The emergence of the heliocentric system of Nicholas Copernicus is an important component of the process that historians have called the scientific revolution of the XVI-XVII centuries. In the preface to his book, where he presented this theory, the great Pole cautiously pointed out its absurdity, offering to consider his work only as an attempt to find a way to facilitate mathematical calculations in astronomy.
The merit of transforming the Copernican model of the universe into
immutable truth belongs to the great German scientist named Kepler. Johann, among other great contemporaries, did more: he announced the arrival of a new type of person in the world - a scientist who actively knows nature.
Comet - the harbinger of great destiny
The future astronomer, mathematician, mechanic, optician was born on December 27, 1571 in a poor family, in the town of Weil, in the Duchy of Württemberg, in the Swabian part of Germany. When he was 5 years old, the head of the family, the mercenary soldier Heinrich Kepler, went to war in Holland. Johann never saw him again. His mother, Katarina, was the daughter of a innkeeper, was engaged in herbal medicine and fortune telling, for which later she almost paid her head. Having a small income, she did everything so that her son received a worthy education.
An interesting fact, perhaps, which determined the whole fate, is the biography of Johannes Kepler at the very beginning. Katharina Kepler showed a comet to six-year-old Johann, and three years later - in 1580 - an eclipse of the moon. The star, which moves in the night sky, and the Moon, which is changing shape in the eyes, made a strong impression on the curious boy. Maybe then his desire was born to get to the bottom of what was happening?
Scientist theologian, supporter of Copernicus
In early childhood, Johann suffered from smallpox, which weakened his vision. Therefore, he grew up physically weak and painful. Because of this, it took him more time than his peers to get a secondary education. At the same time, Kepler’s admission to the University of Tübingen was facilitated by the city authorities, who noted the outstanding abilities that Johannes Kepler possessed. A short biography of the scientist from 1591 to 1594 is an intense absorption of knowledge in one of the best European universities.
Kepler was a deeply religious man and a staunch Protestant all his life. Therefore, he was preparing to become a priest and entered the theological faculty. True, before that he attended a course in mathematics and astronomy, becoming a master of arts - that is what these exact sciences were called at that time. Among his teachers was a supporter of the heliocentric system Michael Mestlin. Under the influence of his lectures, Kepler also became a convinced preacher of this theory. Johann tried to creatively comprehend the ideas of Copernicus, but did not always draw the right conclusions.
Kepler Cup
Johann's plans to become a priest were prevented by his invitation to become a teacher of mathematics at the University of Graz (1594). Although his conviction of his commitment to the path of service to God was complete, the biography of Johannes Kepler becomes a biography of a research scientist who stands on the platform of a teaching that denied the Ptolemaic (geostationary) model of the world.
In Harz, he seeks mathematical harmony in the structure of the solar system and publishes the book “The Secret of the Universe” (1596). The visual expression of the ideas proclaimed by the scientist in this book was the Kepler Cup. This was a three - dimensional model of the solar system, in which the luminary is located in the center of Copernicus, but Kepler endows the orbits of planets orbiting around with the properties of Platonic solids - cubes, balls, and regular polyhedra. No wonder mathematics was considered art at that time - this model was very beautiful, although it was absolutely wrong.
Invitation made on time
Kepler sends his book to the most advanced scientists in Europe, including Galileo and Dane Tycho Brahe, who served as the court astronomer in Prague. Denying the harmony of orbital forms proposed by Kepler, both scientists highly appreciate the work of the young mathematician and astronomer. True, from different perspectives. Galileo approved the heliocentric approach, and Braga liked the boldness and originality of his thinking. The Dane invited Kepler to Prague.
Johann's departure to Prague was facilitated by several circumstances. Among them are Kepler’s difficult financial and moral situation (he married, but his young wife fell ill with epilepsy and soon died) and the persecution of the Protestants by the Catholic Church, which was declared an apostate and Johannes Kepler, began. A brief biography of the scientist during the last period of his stay in Harz is full of threats and pressure on him as a supporter of heretical theories.
In 1600, Kepler arrives in Prague, where the most fruitful phase of his life begins.
Kepler in Prague. Heritage
Soon after the beginning of the joint work, Brahe died unexpectedly, leaving Kepler with the archives of his astronomical observations and the place of the court astronomer and astrologer. The decade spent by Kepler in Prague underlies all of his main scientific achievements made in astronomy, physics, and mathematics.
In astronomy, Kepler brought the final order with the idea of the movement of the planets of the solar system. To understand what discovery belongs to Johannes Kepler, his contemporaries could from the main book of the scientist - “New Astronomy” (1609). In it and in the final work Harmony of the World (1618), three laws of celestial kinematics were formulated. The first talked about the shape of the orbits of the planets in the form of an ellipse with the Sun in one of the tricks, the second and third described the speed of the planet in orbit and how to measure it. In addition, Kepler described a supernova, compiled accurate astronomical tables, which served as an orientation for stars to sailors and astronomers.
Mathematics was the main tool that Kepler used in his work. Johann in the book “The New Stereometry of Wine Barrels” (1615) shows how to find the volume for bodies of revolution, lays the foundations of matanalysis and integral calculus. Among Kepler’s mathematical finds is a table of logarithms, new concepts are “arithmetic mean” and “infinitely distant point”.
Kepler introduced the concept of “inertia” into scientific everyday life, speaking about the existence in nature of the desire of related bodies for unity, came close to the discovery of the law of universal gravitation. For the first time he explained the cause of the ebb and flow of the moon by the influence of the moon, described the causes of myopia, and developed a more advanced telescope.
Last years. Memory
In 1615, Kepler was forced to become a lawyer for his mother, accused of witchcraft. She was threatened with burning at the stake, but Johann managed to achieve her release.
In recent years, Kepler was forced to spend in search of a reliable source to provide for his family, and during a trip to the emperor owing him a salary, he died in 1630 in the city of Rigensburg.
Kepler’s name today is among the greatest minds whose ideas underlie both current scientific and technological advances. His name is given to an asteroid, a crater on the moon, a space truck and an orbital space observatory, with the help of which a new planet was discovered, similar in terms of the Earth to Earth and also named after Kepler.