Tycho
& Kepler: The Unlikely Partnership That Forever Changed Our Understanding
of the Heavens – Kitty Ferguson (2002)
The knowledge that humanity has built
up over our existence is always dependent on the sharing of information and the
ability to spread the information as far as possible. One never knows just who will be the person
to grasp that bit of data and head off on a new intellectual adventure. This is especially true in the sciences,
where solitary scientists spent years of their life making very careful
observations of the natural world and the heavens around us. This hard data is the basis of all science. Only when such rigorous data is obtained are
the theories that seek to explain the data able to be verified, or rejected as
not conforming to the verified data. For
decades, Tycho Brahe labored as the pre-eminent astronomer of his time, using
his knowledge and position to build ever more elaborate and precise
astronomical observation instruments.
His data, gathered after countless thousands of man-hours spent between
him and his many assistants making nocturnal observations, spoke no truths in
and of itself. It was up to a younger
astronomer and mathematician, Johannes Kepler, to utilize this storehouse of
astronomical data in his quest for the truth about why and how the planets move
through the sky, and bring about a revolution in the human understanding of the
Universe.
The two men could not have been more
dissimilar. Tycho Brahe was, while not a
royal, a member of a family that had been deeply ingrained in Denmark’s
aristocracy, with members serving royal courts, acting as bishops in the
church, and running fiefdoms in accordance with the King’s will. Tycho Brahe grew up and was educated with the
intent to have him become one of these servants to the crown, which included
not only formal education, but the skills and tact necessary to commiserate
with the royal courts of Europe and the egos found within. He ingratiated himself with the king and was
given many opportunities to pursue his intellectual and scientific curiosity,
mostly abandoning the family demands that his class demanded. Johannes Kepler was a more modest man. He was not raised in the aristocracy, but his
family members were well respected members of academia, business, and local
religion. Kepler did not have the connections
available to Brahe. He had to seek out
his place in life. He wanted to study
the cosmos, but his family would not support it, hoping he would become one of
the new class of professional men, and urging him to become a physician, a job more
respectable than University professor at the time.
It is the life stories of these two
men, and how they eventually became intertwined for posterity, that is the main
thrust of this book. It details both men’s
childhoods, their educations, their attempts at scientific discovery, and their
nearly endless troubles with the crown, the churches, and the profound level of
ignorance that they found themselves surrounded with. Tycho Brahe worked for decades, cataloguing a
star chart the likes of which had never even been attempted by a human
being. In the later years of his life,
and through countless setbacks, he accepted Johannes Kepler as his assistant. In fact, he had chosen a man whose
intellectual abilities rivaled the master’s, and who would guarantee the
immortality of Tycho Brahe and his work.
Johannes Kepler used these precise measurements to understand what we
now know as the Solar System. He was the
first human to do so, working out his three Laws of Motion, which are the basis
for nearly all of modern astronomy.
Johannes Kepler’s insights allowed him
to describe our heavens in a way that had never been understood before. Tycho Brahe had refuted the Ptolemaic system,
which stated that the sun, planets, and stars all rotated around the Earth,
which was the center of existence. Tycho
did not, however, postulate a solar system where the planets all rotate around
the Sun. Instead, he created a very
complex system to explain the motions of the heavenly bodies. It was not perfect. Johannes Kepler, much to Brahe’s
consternation. Supported the Copernican model of the solar system, in which the
Sun stood in the center and the planets and stars all rotated around the
Sun. Kepler also suspected that the
stars were much further away than the planets.
These and other observations were extremely revolutionary, not just for
science, but for humanity at large. Humans
had been living under the Ptolemaic system for centuries because it aligned
with the teachings of the catholic church.
The Earth was the center of all things, as it should be, since god
created earth for humans and humans are his most perfect creation. Everything
else is secondary. These types of circular arguments are all that any organized
religion has to justify their own bullshit existence. The church silenced any scientists that
sought to understand the true reality of existence, even setting a few of them
on fire.
Both
Brahe and Kepler had to contend with a Europe in the midst of a
Counter-Reformation. The Calvinists and
Lutherans that had started the Reformation, were now being attacked on all
sides by the Holy Roman Empire and the ridiculous catholic church. In catholic towns, protestants were banished
or killed if they chose not to convert, with their heads hung on pikes for the
world to see their “sin.” In Protestant
towns, Catholics were equally persecuted, all for supporting the Pope. These two men of science, men of reason and
enlightenment, and devout Christians both, were plagued on all sides by the
stupid, petty, and evil wars that religions create among us to keep us in their
debt and our money in their coffers. (It is still the same damn thing). Not only did Kepler have to contend with
religions and their stupidities, but he had such a tragic life.
He lost his first wife and around 9 children to disease over the span of
twenty years. His mother was accused and
tried at age 72 for being a witch, by the ignorant Christians in her town. Thank rationality and human ingenuity that
Kepler was able to overcome all this and work on astronomy.
The bravest among us are the ones
willing to stand up for their individuality and the ability to think for oneself. Humanity is filled with countless people and
organizations who seek to dampen human intelligence, to keep us stupid and slobbering
at their crooked teats. People like
Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe who are strong enough and fortunate enough to
hold their own against the tide of shit around them do so for the betterment of
all humankind. Without these two men our
world would be a lot different. The
story of their lives and research is invaluable and anyone interested in the
history of astronomy, or human thought, should read this book.
(This book can be purchased here: AMAZON )
(This book can be purchased here: AMAZON )
