Johannes Kepler

Johannes Kepler is a prominent figure when speaking about the dawn of astronomy. His life is one that is full of twists and turns, and Cosmos goes into detail about numerous aspects of his life. Ill be giving a brief description of his life, and his contributions to the field of astronomy. 


Kepler was born December 27, 1571 and as a boy he was sent to Protestant seminary school to learn how to become a clergy man. Kepler realized at an early age that the life of a zealot was not for him. He was instead driven by space, which was his biggest curiosity and his muse. Kepler was a gifted mathematician, and used his talent to make observations about the stars that was on par with the greats of the time. He  has a small fling as being a teacher; unfortunately a miserable failure. Kepler has been said to have a gifted mind, however its not always the smartest people that make the best teachers. He was horribly inept at getting his ideas across to his students, most of which dropped from his classes. He quickly left the classroom and went into the laboratory, asking for a grant from the duke of wurtemberg. His proposal was unfortunately rejected, which is when he met another prominent figure of the time, a schoolteacher named Tycho. Tycho was much better off then the poor Kepler, owning numerous instruments all of which costed more the Kepler life earnings. Kepler and Tycho did end up working together at some point, its a shame that it only happened after Tycho died. Tycho had given Kepler some key data that was needed for him to finish one of his theories. Kepler published many works about physics and astronomy. Johannes Kepler died in Regensburg in 1630. 

Kepler is best known for his 3 laws on planetary motion. 

                                          Planets move in ellipses with the Sun at one focus.

This is a good example of what Kepler proved; that the eclipse is an accurate representation of a planet, and the circle is what was previously thought for it to be. 

The law of equal areas 

The law of equal areas states that a line that connects a planet to the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times. This basically means that an equal amount of area will be covered when an equal amount of time has passed at any 2 distances in the planets orbit. 

The law of periods

line that connects a planet to the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times. This essentially means that it will take shorter amounts of time for planets with smaller radii to circle the sun. Thus why mercury has an 88 day long year