Johannes Kepler: The Discovery Of Planetary Motion

Johannes Kepler: The Discovery of Planetary Motion Johannes Kepler was born on December 27, 1571, in Weil der Stadt, Württemberg. Johannes was born into a poor family, as a premature newborn. His father, Heinrich Kepler, worked as a mercenary, and left his family when Johannes was five. It is believed that he died in the Eighty Years ' War over in the Netherlands. Johannes 's mom, Katharina Guldenmann, worked as a healer and a herbalist. Johannes was introduced to astronomy at a young age, and grew a fondness for it that would last his entire life. When he was six, Johannes witnessed that Great Comet of 1577, and when he was nine, he witnessed a lunar eclipse in 1580. In 1589, after moving through multiple schools, he earned a scholarship to the University of Tübingen. Through the instruction of Michael Maestlin, who was his professor from 1583 to 1631, Johannes learned of the Copernican system of planetary motion. The Copernican system of planetary motion was the first major publication of the heliocentric system, in which the Sun was in the center, and all the other planets revolved around it, instead of Earth being the center (geocentric). This system was represented as the Sun being in the center, with other celestial bodies revolving around in perfectly circular,

Johannes 's first book, Astronomia Nova, was met with either ignorance, denial, or compromise from the other astronomers at the time, i.e., Galileo and René Descartes. Several astronomers who were advocates of Johannes 's theories tested them by observing Mercury 's transit in orbit. It proved Johannes 's theories to be true, despite his own certainty of the planet 's orbit. The main driving force for the spread of Johannes 's theories was one of his later books, Epitome of Copernican Astronomy, that many astronomers read and adopted after Johannes 's death. It led many astronomers to believe Johannes 's theory of elliptical orbits (First Law), but his theory on celestial motions (Second