The emergence of the heliocentric system of Nicolaus Copernicus is the most important component of the process that historians called the scientific revolution of the 16th-17th centuries. In the preface to his book, where he outlined this theory, the great Pole carefully pointed out its absurdity, suggesting that his work be considered only an attempt to find a way to facilitate mathematical calculations in astronomy.
The merit of turning the Copernican model of the universe into an indisputable 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 man in the world - a scientist who actively cognizes nature.
Comet - a 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 an innkeeper, was engaged in herbal medicine and fortune-telling, for which she later almost paidhead. With a small income, she did everything to ensure that her son received a decent education.
An interesting fact, perhaps that determined the whole fate, contains the biography of Johannes Kepler at the very beginning. Katharina Kepler showed six-year-old Johannes a comet, and three years later, in 1580, an eclipse of the moon. The star moving across the night sky and the Moon changing shape before our eyes made a strong impression on the inquisitive boy. Maybe then his desire to get to the bottom of the reasons for what was happening was born?
Scholar-theologian, supporter of Copernicus
In early childhood, Johann suffered from smallpox, which weakened his eyesight. Therefore, he grew up physically weak and sickly. Because of this, it took him longer than his peers to complete his 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 possessed by Johannes Kepler. A short biography of a scientist from 1591 to 1594 is an intense absorption of knowledge in one of the best European universities.
Kepler was a deeply religious person and a staunch Protestant all his life. Therefore, he was preparing to become a priest and entered the theological faculty. True, before that, he took a course in mathematics and astronomy, becoming a master of arts - that is how these exact sciences were called at that time. Among his teachers was a supporter of the heliocentric system, Michael Möstlin. Under the influence of his lectures, Kepler also became a convinced preacher of this theory. Johann tried to think creatively about ideasCopernicus, but did not always draw the right conclusions.
Kepler Cup
Johann's plans to become a priest were prevented by his invitation to the position of teacher of mathematics at the University of Graz (1594). Although his conviction in his commitment to the path of serving God was complete, the biography of Johannes Kepler becomes a biography of a research scientist standing on the platform of a doctrine that denied the Ptolemaic (geostationary) model of the world.
In the Harz, he searches for 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". It was a three-dimensional model of the solar system, in which the Copernican luminary is located in the center, but Kepler endows the orbits of the planets revolving around with the properties of Platonic solids - cubes, balls and regular polyhedra. It was not for nothing that mathematics was considered an art at that time - this model was very beautiful, although it was absolutely wrong.
Timely invitation
Kepler sends his book to the most advanced scientists in Europe, including Galileo and the Dane Tycho Brahe, who served as court astronomer in Prague. Rejecting 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 of 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 - the difficult financial and moral situation of Kepler (he married, but the young wife fell ill with epilepsy and soon died) and the persecution of Protestants by the Catholic Church, which was declared an apostate and Johannes Kepler. A brief biography of the scientist in the last period of his stay in the 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 stage of his life begins.
Kepler in Prague. Heritage
Shortly after the start of their joint work, Brahe died unexpectedly, leaving Kepler the archives of his astronomical observations and the position of court astronomer and astrologer. The decade spent by Kepler in Prague underlies all of his major scientific achievements in astronomy, physics, and mathematics.
In astronomy, Kepler brought the final order with the idea of the motion 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 "The Harmony of the World" (1618), three laws of celestial kinematics were formulated. The first spoke about the shape of the orbit of the planets in the form of an ellipse with the Sun in one of the focuses, 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 that served to orientate sailors and astronomers by the stars.
Mathematics was the main tool that Kepler used in his work. Johann in the book "New stereometry of wine barrels" (1615) shows how to find the volume for bodies of revolution, lays the foundations of mathematical analysis and integral calculus. Kepler's mathematical discoveries include a table of logarithms, new concepts - "arithmetic mean" and "point at infinity".
Kepler introduced the concept of "inertia" into scientific use, speaking of the existence in nature of the desire of related bodies to unite, came close to the discovery of the law of universal gravitation. For the first time, he explained the cause of sea tides by the influence of the Moon, described the causes of myopia, and developed a more advanced telescope.
Recent 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 secure her release.
Kepler had to spend his last years in search of a reliable source to provide for his family, and during a trip to the emperor, who owed him a salary, he died in the city of Rigensburg in 1630.
Kepler's name today is among the greatest minds whose ideas underlie both current scientific and technical achievements. An asteroid, a crater on the Moon, a space truck and an orbiting space observatory are named after him, with the help of which a new planet was discovered, similar in terms of conditions to Earth andalso named after Kepler.
