Copernicus' Secret - Triumph of Science

The sun revolves around the earth - for more than 1500 years, this world view of the Greek astronomer Ptolemy was seen as an incontrovertible truth. It fit perfectly into the Christian worldview, in which the earth and God's creation were the center of the world. But in the Ptolemaic calendar, the date and the seasons diverged. The pope demanded a calendar reform. The astronomer and scholar Nicolaus Copernicus was also commissioned to do so. But Copernicus had long ago discovered something groundbreaking and revolutionary. Although it would set the calendar right, it threw the pious Christianity into a serious conflict: The earth revolves around the sun! A dangerous thought. Should he publicize his scientific calculations, or should he continue to hold to the Christian worldview?

Genre: Documentary,

Actor:

Creator:

Country: Germany,

Type: tv

Season: 1

Episode: N/A

Duration: N/A minutes

Release: 2023-12-12

Rating: 8

Season 1 - Copernicus' Secret - Triumph of Science
2023-12-12
For 30 years, the canon and astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus has known that the earth revolves around the sun. A revolution in the late Middle Ages! But the polymath was plagued with doubts: his mathematical calculations did not match his astronomical observa- tions. Even worse: his findings contradict the bibli- cal story of creation. Copernicus struggles with him- self and with his faith. Then the Gdansk merchant‘s daughter Anna Schilling enters his life and will chan- ge his world.
2023-12-12
Only when his housekeeper and companion Anna Schilling, banned by the bishop, and the Vorarlberg mathematician Georg Joachim Rheticus persuade Copernicus, Copernicus decides to publish. His work „On the Circular Motions of the Heavenly Bodies“ is printed shortly before his death. Although it is banned by the Catholic Church for over 200 years, it is the beginning of the Copernican turn and the foundation of modern astronomy. The trail leads from Coperni- cus via Johannes Keppler and Isaac Newton to the James Webb telescope.