Scientists: Remains of Copernicus ID'd

WARSAW, Poland — Researchers said Thursday they have identified the remains of Nicolaus Copernicus by comparing DNA from a skeleton and hair retrieved from one of the 16th-century astronomer's books.

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.

Polish archaeologist Jerzy Gassowski said forensic facial reconstruction of the skull, missing the lower jaw, his team found in 2005 buried in a Roman Catholic cathedral in Frombork, Poland, bears striking resemblance to existing portraits of Copernicus, who died in 1543.

Swedish genetics expert Marie Allen analyzed DNA from a vertebrae, a tooth and femur bone and matched and compared it to that taken from two hairs retrieved from a book the 16th-century Polish astronomer owned.

Two of the hairs matched the bones, Allen said.

Gassowski is head of the Archaeology and Anthropology Institute in Pultusk, in central Poland, and Allen works at the Rudbeck Laboratory of the Genetics and Pathology Department of Uppsala University in Sweden.

Copernicus was known to have been buried in the 14th-century Frombork Cathedral, but his grave was not marked. The bones found by Gassowski were located under floor tiles near a side altar.

He is believed to have come up with his main idea of the sun at the center of the universe between 1508-14.

His final thesis was published in the year of his death. His ideas challenged the Bible, the church and past theories, and they had important consequences for future thinkers, including Galileo, Descartes and Newton.