14 DAY TRIAL // "We found the remains of a man who with a very great degree of likelihood can be identified as Copernicus", Archaeology Professor Jerzy Gasowski who led a two-year archaeological research mission told Poland's Rzeczpospolita daily.
The search culminated with the discovery of the remains of a 70-year-old man buried beneath the main Holy Cross altar of the Gothic Roman Catholic Cathedral in Frombork, the Polish Baltic Sea coast town once known as the East Prussian Frauenberg, Sci-Tech Today announced.
Scientists chose the spot for their search as Copernicus was named the cathedral's canon and therefore likely to have been among those buried beneath its floor stones, in accordance to tradition.
But despite two years of painstaking research Gassowski admits that without DNA-testing "we cannot be 100 percent certain" the skull is indeed that of the renowned astronomer.
Cutting-edge computer graphics and criminal identification techniques were employed to create a facial reconstruction of an older man which bears a striking resemblance to portraits of a younger Copernicus, down to the small scar above his right eyebrow.
According to Wikipedia, Nicolaus Copernicus was a Polish astronomer, mathematician and economist who developed the heliocentric (Sun-centered) theory of the solar system in a detailed enough form to make it scientifically useful.