was a physicist, mathematician and astronomer know for his belief that the sun was the center of the universe

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Nicolaus Copernicus was a physicist, mathematician, and astronomer known for his revolutionary theory that the Sun, rather than the Earth, is at the center of the universe. This heliocentric model, published in his seminal work "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) in 1543, fundamentally challenged the long-standing geocentric model endorsed by Ptolemy and the Catholic Church.

Copernicus' work laid the groundwork for future astronomers, such as Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei, to further develop and validate the heliocentric theory, ultimately leading to a major paradigm shift in our understanding of the cosmos.