Copernicus' Secret - Triumph of Science Episode Rating Graph

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.

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.