from it."

"A very compelling model Copernicus. May I ask you why you have to keep this heliocentric model so secret?"

"Well it seems you are a foreigner to this land. You may not be aware of this, but the church rules this land with an iron fist. What they say goes! They still believe in a system that was devised in part by Aristotle about 2000 years ago. If you question this model or look up into the sky, you risk a chance of being burnt at the stake! And in my position, it really is not a good idea to challenge the church. I plan to release my model to the public before I die, so that I will not be hurt."

"Thank you for your time Copernicus. You will be an inspiration to the people following you."

"You are welcome Mr. Funny Hat man. Just be careful to keep your mouth closed about our little discussion."

The sun was the centre of our universe and the Earth orbited it

Copernicus only revealed his research to the public close to his death, as trying to disagree with the chruch was punishable by death

In our visit with Copernicus, we found out that his mathematical calculations proved the Sun was at the center of our universe.During Copernicus' time, people had no notion of a galaxy or other galaxies. Copernicus who was a monk had to be quiet about his ideas and theories. If he didn't he could have been tortured, punished or even murdered at the stake.

Our next hero, Galileo, helped to accelerate man's knowledge of space. He took Copernicus knowledge one step further and he challenged the church. Click on the Time Machine to jump to the next adventure.