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Many scholars accepted the theory of the Greek philosopher Aristotle. He said that the earth was round, stationary, and located in the middle of the universe. The moon, sun and five planets circled it. As astronomers learned more about the universe, they found that they had to keep adding epicycles to explain the motion of the planets and their schemes became very complicated. But Nicolaus Copernicus changed that theory. Nicolaus Copernicus was born on February 19, 1473 in Thorn, Poland. He died May 24th, 1543 after a long, successful life. Copernicus was the son of a prosperous merchant and was raised by a protective uncle after his father's death. His uncle enabled him to enter the University of Krakow, which was famous for its mathematics, philosophy, and astronomy courses. Next he studied liberal arts at Bologna, medicine at Padua, and law at the University of Ferrara. He left Ferrara in 1503 with a doctor