48 Facts About Kepler

Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and writer on music.

Kepler was a mathematics teacher at a seminary school in Graz, where he became an associate of Prince Hans Ulrich von Eggenberg.

Kepler lived in an era when there was no clear distinction between astronomy and astrology, but there was a strong division between astronomy and physics .

Kepler incorporated religious arguments and reasoning into his work, motivated by the religious conviction and belief that God had created the world according to an intelligible plan that is accessible through the natural light of reason.

Kepler'smother, Katharina Guldenmann, an innkeeper's daughter, was a healer and herbalist.

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Jobst relented after Kepler completed work on Mysterium, but the engagement nearly fell apart while Kepler was away tending to the details of publication.

Kepler planned to test his theory from Mysterium Cosmographicum based on the Mars data, but he estimated that the work would take up to two years .

Political and religious difficulties in Graz dashed his hopes of returning immediately to Brahe; in hopes of continuing his astronomical studies, Kepler sought an appointment as a mathematician to Archduke Ferdinand.

Several months later, Kepler returned, now with the rest of his household, to Prague.

Kepler attached an appendix where he discussed the recent chronology work of the Polish historian Laurentius Suslyga; he calculated that, if Suslyga was correct that accepted timelines were four years behind, then the Star of Bethlehem—analogous to the present new star—would have coincided with the first great conjunction of the earlier 800-year cycle.

Around 1611, Kepler circulated a manuscript of what would eventually be published as Somnium [The Dream].

Also in that year, Barbara Kepler contracted Hungarian spotted fever, then began having seizures.

At the University of Tubingen in Wurttemberg, concerns over Kepler's perceived Calvinist heresies in violation of the Augsburg Confession and the Formula of Concord prevented his return.

The University of Padua—on the recommendation of the departing Galileo—sought Kepler to fill the mathematics professorship, but Kepler, preferring to keep his family in German territory, instead travelled to Austria to arrange a position as teacher and district mathematician in Linz.

Kepler postponed the move to Linz and remained in Prague until Rudolf's death in early 1612, though between political upheaval, religious tension, and family tragedy, Kepler could do no research.

That blow, happening only a few years after Kepler's excommunication, is not seen as a coincidence but as a symptom of the full-fledged assault waged by the Lutherans against Kepler.

Kepler advocated for tolerance among Christian denominations, for example arguing that Catholics and Lutherans should be able to take communion together.

Kepler found a formula relating the size of each planet's orb to the length of its orbital period: from inner to outer planets, the ratio of increase in orbital period is twice the difference in orb radius.

However, Kepler later rejected this formula, because it was not precise enough.

Kepler thought the Mysterium had revealed God's geometrical plan for the universe.

Much of Kepler's enthusiasm for the Copernican system stemmed from his theological convictions about the connection between the physical and the spiritual; the universe itself was an image of God, with the Sun corresponding to the Father, the stellar sphere to the Son, and the intervening space between them to the Holy Spirit.

Mysterium was published late in 1596, and Kepler received his copies and began sending them to prominent astronomers and patrons early in 1597; it was not widely read, but it established Kepler's reputation as a highly skilled astronomer.

In 1621, Kepler published an expanded second edition of Mysterium, half as long again as the first, detailing in footnotes the corrections and improvements he had achieved in the 25 years since its first publication.

Kepler calculated and recalculated various approximations of Mars's orbit using an equant, eventually creating a model that generally agreed with Tycho's observations to within two arcminutes .

The wide array of traditional mathematical astronomy methods having failed him, Kepler set about trying to fit an ovoid orbit to the data.

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Kepler supposed that the motive power radiated by the Sun weakens with distance, causing faster or slower motion as planets move closer or farther from it.

Verifying this relationship throughout the orbital cycle required very extensive calculation; to simplify this task, by late 1602 Kepler reformulated the proportion in terms of geometry: planets sweep out equal areas in equal times—his second law of planetary motion.

Since completing the Astronomia Nova, Kepler had intended to compose an astronomy textbook that would cover all the fundamentals of heliocentric astronomy.

Kepler spent the next several years working on what would become Epitome Astronomiae Copernicanae .

Originally intended as an introduction for the uninitiated, Kepler sought to model his Epitome after that of his master Michael Maestlin, who published a well-regarded book explaining the basics of geocentric astronomy to non-experts.

Kepler completed the first of three volumes, consisting of Books I–III, by 1615 in the same question-answer format of Maestlin's and have it printed in 1617.

Kepler surmises that the Earth has "cycles of humors" as living animals do, and gives for an example that "the highest tides of the sea are said by sailors to return after nineteen years around the same days of the year".

Kepler was convinced "that the geometrical things have provided the Creator with the model for decorating the whole world".

Kepler began by exploring regular polygons and regular solids, including the figures that would come to be known as Kepler's solids.

Later that year, Kepler published his own telescopic observations of the moons in Narratio de Jovis Satellitibus, providing further support of Galileo.

Kepler started a theoretical and experimental investigation of telescopic lenses using a telescope borrowed from Duke Ernest of Cologne.

Kepler wrote the influential mathematical treatise Nova stereometria doliorum vinariorum in 1613, on measuring the volume of containers such as wine barrels, which was published in 1615.

Kepler contributed to the development of infinitesimal methods and numerical analysis, including iterative approximations, infinitesimals, and the early use of logarithms and transcendental equations.

Beyond his role in the historical development of astronomy and natural philosophy, Kepler has loomed large in the philosophy and historiography of science.

William Whewell, in his influential History of the Inductive Sciences of 1837, found Kepler to be the archetype of the inductive scientific genius; in his Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences of 1840, Whewell held Kepler up as the embodiment of the most advanced forms of scientific method.

Alexandre Koyre's work on Kepler was, after Apelt, the first major milestone in historical interpretations of Kepler's cosmology and its influence.

Since the 1960s, the volume of historical Kepler scholarship has expanded greatly, including studies of his astrology and meteorology, his geometrical methods, the role of his religious views in his work, his literary and rhetorical methods, his interaction with the broader cultural and philosophical currents of his time, and even his role as an historian of science.

Kepler has acquired a popular image as an icon of scientific modernity and a man before his time; science popularizer Carl Sagan described him as "the first astrophysicist and the last scientific astrologer".

The reverse side of the coin has a portrait of Kepler, who spent some time teaching in Graz and the surrounding areas.

Kepler was acquainted with Prince Hans Ulrich von Eggenberg personally, and he probably influenced the construction of Eggenberg Castle .

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German composer Paul Hindemith wrote an opera about Kepler entitled Die Harmonie der Welt, and during the prolonged process of its creation, he wrote a symphony of the same name based on the musical ideas he developed for it.

Philip Glass wrote an opera called Kepler based on Kepler's life, with a libretto in German and Latin by Martina Winkel.

Critical edition of Kepler's collected works in 22 volumes is being edited by the Kepler-Kommission on behalf of the Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften.