Johannes Kepler

1571

In Weil der Stadt near Stuttgart.

💡 Did you know? Kepler grew up in hardship and was plagued by poor health and money worries all his life.

ellipses

Not perfect circles, as previously assumed.

💡 Did you know? Kepler's insight that planets move on ellipses rather than perfect circles broke with 2,000 years of astronomy.

three

They describe planetary motion exactly.

💡 Did you know? Kepler's three laws describe planetary motion so precisely that they still keep space probes on course today.

Tycho Brahe

He was Brahe's assistant and successor as imperial mathematician.

💡 Did you know? Kepler used the extremely precise data of astronomer Tycho Brahe, whose assistant he was.

heliocentric

The planets orbit the Sun.

💡 Did you know? Kepler was a firm believer in the heliocentric worldview and backed it with exact calculations.

optics

He explained how the eye and lenses form images.

💡 Did you know? Kepler also laid foundations of optics and explained how the human eye forms images.

his mother

She was accused of witchcraft.

💡 Did you know? Kepler had to defend his own mother in court for years against charges of witchcraft: successfully.

Johannes Kepler

Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer whose three laws describe the motion of the planets around the Sun.

💡 Did you know? He successfully defended his own mother against a witchcraft trial for years.

1630

Died: 15 November 1630 in Regensburg, aged 58

Weil der Stadt, Germany

Born: 27 December 1571 in Weil der Stadt, Germany