Remains of astronomer Copernicus identified

The findings could put an end to centuries of speculation about the exact resting spot of Copernicus, a priest and astronomer whose theories identified the Sun, not the Earth, as the center of the universe.

Jerzy Gassowski, head of the Archaeology and Anthropology Institute in Pultusk, Poland, told a news conference that forensic facial reconstruction of a skull his team found in 2005 buried in a Roman Catholic Cathedral in Frombork, Poland, bears striking resemblance to existing portraits of Copernicus.

The reconstruction shows a broken nose and other features that resemble a self-portrait of Copernicus, and the skull bears a cut mark above the left eye that corresponds with a scar shown in the painting.

Moreover, the skull belonged to a man about 70 years old -- Copernicus' age when he died in 1543.

"In our opinion, our work led us to the discovery of Copernicus' remains, but a grain of doubt remained," Gassowski said.

So, in the next stage, Swedish genetics expert Marie Allen analyzed DNA from a vertebrae, a tooth and femur bone and compared it with DNA taken from two hairs retrieved from a book that the 16th century Polish astronomer owned. The book is kept at a library of Sweden's Uppsala University where Allen works.

"We collected four hairs and two of them are from the same individual as the bones," Allen said.

Copernicus was known to have been buried in the Frombork Cathedral where he served as a canon, but his grave was not marked. The bones found by Gassowski were located under floor tiles near one of the side altars.

Copernicus is believed to have come up with his main idea of the Sun being at the center of the universe between 1508 and 1514, and during those years, he wrote a manuscript commonly known as Commentariolus (Little Commentary).