biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1571–1630)
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| biography:
| Astronomer, born in Weil-der-Stadt, SW Germany. He studied at Tübingen, and in 1593 was appointed professor of mathematics at Graz. In c.1596 he commenced a correspondence with Tycho Brahe, who was then in Prague, and from 1600–1 worked with him, showing that planetary motions were far simpler than had been imagined. He announced his first and second laws of planetary motion in Astronomia nova (1609, New Astronomy), which formed the groundwork of Isaac Newton's discoveries. His third law was promulgated in Harmonice mundi (1619, Harmony of the World). He succeeded Brahe as court astronomer to Emperor Rudolf II, and in 1628 became astrologer to Albrecht von Wallenstein at Zagan in Silesia. |
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