Kepler Memorial in Weil der Stadt.
Initially, Kepler planned to become a Protestant priest, but thanks to his extraordinary mathematical abilities, he was invited in 1594 to lecture on mathematics at the University of Graz (now in Austria).
Kepler spent 6 years in Graz. Here his first book, “The Secret of the World,” was published ( Mysterium Cosmographicum). In it, Kepler tried to find the secret harmony of the Universe, for which he compared various “Platonic solids” (regular polyhedra) to the orbits of the five then known planets (he especially singled out the sphere of the Earth). He presented the orbit of Saturn as a circle (not yet an ellipse) on the surface of a ball circumscribed around a cube. The cube, in turn, was inscribed with a ball, which was supposed to represent the orbit of Jupiter. A tetrahedron was inscribed in this ball, described around a ball representing the orbit of Mars, etc. This work, after further discoveries by Kepler, lost its original meaning (if only because the orbits of the planets turned out to be non-circular); Nevertheless, Kepler believed in the existence of a hidden mathematical harmony of the Universe until the end of his life, and in 1621 he republished The Secret of the World, making numerous changes and additions to it.
Kepler sent the book “The Mystery of the World” to Galileo and Tycho Brahe. Galileo approved of Kepler's heliocentric approach, although he did not support mystical numerology. Subsequently, they carried on a lively correspondence, and this circumstance (communication with the “heretic” Protestant) at the trial of Galileo was especially emphasized as aggravating Galileo’s guilt.
Tycho Brahe also rejected Kepler's far-fetched constructions, but highly appreciated his knowledge and originality of thought and invited Kepler to his place.
Portraits of Johann and Barbara in a medallion.
Being an excellent observer, Tycho Brahe over many years compiled a voluminous work on observing planets and hundreds of stars, and the accuracy of his measurements was significantly higher than that of all his predecessors. To increase accuracy, Brahe used both technical improvements and a special technique for neutralizing observation errors. The systematic nature of the measurements was especially valuable.
Over the course of several years, Kepler carefully studied Brahe's data and, as a result of careful analysis, came to the conclusion that the trajectory of Mars is not a circle, but an ellipse, at one of the foci of which is the Sun - a position known today as Kepler's first law.
Further analysis led to second law: The radius vector connecting the planet and the Sun describes equal areas at equal times. This meant that the further a planet is from the Sun, the slower it moves.
Both laws were formulated by Kepler in 1609 in the book “New Astronomy”, and, for the sake of caution, he applied them only to Mars.
The new model of movement aroused great interest among Copernican scientists, although not all of them accepted it. Galileo decisively rejected Keplerian ellipses.
Let us note that in the book, along with the most valuable scientific discoveries, the author’s fantastic arguments about the “music of the spheres” and the Platonic solids, which, according to Kepler, constitute the aesthetic essence of the highest project of the universe, are also presented.
He lived in an era when there was still no certainty about the existence of some general pattern for all natural phenomena. How deep was his faith in such a pattern, if, working alone, not supported or understood by anyone, for many decades he drew strength from it for difficult and painstaking work? empirical research planetary movements and mathematical laws this movement!
Today, when this scientific act has already been accomplished, no one can fully appreciate how much ingenuity, how much hard work and patience was required to discover these laws and express them so accurately.
Astronomy
Kepler became the author of the first extensive (in three volumes) presentation of Copernican astronomy ( Epitome astronomia Copernicanae, -), which immediately received the honor of being included in the “Index of Prohibited Books”. In this book, his main work, Kepler included a description of all his discoveries in astronomy.
Mathematics
Kepler found a way to determine the volumes of various bodies of rotation, which he described in the book “New Stereometry of Wine Barrels” (). The method he proposed contained the first elements of integral calculus. Cavalieri later used the same approach to develop the extremely fruitful "method of indivisibles". The completion of this process was the discovery of mathematical analysis.
In addition, Kepler analyzed the symmetry of snowflakes in great detail. Research on symmetry led him to hypothesize about the close packing of balls, according to which the highest packing density is achieved when the balls are arranged pyramidally on top of each other. It was not possible to prove this fact mathematically for 400 years - the first report of the proof "Kepler's problems" appeared only in 1998 in the work of mathematician Thomas Hales. Kepler's pioneering work in the field of symmetry later found application in crystallography and coding theory.
During his astronomical research, Kepler contributed to the theory of conic sections. He compiled one of the first tables of logarithms.
Kepler first used the term “arithmetic mean”.
Physics
It was Kepler who introduced the term inertia into physics as the innate property of bodies to resist an applied force. At the same time, like Galileo, he clearly formulated the first law of mechanics: every body that is not acted upon by other bodies is at rest or undergoes uniform linear motion.
Kepler came close to discovering the law of gravitation, although he did not try to express it mathematically. He wrote in the book “New Astronomy” that in nature there is “a mutual bodily desire of similar (related) bodies for unity or connection.” The source of this force, in his opinion, is magnetism combined with the rotation of the Sun and planets around their axis.
In another book, Kepler clarified:
I define gravity as a force similar to magnetism - mutual attraction. The greater the force of attraction, the closer both bodies are to one another.
True, Kepler mistakenly believed that this force extends only in the ecliptic plane. Apparently he believed that the force of gravity was inversely proportional to distance (not the square of the distance); however, its formulations are not clear enough.
Kepler was the first, almost a hundred years before Newton, to hypothesize that the cause of tides is the effect of the Moon on the surface of the oceans.
Optics
Kepler's deep insight into the laws of optics led him to design a telescopic telescope (Kepler telescope), made in 1613 by Christoph Scheiner. By the 1640s, such telescopes had replaced Galileo's less advanced telescope in astronomy.
Kepler and astrology
Kepler's attitude towards astrology was ambivalent. On the one hand, he assumed that the earthly and the heavenly are in some kind of harmonious unity and interconnection. On the other hand, he was skeptical about the possibility of using this harmony to predict specific events.
Kepler said: “People are mistaken in thinking that heavenly bodies earthly affairs depend." Another of his frank statements is also widely known:
Of course, this astrology is a stupid daughter, but, my God, where would her mother, the highly wise astronomy, go if she didn’t have a stupid daughter! The world is even much more stupid and so stupid that for the benefit of this old reasonable mother, the stupid daughter must chat and lie. And the salary of mathematicians is so insignificant that the mother would probably starve if her daughter did not earn anything.
Nevertheless, Kepler never broke with astrology. Moreover, he had his own view of the nature of astrology, which made him stand out among contemporary astrologers. In his work “Harmony of the World,” he states that “there are no luminaries in the heavens that bring misfortune,” but the human soul is capable of “resonating” with the rays of light emanating from celestial bodies, she imprints in her memory the configuration of these rays at the moment of her birth. The planets themselves, in Kepler’s view, were living beings endowed with an individual soul.
Thanks to some successful predictions, Kepler earned a reputation as a skilled astrologer. In Prague, one of his duties was to draw up horoscopes for the emperor. It should be noted, however, that Kepler did not engage in astrology solely for the sake of earning money and compiled horoscopes for himself and his loved ones. So in his work “About Myself” he gives a description of his own horoscope, and when his son, Heinrich, was born in January 1598, Kepler compiled a horoscope for him as well. In his opinion, the next year when his son’s life was in danger was 1601, but his son died already in April 1598.
Kepler's attempts to cast a horoscope for the general Wallenstein also failed. In 1608, Kepler compiled a horoscope for the commander, in which he predicted marriage at the age of 33, called the years 1613, 1625 and the 70th year of Wallenstein’s life dangerous, and also described a number of other events. But from the very beginning the predictions failed. Wallenstein returned the horoscope to Kepler, who, having corrected the time of birth in it by half an hour, obtained an exact correspondence between the prediction and the course of life. However, this option also contained mistakes. Thus, Kepler believed that the period from 1632 to 1634 would be prosperous for the commander and did not promise danger. But in February 1634 Wallenstein was killed.
Memory
Kepler crater on the Moon.
Named in honor of the scientist:
- Asteroid 1134 Kepler.
- Supernova 1604, described by him.
- NASA orbital observatory, launched into orbit in March 2009. Main task: search and study of planets outside the solar system.
- Vienna U-Bahn station.
- In 1971, for the 400th anniversary of the birth of Johannes Kepler, a commemorative 5-mark coin was issued in the GDR.
- In 2009, for the 400th anniversary of the discovery of Kepler's laws, a commemorative silver coin of 10 euros was issued in Germany.
Kepler's works
- Mysterium cosmographicum(The Mystery of the World)
- Astronomiae Pars Optica(Optics in astronomy),
- Ad Vitellionem paralipomena(Additions to Vitellius), physiological optics,
- De Stella nova in pede Serpentarii(About a new star in the constellation Ophiuchus),
- Astronomia nova(New Astronomy),
- Tertius Interveniens(Tripartite intervention),
- Dissertatio cum Nuncio Sidereo(Conversation with the Starry Messenger), polemic with Galileo’s “Starry Messenger”,
- Dioptrice(Dioptrics),
- De nive sexangula(About hexagonal snowflakes),
- De vero Anno, quo aeternus Dei Filius humanam naturam in Utero benedictae Virginis Mariae assumpsit),
- Eclogae Chronicae ()
- Nova stereometria doliorum vinariorum(New stereometry of wine barrels),
- Epitome astronomiae Copernicanae(Copernican Astronomy, in three volumes, published in 1618-1621)
- Harmony Mundi(Harmony of Worlds),
- Mysterium cosmographicum(The Mystery of the World, 2nd ed.),
- Tabulae Rudolphinae(Rudolph's tables),
- Somnium(Dream, a fantastic story about a flight into space),
- Bibliography of Kepler's scientific works with links to originals
Translations into Russian
- Kepler, Johann New stereometry of wine barrels. - M.-L.: GTTI, 1935. - 360 p.
- Kepler, Johann About hexagonal snowflakes. Dream. Conversation with the Star Messenger. . - M.: Nauka, 1982.
- Conversation with the Star Messenger
- A Dream, or Posthumous Essay on Lunar Astronomy, ed. I.Kepler About hexagonal snowflakes, M., Nauka, 1982
Notes
Links
- Kepler's discovery (animations on the theme of Kepler's “New Astronomy”)
- John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson.
Kepler adhered to this rule as much as he could; Without hesitation or stubbornness, he abandoned his most beloved hypotheses if they were destroyed by experience.
Kepler always lived in poverty, and therefore was forced to work for booksellers, who demanded almost daily news from him; he had no time to think about his thoughts; he presented them as they were born in his mind; he thought out loud. How many wise men are there who have endured such torture?
Although in numerous works of Kepler we find ideas that cannot be justified by his constrained circumstances, we cannot help but be lenient towards him if we fully understand his difficult life and take into account the misfortunes of his family.
We extracted this opinion about the causes of many of Kepler’s paradoxes from the writings of Breischvert, who in 1831 examined the unpublished works of the great astronomer, who completed the transformation of ancient astronomy.
Johannes Kepler was born on December 27, 1571 in Magstadt, in the Wirtemberg village, located one mile from the imperial city of Weil (in Swabia). He was born premature and very weak. His father, Heinrich Kepler, was the son of the burgomaster of this city; his poor family considered themselves to be nobility; because one of the Keplers was made a knight under the emperor Sigismund. His mother, Katerina Guldenman, the daughter of an innkeeper, was a woman without any education; she could neither read nor write, and spent her childhood with her aunt, who was burned for witchcraft.
Kepler's father was a soldier who fought against Belgium under the command of the Duke of Alba.
At the age of six, Kepler suffered from severe smallpox; He had barely escaped death when in 1577 he was sent to the Leonberg school; but his father, returning from the army, found his family completely ruined by one bankrupt, for whom he had the imprudence to vouch for; then he opened a tavern in Emerdinger, took his son from school and forced him to serve the visitors of his establishment. Kepler corrected this position until he was twelve years old.
And so the one who was destined to glorify both his name and his fatherland began life as a tavern servant.
At the age of thirteen, Kepler again became very ill and his parents did not hope for his recovery.
Meanwhile, his father’s affairs were going badly, and therefore he again joined the Austrian army, which was going against Turkey. Since that time, Kepler's father has been missing; and his mother, a rude and quarrelsome woman, spent the last property of the family, which amounted to 4 thousand florins.
Johannes Kepler had two brothers who resembled his mother; one was a tin smith, the other a soldier, and both were complete scoundrels. Thus, the future astronomer found nothing in his family except burning grief, which completely destroyed him if it were not for the comfort of his sister Margarita, who married a Protestant pastor; but this relative also later became his enemy.
When Kepler's father left the army, he was forced to work in the fields; but the weak and skinny young man could not endure hard work; he was appointed a theologian, and at the age of eighteen (1589) he entered the Tubinham seminary and was supported there at public expense. During the examination for his bachelor's degree he was not recognized as excellent; this title went to John Hippolytus Brencius, whose name you will not find in any historical dictionary, although the publishers of such collections are very lenient and put all sorts of rubbish in them. However, in our biographies we will often encounter such cases that prove the absurdity of school pedantry.
Kepler failed for more than one reason: while still at school, he took an active part in Protestant theological disputes, and since his opinions were contrary to the Wirtemberg orthodoxy, they decided that he was not worthy of promotion to the clergy.
Fortunately for Kepler, Maestlin, summoned (1584) from Heidelberg to Tübingen to the department of mathematics, gave his mind a different direction. Kepler left theology, but did not completely free himself from the mysticism rooted in him by his initial upbringing. At this time, Kepler saw the immortal book of Copernicus for the first time.
“When I,” says Kepler, “appreciated the delights of philosophy, then I ardently occupied myself with all its parts; but didn't pay special attention in astronomy, although he well understood everything that was taught from it at school. I was brought up at the expense of the Duke of Wirtemberg, and seeing that my comrades entered his service not entirely according to their inclinations, I also decided to accept the first position offered to me.”
He was offered the position of professor of mathematics.
In 1593, twenty-two-year-old Kepler was appointed professor of mathematics and moral philosophy at Graetz. He began by publishing a calendar according to the Gregorian reformation.
In 1600 religious persecution began in Styria; all Protestant professors were expelled from Graetz, including Kepler, although he was already, as it were, a permanent citizen of this city, having married (1597) a noble and beautiful woman, Barbara Muller. Kepler was the third husband, and when marrying him, she demanded evidence of his nobility: Kepler went to Wirtemberg to take care of this. The marriage was unhappy.
After historical details of the discovery of the new star in Ophiuchus and theoretical considerations about its brilliance, Kepler examines observations made in various places and proves that the star had neither proper motion nor annual parallax.
Although in his book Kepler apparently shows contempt for astrology. However, after a long refutation of Pic de la Mirandole's criticism, he admits the influence of the planets on the Earth when they are located among themselves in a certain way. By the way, one cannot read without being surprised that Mercury can produce storms.
Tycho argued that the star of 1572 was formed from matter milky way; the star of 1604 was also near this light belt; but Kepler did not consider such star formation possible, because since the time of Ptolemy the Milky Way had not changed at all. But how did he become convinced of the immutability of the Milky Way? “However,” says Kepler, “the appearance of a new star destroys Aristotle’s opinion that the sky cannot deteriorate.”
Kepler considers whether the appearance of a new star had any relationship with the conjunction of planets that was nearby to its place? But, unable to find a physical cause for the formation of a star, he concludes: “God, constantly caring for the world, can command a new star to appear in any place and at any time.”
There was a proverb in Germany: a new star is a new king. “It is amazing,” says Kepler, “that not a single ambitious person has taken advantage of popular prejudice.”
Regarding Kepler's discussion of the new star in Cygnus, we note that the author used all his learning to prove that the star really appeared again and does not belong to the number of variable stars.
Kepler immediately proves that the time of the Nativity of Christ is not precisely determined and that the beginning of this era must be pushed back by four or five years, so that 1606 must be considered either 1610 or 1611.
Astronomia nova sive physica caelestis, tradita commetaris de motibus stellae Martis ex observationibus Tycho Brahe. — Prague, 1609
In his first studies to improve Rudolf's tables, Kepler did not yet dare to reject the eccentrics and epicycles of the Almagest, also accepted by Copernicus and Tycho, for reasons borrowed from metaphysics and physics; he only argued that planetary conjunctions should be attributed to the true, and not to the average Sun. But extremely difficult and long-term calculations did not satisfy him: the differences between calculations and observations extended to 5 and 6 minutes of a degree; He wanted to free himself from these differences and finally discovered the true system of the world. Then Kepler decided against the movement of the planets in circles around the eccentric, that is, around an imaginary, immaterial point. Along with such circles, epicycles were destroyed. He suggested that the Sun is the center of the movement of planets moving along an ellipse, at one of the foci of which this center is located. To raise this assumption to the level of a theory, Kepler performed calculations that were surprising in their difficulty and in their duration. He showed unprecedented tireless constancy in work and insurmountable perseverance in achieving the proposed goal.
Such work was rewarded by the fact that calculations regarding Mars, based on his assumption, led to conclusions completely consistent with Tycho's observations.
Kepler's theory consists of two provisions: 1) the planet rotates in an ellipse, at one of the foci of which the center of the Sun is located, and 2) the planet moves at such a speed that the radius vectors describe the areas of the cuts, proportional to the times of movement. From the numerous observations at Uraniburg, Kepler had to select those most capable of solving questions related to the main task and invent new methods of calculation. By this judicious choice, without any supposition, he proved that the lines in which the planes of the orbits of all the planets intersect the ecliptic pass through the center of the sun, and that these planes are inclined to the ecliptic at almost constant angles.
We have already noticed that Kepler performed calculations that were extremely lengthy and extremely burdensome, because in his time logarithms were not yet known. On this subject in Bailly’s “History of Astronomy” we find the following statistical assessment of Kepler’s work: “Kepler’s efforts are incredible. Each of his calculations takes up 10 pages per sheet; he repeated each calculation 70 times; 70 repetitions equal 700 pages. Calculators know how many mistakes can be made and how many times it was necessary to perform calculations that took up 700 pages: how much time should it have taken? Kepler was an amazing man; he was not afraid of such work and the work did not tire his mental and physical strength.”
To this we must add that Kepler understood the enormity of his enterprise at its very beginning. He says that Rheticus, an excellent student of Copernicus, wanted to transform astronomy; but could not explain the movements of Mars. “Rhaeticus,” continues Kepler, “called on his domestic genius for help, but the genius, probably angry at the disturbance of his peace, grabbed the astronomer by the hair, lifted him to the ceiling and, lowering him to the floor, said: this is the movement of Mars.”
This joke by Kepler proves the difficulty of the problem, and therefore one can judge his pleasure when he was convinced that the planets really rotate according to the two laws mentioned above. Kepler expressed his pleasure in words addressed to the memory of the unfortunate Ramus.
If the Earth and the Moon, assuming that they were equally dense, were not held in their orbits by animal or some other force, then the Earth would approach the Moon to the 54th part of the distance separating them, and the moon would travel the remaining 53 parts and they would connect.
If the Earth stopped attracting its waters, then all the seas would rise and unite with the Moon. If the attractive force of the Moon extends to the Earth, then, conversely, the same force of the Earth reaches the Moon and spreads further. And so everything similar to the Earth cannot but be subject to its attractive force.
There is no substance that is absolutely light; one body is lighter than another because one body is rarer than the other. “I,” says Kepler, “call rare a body which, given its volume, has little substance.”
One should not imagine that light bodies rise and are not attracted: they attract less than heavy bodies and the heavy bodies displace them.
The driving force of the planets is in the Sun and weakens with increasing distance from this body.
When Kepler admitted that the Sun is the cause of the revolution of the planets, then he had to assume that it rotates on its axis in the direction of the translational motion of the planets. This consequence of Kepler's theory was subsequently proven sun spots; but Kepler added circumstances to his theory that were not justified by observations.
Dioptrica, etc. - Frankfurt, 1611; reprinted in London 1653
It seems that in order to write a diopter, one had to know the law according to which light is refracted when it passes from a rare substance (medium) to a dense one - a law discovered by Descartes; But as at small angles of incidence, the angles of refraction are almost proportional to the first: then Kepler, on the basis of his research, accepted these approximate relationships and studied the properties of plane-spherical glasses, as well as spherical ones, the surfaces of which have equal radii. Here we find formulas for calculating the distances with the focus of the mentioned glasses. These formulas are still used today.
In the same book we find that he was the first to give the concept of telescopes made of two convex glasses. Galileo always used pipes composed of one convex glass and another, concave glass. And so with Kepler we must begin the history of astronomical tubes, the only ones capable of projectiles with graduations designed to measure angles. As for the rule that determines the magnification of a telescope and consists in dividing the focal distance of a glass slide by the focal distance of an eye glass, it was discovered not by Kepler, but by Huygens.
Kepler, compiling his diopter, already knew that Galileo had discovered Jupiter’s satellites: from their short-term revolutions, he concluded that the planet must also rotate on its axis, moreover, in less than 24 hours. This conclusion was not justified soon after Kepler.
Nova stereometria doliorum vinariorum. — Linz, 1615
This book is purely geometric; in it the author especially considers bodies arising from the rotation of an ellipse about its various axes. It also proposes a method for measuring the capacity of barrels.
<>bHarmonicces mundi libri quinque, etc. - Linz, 1619
Here Kepler reports the discovery of his third law, namely: the squares of the rotation times of the planets are proportional to the cubes of their distances from the Sun.
On March 18, 1618, he decided to compare the squares of rotation times with the cubes of distances: but, due to a calculation error, he found that the law was incorrect; On May 15, he redid the calculations again, and the law was justified. But even here Kepler doubted him, because there could also be an error in the second calculation. “However,” says Kepler, “after all the checks I was convinced that the law completely agreed with Tycho’s observations. And so the discovery is beyond doubt.”
Surprisingly, Kepler added many strange and completely false ideas to this great discovery. The law he discovered attracted his imagination to Pythagorean harmonies.
“In the music of the celestial bodies,” says Kepler, “Saturn and Jupiter correspond to the bass, Mars to the tenor, Earth and Venus to the contralto, and Mercury to the falsetto.”
The same great discovery is disfigured by Kepler's belief in astrological nonsense. For example, he argued that planetary conjunctions always disturb our atmosphere, etc.
De cometis libelli tres, etc. - Augsburg, 1619
After reading three chapters of this work, one cannot help but be surprised that Kepler, who discovered the laws of planetary motion around the Sun, argued that comets move in straight lines. “Observations of the course of these luminaries,” he says, “are not worthy of attention, because they do not return.” This conclusion is surprising because it refers to the comet of 1607, which then appeared for the third time. And what is even more surprising is that from an incorrect assumption he drew the correct conclusions about the enormous distance of the comet from the Earth.
“Water, especially salty water, produces fish; ether produces comets. The Creator did not want the immeasurable seas to be without inhabitants; He also wanted to populate the heavenly space. The number of comets must be extremely large; We don’t see many comets because they don’t come close to the Earth and are destroyed very quickly.”
Near such nonsense of Kepler's deluded imagination we find ideas that have entered science. For example, the sun's rays, penetrating into comets, constantly tear off particles of their matter from them and form their tails.
According to Ephorus, Seneca, having mentioned a comet splitting into two parts, which took different paths, considered this observation to be completely false. Kepler strongly condemned the Roman philosopher. Kepler's severity is hardly fair, although almost all astronomers are on Seneca's side: in our time, astronomers witnessed a similar event in celestial space; they saw two parts of the same comet, taking different paths. One should never neglect the foresight or fortune telling of brilliant people.
The book about comets was published in 1619, that is, after the great discoveries of Kepler; but its last chapter is especially filled with astrological nonsense about the influence of comets on the events of the sublunary world, from which they are at great distances. I say: at distances, because a comet can produce diseases, even plague, when its tail covers the Earth, for who knows the essence of the substance of comets?
Epitome astronomiae copernicanae, and etc .
This work consists of two volumes, published in Aenz in different years: 1618, 1621 and 1622. They contain the following discoveries that expanded the field of science:
The sun is a fixed star; it seems to us more than all other stars, because it is closest to the Earth.
It is known that the Sun rotates on its axis (this was shown by observations of sunspots); Consequently, the planets must rotate in the same way.
Comets are made of matter that can expand and contract, matter that the sun's rays can carry over long distances.
The radius of the sphere of stars is at least two thousand times the distance of Saturn.
Sunspots are clouds or thick smoke rising from the depths of the Sun and burning on its surface.
The sun rotates, and therefore its attractive force is directed in different directions of the sky: when the Sun takes possession of any planet, then it will force it to rotate with itself.
The center of planetary motion is at the center of the Sun.
The light that surrounds the Moon during full solar eclipses, belongs to the atmosphere of the Sun. In addition, Kepler thought that this atmosphere was sometimes visible after the sun had set. From this remark one might think that Kepler was the first to discover the zodiacal light; but he says nothing about the form of light; therefore, we do not have the right to deprive D. Cassini and Shaldrey of the honor of their discoveries.
Jo. Kepleri tabulae Rudolphinae, etc. - Ulm, 1627
These tables were started by Tycho, and finished by Kepler, having worked on them for 26 years. They received their name from the name of Emperor Rudolf, who was the patron of both astronomers, but did not give them the promised salary.
The same book contains the history of the discovery of logarithms, which, however, cannot be taken away from Napier, their first inventor. The right to an invention belongs to the one who first published it.
The Prussian Tables, so called because they are dedicated to Albert of Brandeburg, Duke of Prussia, were published by Reinhold in 1551. They were based on the observations of Ptolemy and Copernicus. Compared to the “Rudolph tables” compiled based on Tycho’s observations and new theory, in Rheingold tables the errors extend to many degrees.
This posthumous work by Kepler, published by his son in 1634, contains a description of astronomical phenomena for an observer on the Moon. Some authors of astronomical textbooks also dealt with similar descriptions, transferring observers to different planets. Such descriptions are useful for beginners, and fairness demands that Kepler was the first to open the way to this.
Here are the titles of other works by Kepler, showing what a hardworking life the great astronomer led:
Nova dissertatiuncula de fundamentis astrologiae certioribus, etc. - Prague, 1602.
Epistola ad rerum coelestium amatores universos, etc. - Prague, 1605.
Sylva chronologica. — Frankfurt, 1606
Detailed history new comet 1607, etc. In German; in Halle, 1608
Phenomenon singulare, seu Mercurius in Sole, etc. Leipzig, 1609
Dissertatio cum Nuncio sidereo nuper ad mortales misso a Galileo. - Prague, 1610; in the same year it was reprinted in Florence, and in 1611 in Frankfurt.
Narration de observatis a se quatuor Jovis satellitibus erronibus quos Galilaeus medica sidera nuncupavit. Prague, 1610
Jo. Kepleri strena, seu de nive sexangula. Frankfurt, 1611
Kepleri eclogae chronicae ex epistolis doctissimorum aliquot virorum et suis mutuis. Frankfurt, 1615
Ephtmerides novae, etc. - Keplerian ephemerides were published until 1628 and always a year in advance; but were published after a year. After Kepler, they were continued by Barchiy, Kepler's son-in-law. News of disasters for the government and churches, especially comets and earthquakes in 1618 and 1619. In German, 1619.
Eclipses of 1620 and 1621 in German, at Ulm, 1621
Kepleri apologia pro suo opere Harmonices mundi, etc. Frankfurt, 1622
Discursus conjuctionis Saturni et Joves in Leone. Linz, 1623
Jo. Kepleri chilias logarithmorum. Marburg, 1624
Jo. Kepleri hyperaspistes Tychonis contra anti-Tychonem Scipionis Claramonti, etc. Frakfurt, 1625
Jo. Kepleri supplementum chiliadis logaritmorum. Acnypr, 1625 r.
Admonitio ad astronomos rerumque coelestium studiosos de miris rarisque anni 1631 phoenomenis, Veneris puta et Mercurii in Solem incursu. Leipzig, 1629
Responsio ad epistolum jac. Bartschii praefixam ephemeridi anni 1629, etc. Sagan, 1629.
Sportula genethliacis missa de Tab. Rudolphi usu in computationibus astrologicis, cum modo dirigendi novo et naturali. Sagan, 1529
Gansch in 1718 published one volume containing part of the manuscripts left after Kepler; The second volume he promised was not published due to lack of funds. Another eighteen notebooks of unpublished manuscripts were purchased by the Imperial S. Petersburg Academy sciences in 1775
(German: Johannes Kepler) - an outstanding German mathematician, astronomer, optician and astrologer. Discovered the laws of planetary motion.
Johannes Kepler was born on December 27, 1571 in Weil der Stadt, a suburb of Stuttgart (Baden-Württemberg). His father served as a mercenary in the Spanish Netherlands. When the young man was 18 years old, his father went on another hike and disappeared forever. Kepler's mother, Katharina Kepler, ran an inn and worked part-time as a fortune teller and herbalist.
In 1589, Kepler graduated from school at the Maulbronn monastery, where he showed outstanding abilities. The city authorities awarded him a scholarship to help him further his studies.
In 1591 he entered the university in Tübingen - first at the Faculty of Arts, which then included mathematics and astronomy, then moved to the Faculty of Theology. Here he first heard about the ideas of Nicolaus Copernicus and his heliocentric system of the world and immediately became their adherent.
Thanks to his extraordinary mathematical abilities, Johannes Kepler was invited in 1594 to lecture on mathematics at the University of Graz (now in Austria).
Kepler spent 6 years in Graz. Here his first book, “The Mystery of the World” (Mysterium Cosmographicum), was published (1596). In it, Kepler tried to find the secret harmony of the Universe. This work, after further discoveries by Kepler, lost its original significance, if only because the orbits of the planets turned out to be non-circular. Nevertheless, Kepler believed in the existence of a hidden mathematical harmony of the Universe until the end of his life, and in 1621 he republished The Secret of the World, making numerous changes and additions to it.
In 1597, Kepler married the widow Barbara Müller von Muleck. Their first two children died in infancy, and their wife developed epilepsy. To add insult to injury, persecution of Protestants begins in Catholic Graz. Kepler is included in the list of expelled "heretics" and is forced to leave the city.
Johannes Kepler accepted the invitation of the famous Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, who by this time had moved to Prague and served as court astronomer and astrologer for Emperor Rudolf II. In 1600, Kepler arrives in Prague. The 10 years spent here are the most fruitful period his life.
After Brahe's death in 1601, Kepler succeeded him in office. The emperor's treasury was constantly empty due to endless wars. Kepler's salary was paid rarely and meagerly. He is forced to earn extra money by drawing up horoscopes.
For several years, Johannes Kepler carefully studied the data of the astronomer Tycho Brahe and, as a result of careful analysis, came to the conclusion that the trajectory of Mars is not a circle, but an ellipse, at one of the focuses of which is the Sun - a position known today as the first law Kepler.
As a result of further analysis, Kepler discovered the second law: the radius vector connecting the planet and the Sun describes equal areas in equal times. This meant that the further a planet is from the Sun, the slower it moves.
Both laws were formulated by Kepler in 1609 in the book “New Astronomy”, and, for the sake of caution, he applied them only to Mars.
The publication of the New Astronomy and the almost simultaneous invention of the telescope marked the advent of a new era. These events marked a turning point in Kepler's life and scientific career.
After the death of Emperor Rudolf II, Johannes Kepler's position in Prague became increasingly uncertain. He turned to the new emperor for permission to temporarily take up the post of mathematician of the province of Upper Austria in Linz, where he spent the next 15 years.
In 1618, the scientist discovered Kepler's third law - the ratio of the cube of the average distance of a planet from the Sun to the square of its period of revolution around the Sun is a constant value for all planets: a³/T² = const. Kepler published this result in his final book, “The Harmony of the World,” and applied it not only to Mars, but also to all other planets (including, naturally, the Earth), as well as to the Galilean satellites. Thus, the great German astronomer Johannes Kepler discovered the law of planetary motion.
For the next 9 years, Kepler worked on compiling tables of planetary positions based on new laws of their motion. The events of the Thirty Years' War and religious persecution forced Kepler to flee to Ulm in 1626. Having no means of subsistence, in 1628 he entered the service of the imperial commander Wallenstein as an astrologer. Kepler's last major work was the planetary tables conceived by Tycho Brahe, published in Ulm in 1629 under the title Rudolf's Tables.
Johannes Kepler was not only involved in the study of planetary revolutions, he was also interested in other issues of astronomy. Comets especially attracted his attention. Noticing that the tails of comets always face away from the Sun, Kepler guessed that tails are formed under the influence of sunlight. At that time, nothing was known about the nature of solar radiation and the structure of comets. Only in the second half of the 19th century and in the 20th century was it established that the formation of comet tails is actually associated with radiation from the Sun.
The scientist died during a trip to Regensburg on November 15, 1630, when he tried in vain to get at least part of the salary that the imperial treasury owed him for many years.
Kepler's work on the creation of celestial mechanics played a vital role in the establishment and development of the teachings of Copernicus. He prepared the ground for subsequent research, in particular for Newton's discovery of the law universal gravity.
Kepler's laws still retain their significance. Having learned to take into account the interaction of celestial bodies, scientists use them not only to calculate the movements of natural celestial bodies, but, most importantly, artificial ones, such as spaceships, the emergence and improvement of which our generation is witnessing.
Kepler owes enormous credit for the development of our knowledge about solar system . Scientists of subsequent generations who appreciated the significance of Kepler’s works They called him "the lawgiver of heaven", since it was he who found out the laws by which the movement of celestial bodies occurs in the solar system.
Kepler's laws apply equally to any planetary system anywhere in the Universe. Astronomers searching for new planetary systems in outer space time after time, as a matter of course, Kepler's equations are used to calculate the parameters of the orbits of distant planets, although they cannot observe them directly.
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) - German astronomer, one of the creators of modern astronomy. He discovered the laws of planetary motion (Kepler's laws), on the basis of which he compiled planetary tables (the so-called Rudolf tables). Laid the foundations of the theory of eclipses. He invented a telescope in which the objective and eyepiece are biconvex lenses. Zodiac sign - Capricorn.
Soon after the death of Copernicus, based on his system of the world, astronomers compiled tables of planetary movements. These tables were in better agreement with observations than the previous tables compiled according to Ptolemy. But after some time, astronomers discovered a discrepancy between these tables and observational data on the movement of celestial bodies.
It was clear to advanced scientists that the teachings of Copernicus were correct, but it was necessary to study more deeply and clarify the laws of planetary motion. This problem was solved by the great German scientist Kepler.
Johannes Kepler was born on December 27, 1571 in the small town of Weil near Stuttgart. Kepler was born in poor family, and therefore with great difficulty he managed to finish school and enter the University of Tübingen in 1589. Here he enthusiastically studied mathematics and astronomy. His teacher, Professor Mestlin, was secretly a follower of Copernicus. Of course, at the university Mestlin taught astronomy according to Ptolemy, but at home he introduced his student to the basics of the new teaching. And soon Kepler became an ardent and convinced supporter of the Copernican theory.
Unlike Maestlin, Johannes Kepler did not hide his views and beliefs. Open propaganda of the teachings of Copernicus very soon brought upon him the hatred of local theologians. Even before graduating from university, in 1594, Johann was sent to teach mathematics at the Protestant school in Graz, the capital of the Austrian province of Styria.
Already in 1596, Johann published “The Cosmographic Secret”, where, accepting Copernicus’ conclusion about the central position of the Sun in the planetary system, he tried to find a connection between the distances of planetary orbits and the radii of the spheres into which regular polyhedra were inscribed in a certain order and around which they were described. Despite the fact that this work of Kepler still remained an example of scholastic, quasi-scientific wisdom, it brought fame to the author. The famous Danish astronomer-observer Tycho Brahe, who was skeptical about the scheme itself, paid tribute to the young scientist’s independent thinking, his knowledge of astronomy, art and perseverance in calculations and expressed a desire to meet with him. The meeting that took place later was of exceptional importance for the further development of astronomy.
In 1600, Tycho Brahe, who arrived in Prague, offered Johann a job as his assistant for sky observations and astronomical calculations. Shortly before this, Brahe was forced to leave his homeland of Denmark and the observatory he had built there, where he conducted astronomical observations for a quarter of a century. This observatory was equipped with the best measuring instruments, and Brahe himself was a skilled observer.
When the Danish king deprived Brahe of funds to maintain the observatory, he left for Prague. Brahe was very interested in the teachings of Johannes Kepler, but was not a supporter of it. He put forward his explanation of the structure of the world; He recognized the planets as satellites of the Sun, and considered the Sun, Moon and stars to be bodies revolving around the Earth, which thus retained the position of the center of the entire Universe.
Brahe did not work with Kepler for long: he died in 1601. After his death, Johannes Kepler began to study the remaining materials with data from long-term astronomical observations. While working on them, especially on materials about the motion of Mars, Kepler made a remarkable discovery: he derived the laws of planetary motion, which became the basis of theoretical astronomy.
Philosophers Ancient Greece thought that a circle was the most perfect geometric shape. And if so, then the planets should make their revolutions only in regular circles (circles).
Kepler came to the conclusion that the opinion that had been established since ancient times about the circular shape of planetary orbits was incorrect. Through calculations, he proved that the planets do not move in circles, but in ellipses - closed curves, the shape of which is somewhat different from a circle. When solving this problem, Kepler had to encounter a case that, generally speaking, could not be solved using the methods of mathematics of constant quantities. The matter came down to calculating the area of the sector of the eccentric circle. If this problem is translated into modern mathematical language, we arrive at the elliptic integral. Naturally, Johannes Kepler could not give a solution to the problem in quadratures, but he did not give up in the face of the difficulties that arose and solved the problem by summing infinitely large number"actualized" infinitesimals. This approach to solving an important and complex practical problem represented in modern times the first step in prehistory mathematical analysis.
Johannes Kepler's first law suggests: The sun is not at the center of the ellipse, but at a special point called the focus. It follows from this that the distance of the planet from the Sun is not always the same. Kepler found that the speed at which a planet moves around the Sun is also not always the same: when approaching closer to the Sun, the planet moves faster, and moving further away from it, slower. This feature in the motion of planets constitutes Kepler's second law. At the same time, I. Kepler developed a fundamentally new mathematical apparatus, making an important step in the development of the mathematics of variable quantities.
Both of Kepler's laws have become the property of science since 1609, when his famous “New Astronomy” was published - a statement of the foundations of the new celestial mechanics. However, the publication of this remarkable work did not immediately attract due attention: even the great Galileo, apparently, did not accept Kepler’s laws until the end of his days.
The needs of astronomy stimulated further development computational means of mathematics and their popularization. In 1615, Johannes Kepler published a relatively small book, but very capacious in content, “The New Stereometry of Wine Barrels,” in which he continued to develop his integration methods and applied them to find the volumes of more than 90 bodies of rotation, sometimes quite complex. There he also considered extremal problems, which led to another branch of infinitesimal mathematics - differential calculus.
The need to improve the means of astronomical calculations and the compilation of tables of planetary movements based on the Copernican system attracted Kepler to the theory and practice of logarithms. Inspired by Napier's work, Johannes Kepler independently constructed the theory of logarithms on a purely arithmetic basis and, with its help, compiled logarithmic tables close to Napier's, but more accurate, first published in 1624 and reprinted until 1700. Kepler was the first to use logarithmic calculations in astronomy. He was able to complete the “Rudolfin Tables” of planetary movements only thanks to a new means of calculation.
The scientist's interest in second-order curves and in the problems of astronomical optics led him to the development of the general principle of continuity - a kind of heuristic technique that allows one to find the properties of one object from the properties of another, if the first is obtained by passing to the limit from the second. In the book “Supplements to Vitellius, or the Optical Part of Astronomy” (1604), Johannes Kepler, studying conic sections, interprets a parabola as a hyperbola or ellipse with an infinitely distant focus - this is the first case in the history of mathematics of the application of the general principle of continuity. By introducing the concept of a point at infinity, Kepler took an important step towards the creation of another branch of mathematics - projective geometry.
Kepler's entire life was devoted to an open struggle for the teachings of Copernicus. In 1617-1621, at the height of the Thirty Years' War, when Copernicus's book was already on the Vatican's "List of Prohibited Books" and the scientist himself was going through a particularly difficult period in his life, he published Essays on Copernican Astronomy in three editions totaling approximately 1,000 pages. The title of the book does not accurately reflect its content - the Sun occupies the place indicated by Copernicus, and the planets, the Moon and the satellites of Jupiter discovered by Galileo shortly before revolve according to the laws discovered by Kepler. This was in fact the first textbook of new astronomy, and it was published during a period of particularly fierce struggle of the church against revolutionary teaching, when Kepler’s teacher Mestlin, a Copernican by conviction, published an astronomy textbook on Ptolemy!
During these same years, Kepler published Harmony of the World, where he formulated the third law of planetary motions. The scientist established a strict relationship between the time of revolution of the planets and their distance from the Sun. It turned out that the squares of the periods of revolution of any two planets are related to each other as the cubes of their average distances from the Sun. This is the third law of Johannes Kepler.
For many years, I. Kepler has been working on compiling new planetary tables, printed in 1627 under the title “Rudolfin Tables,” which for many years were reference book astronomers. Kepler was also responsible for important results in other sciences, in particular in optics, the optical refractor scheme he developed had already become the main one in astronomical observations by 1640.
Kepler's work on the creation of celestial mechanics played a crucial role in the establishment and development of the teachings of Copernicus. They prepared the ground for subsequent research, in particular for Isaac Newton's discovery of the law of universal gravitation. Kepler's laws still retain their significance, having learned to take into account the interaction of celestial bodies; scientists use them not only to calculate the movements of natural celestial bodies, but, most importantly, artificial ones, such as spaceships, the emergence and improvement of which our generation is witnessing.
The discovery of the laws of planetary rotation required the scientist many years of persistent and intense work. Kepler, who suffered persecution both from the Catholic rulers whom he served and from fellow Lutherans (Lutheranism is the largest branch of Protestantism. Founded by Martin Luther in the 16th century), not all of whose dogmas he could accept, has to move a lot. Prague, Linz, Ulm, Sagan - this is an incomplete list of cities in which he worked.
Johannes Kepler was not only involved in the study of planetary revolutions, he was also interested in other issues of astronomy. Comets especially attracted his attention. Noticing that the tails of comets always face away from the Sun, Kepler conjectured that the tails are formed under the influence of solar rays. At that time, nothing was known about the nature of solar radiation and the structure of comets. Only in the second half of the 19th century and in the 20th century was it established that the formation of comet tails is actually associated with radiation from the Sun.
Johannes Kepler died as a scientist during a trip to Regensburg on November 15, 1630, when he tried in vain to receive at least part of the salary that the imperial treasury owed him for many years.
Kepler owes enormous credit for the development of our knowledge of the solar system. Scientists of subsequent generations, who appreciated the significance of Kepler’s works, called him “the legislator of the sky,” since it was he who discovered the laws by which the movement of celestial bodies in the solar system occurs. (Samin D.K. 100 great scientists. - M.: Veche, 2000)
More about Johannes Kepler:
Johann Kepler is one of the greatest astronomers of all ages and peoples, the founder of modern theoretical astronomy.
Johannes Kepler was born near Weil in Württemberg from poor parents. Having lost his father early, Johann spent part of his childhood as a servant in a tavern and only thanks to the famous Maestlin, he ended up at the University of Tübingen and here he devoted himself entirely to the study of mathematics and astronomy. In 1594, Johannes Kepler was already a professor in Graetz and wrote here the essay “Prodromus dissertationem cosmographicarum”, in which he defends the Copernican system. This work attracted the general attention of scientists, and soon Kepler established active relations with Copernicus himself and other modern astronomers.
Religious persecution forced him, however, to leave Graz and in 1609 Johannes Kepler moved to Prague, at the invitation of the famous Tycho Brahe. After the death of the latter, Kepler was appointed imperial mathematician with a certain content and, more importantly, became the heir to the extensive collection of manuscripts left by Tycho and representing the latter’s observations at Uranieborg (in Denmark).
In Prague, Johannes Kepler published “Astronomia Nova” (1609), “Dioptrece” (1611), wrote about refraction, invented the simplest telescope, which still bears his name, observed a comet (Halley), etc. Immediately, processing systematic and very accurate observations Tycho, I. Kepler discovered the first two of his immortal laws of planetary motion around the sun (all planets revolve in ellipses, at one of the foci of which the sun is located and the areas described by radius vectors are proportional to times).
However, family misfortunes and delays in the payment of salaries often forced Kepler to compile calendars and horoscopes, in which he himself did not believe. After the death of his patron, Emperor Rudolf II, Johannes Kepler accepted a professorship in Linz and here compiled his famous “Tabulae Rudolphinae”, which for a whole century served as the basis for calculating the positions of the planets.
Finally, in 1619 one of the last opus was published. Kepler: “Harmonia mundi”, in which, among deep and still interesting considerations about the mysteries of the universe, the third law of planetary motion is stated (squares of revolution times different planets proportional to the cubes of the semimajor axes of their orbits).
Johannes Kepler spent the last years of his life in constant travel, partly due to political unrest. thirty years war(at one time the scientist was in the service of Wallenstein as an astrologer), partly as a result of the trial of his mother, who was accused of witchcraft. He died on November 15, 1630, in Regensburg, where he was buried in the cemetery of St. Petra. Above his grave there is an inscription: “Mensus eram coelos nune terrae metior umbras; Mens coelestis erat, corporis umbra jacet." This epitaph, written by Johannes Kepler himself, translated means: “Before I measured the heavens, now I measure the darkness underground; my mind was a gift from heaven - and my body, transformed into a shadow, rests.” In Regensburg, in 1808, a monument to him was erected.
Published for the tercentenary anniversary of the birth of Johannes Kepler full meeting his works (“Opera omnia”, Frankfurt am M. and Erlangen 1758 - 71), in 8 volumes, the astronomer Frisch devoted almost his entire life to the preparation of this publication and received an allowance from St. Petersburg. acd. Sci. Many of Kepler's manuscripts are now kept in the library of the Pulkovo Observatory; biography of Kepler in Russian and a generally understandable presentation of it scientific activity- in the biographical library of F. Pavlenkov. The biography was compiled, according to Frisch, by E. A. Predtechensky.
Javascript is disabled in your browser.To perform calculations, you must enable ActiveX controls!
Johannes Kepler was born on December 27, 1571 in the German state of Stuttgart in the family of Heinrich Kepler and Katharina Guldenmann. It was believed that the Kelpers were rich, however, by the time the boy was born, the wealth in the family had decreased significantly. Heinrich Kepler made his living as a trader. When Johann was 5 years old, his father left the family. The boy's mother, Katharina Guldenmann, was a herbalist and healer, and later, in order to feed herself and her child, she even attempted witchcraft. According to rumors, Kepler was a sickly boy, frail in body and weak in mind.
However, from an early age he showed interest in mathematics, often surprising those around him with his abilities in this science. Even as a child, Kepler became acquainted with astronomy, and he would carry his love for this science throughout his life. Occasionally, he and his family observe eclipses and the appearance of comets, but poor eyesight and smallpox-affected hands do not allow him to seriously engage in astronomical observations.
Education
In 1589, after graduating from high school and Latin school, Kepler entered the Tübingen Theological Seminary at the University of Tübingen. It was here that he first showed himself as a competent mathematician and a skilled astrologer. At the seminary he also studied philosophy and theology under the guidance of outstanding personalities of his time - Vitus Müller and Jacob Heerbrand. At the University of Tübingen, Kepler became acquainted with the planetary systems of Copernicus and Ptolemy. Leaning towards the Copernican system, Kepler takes the Sun as the main source driving force in the Universe. After graduating from university, he dreams of getting a government position, however, after being offered the post of professor of mathematics and astronomy at the Protestant School of Graz, he immediately abandons his political ambitions. Kepler took up the post of professor in 1594, when he was only 23 years old.
Scientific activity
While teaching at a Protestant school, Kepler, in his own words, “had a vision” of the cosmic plan for the structure of the Universe. In defense of his Copernican views, Kepler presents a periodic relationship of the planets, Saturn and Jupiter, in the zodiac. He also directs his efforts to determine the relationship between the distances of the planets from the Sun and the sizes of regular polyhedra, claiming that the geometry of the Universe was revealed to him.
Most of Kepler's theories, based on the Copernican system, stemmed from his belief in the interconnection of scientific and theological views of the Universe. As a result of this approach, in 1596 the scientist wrote his first, and perhaps the most controversial of his works on astronomy, “The Secret of the Universe.” With this work he gained a reputation as a skilled astronomer. In the future, Kepler would make only minor amendments to his work, and would take it as the basis for a number of his future works. The second edition of “The Secret” will appear in 1621, with a number of amendments and additions from the author.
The publication increases the scientist’s ambitions, and he decides to expand his field of activity. He begins four more scientific works: on the immutability of the Universe, on the influence of the heavens on the Earth, on the movements of the planets and on the physical nature of stellar bodies. He sends his works and assumptions to many astronomers, whose views he supports, and whose works serve as an example for him, in order to obtain their approval. One of these letters turns into a friendship with Tycho Brahe, with whom Kepler will discuss many questions regarding astronomical and celestial phenomena.
Meanwhile, a religious conflict is brewing in the Protestant school in Graz, which threatens his continued teaching at the school, and therefore he leaves educational institution and joins Tycho's astronomical works. January 1, 1600 Kepler leaves Graz and goes to work for Tycho. The result of their joint work will be the outstanding works “Astronomy from the Point of View of Optics”, “Rudolph's Tables” and “Prussian Tables”. The Rudolphian and Prussian tables were presented to the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. But in 1601, Tycho suddenly dies, and Copernicus is appointed imperial mathematician, who is entrusted with the responsibility of finishing the work Tycho began. Under the emperor, Kepler rose to the rank of chief astrological advisor. He also helped the ruler during political unrest, without forgetting his works on astronomy. In 1610, Kepler began joint work with Galileo Galilei, and even published his own telescopic observations of the satellites of various planets. In 1611, Kepler constructed a telescope for astronomical observations of his own invention, which he called the “Keplerian telescope.”
Supernova observations
In 1604, a scientist observes starry sky a new bright evening star, and, not believing his eyes, notices a nebula around it. A supernova like this can only be observed once every 800 years! It is believed that such a star appeared in the sky at the birth of Christ and at the beginning of the reign of Charlemagne. After such a unique spectacle, Kepler checks the astronomical properties of the star and even begins to study the celestial spheres. His calculations of parallax in astronomy bring him to the forefront of that science and strengthen his reputation.
Personal life
During his life, Kepler had to endure many emotional upheavals. On 27 April 1597 he married Barbara Müller, by then twice a widow, who already had a young daughter, Gemma. In the first year of their married life, the Keplers had two daughters.
Both girls die in infancy. In subsequent years, three more children would be born into the family. However, Barbara's health deteriorated, and in 1612 she died.
October 30, 1613 Kepler marries again. After reviewing eleven games, he chooses 24-year-old Susanne Reuttingen. The first three children born from this union die in infancy. Apparently, the second marriage turned out to be happier than the first. To add insult to injury, Kepler's mother is accused of witchcraft and imprisoned for fourteen months. According to eyewitnesses, the son did not leave his mother during the entire process.
Death and legacy
Kepler died just before he was to observe the transits of Mercury and Venus, which he had been eagerly awaiting. He died on November 15, 1630, in Regensburg, Germany, after a short illness. For many years, Kepler's laws were viewed with skepticism. However, after some time, scientists began to test Kepler's theories, and, gradually, began to agree with his discoveries. The Reduction of Copernican Astronomy, the main vehicle of Kepler's ideas, served as a guide to astronomers for many years. Famous scientists, such as Newton, built their theories on the work of Kepler.
Kepler is also known for his philosophical and mathematical works. A number of famous composers dedicated musical compositions and operas to Kepler, Harmony of the World being one of them.
In 2009, to commemorate Kepler's contributions to astronomy, NASA launched the Kepler mission.
Major works
- "New Astronomy"
- "Astronomy from the point of view of optics"
- "The Secret of the Universe"
- "Dream"
- "New Year's gift, or About hexagonal snowflakes"
- "Kepler's Conjectures"
- "Law of Continuity"
- "Keplerian laws of planetary motion"
- "Copernican Astronomy Reduced"
- "Harmony of the World"
- "Rudolph's Tables"
Biography score
New feature! The average rating this biography received. Show rating