Kepler
Johannes Kepler was born in 1571 in Weier, Germany, and was the discoverer of the laws of planetary motion. At the time of Kepler's birth, 28 years had passed since the publication of Copernicus' magnum opus, The Motion of Celestial Bodies, in which Copernicus proposed the theory that the planets orbited around the sun rather than the earth. Kepler studied at the University of Tübingen, receiving a bachelor's degree in 1588 and a master's degree three years later. Most scientists rejected Copernicus' heliocentric theory, and Kepler learned of it in Tübingen and it was accepted soon after.
After leaving Tübingen, Kepler worked as a professor at the University of Graz for several years, during which time ( 1596 ) he wrote his first book on astronomy , although Kepler's theories in this book proved completely wrong , but this book revealed his mathematical talent and creative ideas, so the famous astronomer Tycho invited Kepler to be his assistant at an observatory near Prague.
Kepler took office in January 1600 and Tycho died the following year. Due to Kepler's outstanding performance, he was appointed by Rudolf II of the Holy Roman Empire to succeed Tycho until his death.
As Tycho's successor, Kepler accepted a large number of meticulous records from his years of observing the planet's movements. Since Ty Cho was the greatest astronomer before the advent of the telescope and the most detailed and accurate observer in the world at the time, the material he left behind is invaluable. Kepler believed that careful mathematical analysis of his records would ultimately prove the theory of planetary motion correct. However, he failed.
In the end, Kepler discovered the crux of the problem: Tycho, Copernicus, and many other classical astronomers affirmed that the orbits of planets were round, or a combination of circles. In fact, the orbits of the planets are elliptical.
After discovering a basic solution, Kepler still had to spend months performing complex mathematical operations to determine whether his theory matched Tycho's observations. His magnum opus, The New Astronomy, was published in 1609, which laid out his first two laws concerning the movement of planets. The first is that each planet orbits the Sun in an elliptical orbit, and the Sun is at one focal point in this elliptical orbit. The second is that the closer the planet approaches the Sun, the faster it moves; The speed of the planets varies in such a way that the wires connecting the Sun and the planets sweep an equal area in the same amount of time. Ten years later, he discovered a third law, the farther a planet is from the Sun, the longer it takes to complete its orbit, and the square ratio of the orbital period is the square of the planet's distance from the Sun.
Kepler's laws, which provide a complete and correct description of the planets orbiting the sun, solved a fundamental problem in astronomy that had also stumped geniuses like Copernicus and Galileo. Of course, Kepler failed to explain why the planets orbited, a problem that was later solved by Newton. But Kepler's laws provided an extremely important premise for Newton's conclusions. Newton once said, "If I can see farther than others, it is because I am standing on the shoulders of giants." There is no doubt that Kepler was one of the giants he mentioned.
Kepler's contributions to astronomy were comparable to those of Copernicus, and even, in some ways, Kepler's achievements were more impressive, he was more creative, and he faced greater mathematical problems. In those days, mathematics was not as advanced as it is now, and there were no computers to ease his computational tasks.
It is elusive that Kepler's work was so important, but it was overlooked at first, even by great scientists like Galileo, especially since Kepler and Galileo regularly corresponded with each other, and Kepler's conclusions helped Galileo refute the geocentric theory. Kepler didn't care, and he was willing to wait 100 years for his book to get a reader.
Over the decades, the importance of Kepler's law gradually became apparent in the scientific community. In fact, the big debate about whether to agree with Newton's theory is whether Kepler's laws can be inferred from Newton's theory. Conversely, assuming that Newton's laws exist, whether Newton's laws of universal gravitation can be accurately inferred from Kepler's laws requires more developed mathematical skills. However, Kepler, even without this means, foresaw very foresight that the motion of the planets was controlled by Earth's gravity.
Because of the laws of planetary motion, Kepler made an outstanding contribution to astronomy, as well as optics. Kepler's later years were unfortunately plagued by personal problems. One problem is his income. Germany was in the midst of the Thirty Years' War, the Holy Roman Emperor paid much less than in good times, and Kepler's wages were in arrears. Since Kepler was married twice and had 12 children, his financial problems were particularly acute. Another problem was his mother. When his mother was arrested as a wizard in 1620, Kepler spent a great deal of time finally freeing her mother without punishment.
Kepler died in Bavaria in 1630. Although his grave was destroyed in the Thirty Years' War, his planetary laws live on.