An Astronomer's Astronomer: Kepler's Revolutionary Achievements in 1609 Rival Galileo's

The International Year of Astronomy marks the 400th anniversary of German astronomer Johannes Kepler's breakthroughs as well as those of his better-known Italian contemporary Four hundred years ago this year, two events marked what scientists and historians today regard as the birth of modern astronomy. The first of them, the beginning of Galileo's telescopic observations, has been immortalized by playwrights and authors and widely publicized as —observations that would play a huge role in discrediting the prevailing, church-endorsed view of an Earth-centered cosmos. The second event is not as well known, but is arguably equally important. It was the publication of Johannes Kepler's Astronomia Nova (The New Astronomy) in 1609, a treatise in which the German astronomer introduced the first two of his laws describing planetary... [read full story]                    

powered by