Johannes Kepler’s Theory and His Life

Johannes Kepler was a German polymath born on 27th December 1571 in Weil der Stadt (in present Germany), one of the Free Imperial cities in the Holy Roman Empire. He was a mathematical genius and was interested in Astronomy from an early age. However, it is claimed that he was sickly and weak because of his premature birth. He also suffered from smallpox during childhood, leaving him with weak eyesight and crippled hands, further limiting his ability to observe astronomical phenomena.

After attending elementary Grammar school, Latin school and Protestant Seminaries of Maulbronn and Blaubeuren, he attended the University of Tübingen to study Philosophy and Theology. He was appointed at the Protestant School in Graz (in present Austria) as a teacher of Mathematics and Astronomy. His formulation of Johannes Kepler’s theory is a milestone in astronomy, keeping Johannes Kepler’s legacy alive.

Johannes Kepler’s Contribution to Astronomy

Kepler believed in the heliocentric view of the Solar System, which Nicholas Copernicus suggested. Kepler’s book, ‘Mystery of the Cosmos, explains the sun’s central position in the solar system. He noticed that Venus and Mercury seemed closer to the sun than Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Kepler argued that if all other celestial bodies orbited Earth, why would Venus and Mercury seem closer to the sun than other planets. Kepler justified the presence of six planets and their distances from the Sun with the help of five Platonic solids. These 3D platonic solids were highly regular and their perfect symmetry aided in their use as dice. Johannes Kepler’s theory of Platonic solids was proven to be a better match than Nicholas Copernicus’ theory of planetary distances from the sun.

In search of better data, Kepler moved to the Czech Republic and started working with one of Europe’s prominent astronomers and an Imperial Mathematician Tycho Brahe. After Brahe’s death, he was appointed as the Imperial Mathematician, and Kepler got unrestricted access to all of Brahe’s datasets. He deduced the laws governing the planets’ motion using his obtained data. Johannes Kepler’s theory of planetary motion was supposed to use Brahe’s astronomical information, and these theories were later recognised as universal laws of planetary motion.

Laws of Johannes Kepler’s theory

Kepler’s First Law: From Brahe’s observational data, he deduced that the planets move around the sun in elliptical orbits.

Kepler’s Second Law: Kepler’s second law states that a line drawn from a planet to the sun covers equal areas in equal periods. This means that a planet sweeps the same area of space in the same period without depending on its position in orbit.

Kepler’s Third Law: Kepler’s third law states that the square of the time a planet takes to revolve in its orbit is proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of its rotation. This simply means that the time taken by a planet to revolve in its orbit is proportional to the size of the orbit.

Johannes Kepler’s Contribution To Astronomy

Johannes Kepler’s contribution to astronomy has been monumental in how we perceive planetary motions. Galileo Galilei and René Descartes ignored Johannes Kepler’s theory of planetary motion. But later, Many astronomers tested Johannes Kepler’s theory and its modifications. Johannes Kepler’s theory of the sun exerting a face on the planets significantly influenced Newton’s discovery of Gravitation. This acts as concrete evidence of Johannes Kepler’s contribution to astronomy and Johannes Kepler legacy.

1. Identifying that the tides are caused due to the ‘magnetic forces’ of the moon
2. Improving Galileo’s telescope for better magnification
3. Discovering that our eye lenses invert the images
4. Discovering the inverse square law of intensity of light, etc
5. Kepler’s Conjecture focuses on how to pack a set of spheres of equal sizes into the smallest possible space. Kepler suggested that it can only be done if they are sealed in hexagonal or cubic close packing. In 2015, Thomas Hales gave formal proof of Kepler’s conjecture.

Facts about Johannes Kepler

Some of the well-known facts about Johannes Kepler are as follows:

1. Only six planets were known to humankind during Kepler’s time, and Uranus, Neptune and Pluto were not discovered in his time.
2. Being an unorthodox Protestant, he wanted to become a minister, for which he attended the Protestant Seminaries of Maulbronn and Blaubeuren.
3. Kepler believed that he had found God’s hand in the design of the Solar System.
4. Kepler discovered his second law of planetary motion before the first law.
5. Kepler liked John Napier’s invention of Logarithms, which eased his astronomical calculation, and he proved the logarithmic transformations by himself.
6. Kepler’s grave was lost in the religious wars after a few years of his death.
7. He witnessed a lot of celestial phenomena during his lifetime, including the Great Comet of 1577 and the last Supernova SN 1604. 

Conclusion

Due to sickness, Johannes Kepler died on 15th November 1630 at the age of 58 in the Free imperial city of Regensburg, Germany. Johannes Kepler’s theories played a major role in changing societal thinking during the scientific revolution. He could focus on science when the world was witnessing major clashes between religious and scientific communities.