Copernicus blazed a trail for early astronomers to follow
“As much as I can, I want to avoid offending good people,” Nicolaus Copernicus demurred when a correspondent urged him to publish his scientific work. As L.S. Fauber recounts in the sweeping and evocative “Heaven on Earth: How Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler, and Galileo Discovered the Modern World,” the Polish polymath ignited his revolution quietly. He set forth his principles of heliocentrism, placing the sun at the center of the universe, in a
