In the 16th century, a man named Giordano Bruno went beyond the Copernican model of space and proposed that the Sun was nothing more than a star (which is true) and stated the very likely possibility of many other planets inhabited by intelligent beings in the universe. Along with his religious views, the Roman Catholic Church were not amused by his work and burned him at the stake for heresy. He gained a notable legacy of supporters in the 19th and 20th century who saw him as an early hero who stood up for free-thought and modern scientific ideas.