John Kepler

Johannes Kepler was born to Heinrich and Katharina Kepler in Weil der Stadt, a free imperial city in the Holy Roman Empire. His father was a mercenary and his mother a healer and herbalist.

At the age of four, Kepler contracted smallpox, which left him with weak vision and crippled hands, but he survived the epidemic that swept through his town.

Kepler started his formal education at a Latin school in Leonberg, where he excelled in mathematics and showed a keen interest in astronomy.

Kepler enrolled at the University of Tübingen, where he studied theology and mathematics. He was influenced by the Copernican model of the solar system and developed a strong interest in astronomy.

Kepler was appointed as the professor of mathematics at the Protestant seminary in Graz, Austria, where he also served as the district mathematician and calendar maker.

Kepler published his first major work, 'Mysterium Cosmographicum,' which proposed a model of the solar system based on the five Platonic solids, aligning with his belief in the harmony of the universe.

Kepler moved to Prague to work as an assistant to the renowned Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, who provided him with detailed observational data of the planets, particularly Mars.

After Tycho Brahe's death, Kepler inherited his position as Imperial Mathematician to Emperor Rudolf II, continuing his work on planetary motion and developing his laws of planetary motion.

Kepler published 'Astronomia Nova,' in which he presented his first two laws of planetary motion, which revolutionized the understanding of the solar system and provided a foundation for modern astronomy.

Kepler published 'Harmonices Mundi,' in which he presented his third law of planetary motion, which described the relationship between a planet's orbital period and its distance from the sun.

Johannes Kepler died in Regensburg, likely due to a fever, while on a journey to collect a debt. He was buried in the local church, but the tomb was later destroyed during the Thirty Years' War.