![]() ![]() ![]() Because of the ravages of the Thirty Years War, his grave has never been found. During his lifetime he published no less than 33 works, together with much correspondence and some 20 volumes of hand- written notes. His Somnium ( Dream), published after his death in 1634, describes a journey to the moon, and muses over the existence of lunar inhabitants. In his last years he worked on what can only be described as a work of science fiction. At one time he also wrote a book on astrology entitled The More Reliable Bases of Astrology, and this proved very popular. Xxxxx In the field of mathematics he developed a system of infinitesimals which proved the forerunner of calculus, and his work entitled Optics, written in 1604, described in accurate detail the workings of the human eye. Banned by the Roman Catholic Church, this included all his major discoveries and played a major part in winning over support for the Copernican theory. One of his last major works, written over three years, was his Introduction to Copernican Astronomy, completed in 1621. Xxxxx In 1616 he was appointed mathematician to the states of Upper Austria, and it was while living in Linz that he published his Harmonics of the World. When Brahe died the following year, Kepler succeeded him as mathematician and court astronomer to the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II, and thus came into possession of the Danish astronomer's huge collection of astronomical observations. Published in 1596, this treatise greatly impressed Brahe, and in 1600 he invited Kepler to be one of his assistants at his observatory at Benatek near Prague. ![]() It was while employed here that he wrote his Cosmographic Mystery in support of the Copernican theory. His original intention was to be a minister in the Lutheran Church, but such was his interest in astronomy that in 1594 he became a lecturer in this subject at the University of Graz. His family was poor, but he gained a local scholarship and studied theology and the classics at Tubingen University. Xxxxx Kepler was born in the town of Weil der Stadt in Wurttemberg. These new tables of planetary motion, based on the observations of the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, gave the places of 1005 stars, and directions for locating the planets. And to Kepler is owed the Rudolphine Tables, published in 1625. These laws, breaking new ground, greatly assisted the English scientist, Sir Isaac Newton, in formulating his theory of gravitational force. His greatest discovery was that the planets follow elliptical (egg- shaped) orbits and not circular ones as previous thought. These form the basis of our understanding of the solar system. He is best known for his famous three laws on planetary motion - two published in New Astronomy in 1609, and the third in 1619 in Harmonics of the World. Xxxxx The German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler was one of the first firm supporters of the sun- centred theory of the universe put forward by the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus in 1543 (H8). One of the first writers of space fiction, in his last years he wrote Somnium ( Dream) in which he describes a journey to the moon and ponders on the possibility of finding inhabitants! He published 33 works and some 20 volumes of notes. In mathematics he developed a system of infinitesimals - the forerunner of calculus - and his Optics, written in 1604, described the workings of the human eye. His last major treatise, Introduction to Copernican Astronomy of 1621, which included all his major discoveries, was banned by the Roman Catholic Church, but proved influential. Then in 1625 he published his new tables of planetary motion (his Rudolphine Tables) based on work by Tycho Brahe, the Danish astronomer with whom he worked in the early 1600s. These form the basis of our understanding of the solar system, and they greatly assisted Newton in formulating his theory of gravitational force. Xxxxx The German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler, a firm supporter of the sun- centred theory put forward by Copernicus in 1543 (H8), is best known for his three laws of planetary motion, published in his Harmonics of the World in 1619. ![]()
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