Lately Google is posting more and more animated and interactive doodles for all sort of events. Last week you could see a doodle to celebrate the birthday of George Ferris combined with Valentines Day and last Friday Google posted briefly a doodle because of the passing Asteroid 2012 DA14. This logo was taken offline after a few hours because of the meteor that hit Russia.
The latest animated doodle is to honour Nicolaus Copernicus, a Renaissance mathematician and astronomer who formulated a comprehensive heliocentric model which placed the Sun, rather than the Earth, at the center of the universe. The astronomical model is used in the logo by Google with the sun in the middle and several planets including Earth and the Moon turning around the sun.
Copernicus was born on 19 February 1473 which is on Tuesday exactly 540 years ago, he died in 1543 at the age of 70. “The publication of Copernicus’ epochal book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium , just before his death in 1543, is considered a major event in the history of science. It began the Copernican Revolution and contributed importantly to the rise of the ensuing Scientific Revolution. Copernicus’ heliocentric theory placed the Sun at the center of the solar system and described that system’s mechanics in mathematical rather than Aristotelian terms.”
You can read more about Nicolaus Copernicus here on Wikipedia. Below a video of the doodle.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=b0CeSfVIFhk&version=3&hl=en_US&w=615&h=385]