1571-1630

German Astronomer and Mathematician

Johannes Kepler was a mathematician and astronomer. He used observations of heavenly bodies to destroy the ancient idea that planets move in perfect circles. He also mathematically described the relationship of Sun and planets in our solar system. His three laws of planetary motion, along with the work of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) and Galileo (1564-1642), helped Isaac Newton (1642-1727) devise his law of universal gravitation.

Kepler was born in 1571 in Weil, Germany, a sickly, myopic child with a brilliant mind and intermittent double vision. He became interested in astronomy after seeing the 1577 comet when he was six years old and an eclipse of the Moon when he was nine. He attended a seminary and the University of Tubingen intending to enter the church. His abilities as a mathematician led him instead to teach math in Graz, Austria, where he was also...