The day modern science originates

Nicolaus Copernicus lies on his deathbed. In his hands he holds his legacy, the newly printed first edition of De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (“On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres”). This book will change the history of science, overturn 1,400- year- old supposed truths— and ensure mankind’s ability to send robots to Mars someday. Copernicus wrote the book 34 years before. Its contention: The Earth revolves around the Sun, which contradicts everything humans had previously believed. Why did he hold back this work for so long? Did he fear ridicule, or the Catholic Church? No one knows. When Copernicus dies on May 24, 1543, his work finally gets distributed— and it initiates the era of modern science.