Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jul 1992
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992metic..27s.297t&link_type=abstract
Meteoritics, vol. 27, no. 3, volume 27, page 297
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) was born a noble being, a son of Otto Brahe, and a member of the Royal Danish Council. Very early he developed a great interest in science and especially astronomy. In 1575 Tycho visited the learned Prince Wilhelm II in Kassel. Here he was inspired by the famous instrument maker Burgi to build new precise astronomical instruments, and on the recommendation of Wilhelm King Frederic II of Denmark was given the island Hven (which at that time belonged to Denmark) as an entailed estate. At 26 years old, Tycho became famous for his work DE NOVA STELLA on the supernova that brightened up in 1572, and since this phenomenon kept its position fixed among the stars, it immediately invalidated the Aristotelian dogma of the invariability of the fixed-star world. In 1577 Tycho observed the great comet and followed its celestial motion by means of a quadrant and a sextant. He then came to the conclusion that the comet orbit moved far out among the planets, in contradiction to the Aristotelian dogma of the crystal spheres for the planets. However, Tycho's great contribution to science was his construction of the observatory buildings Uraniborg and Stjerneborg ("Star Castle") with their equipment of ancient sighting instruments and his use of these instruments without telescopes for observations of the planets over a period of almost 20 years. Tycho's work is collected in 15 volumes, OPERA OMNIA by J. L. E. Dreyer. Tycho also mapped Hven correctly and he triangulated both sides of Oresund relative to Hven. When Tycho moved to Prague in 1599 he lived there for a couple of years and met Kepler who became his assistant and collaborator. Kepler was the one who analyzed Tycho's material and derived the Keplerian laws for the motions of the planets. On this basis Newton derived the law of gravitation. Tycho Brahe has been considered the father of modern empirical science. In 1596 he was accused of negligence of his administrative duties and several other things by the young new King Christian IV. Almost all of Tycho Brahe's privileges given to him by the late King Frederik II were taken from him. Shortly after that, he gathered his family and assistants and went to Rostock, from where he wrote a letter to Christian IV saying that he would contemplate returning to Denmark if the king would give him back his privileges. Christian very sternly answered the astronomer that if he should hope to return to Denmark he had to act like a servant. Tycho was too proud to go down to his knees for the king and never returned. So the reason for Tycho's acceptance of the invitation by Emperor Rudolf to come to Prague was that Christian IV would not continue the very considerable financial support to Tycho of about one percentage of the state income. The latest historical research has indicated that a "camarilla" of enemies stood behind Christian IV's aversion against Tycho. Tycho was not merely an astronomer, but also an astrologer and alchemist. As far as we know he never tried to make gold; his alchemic experiments were of medical character. This was not legal without permission from the Church and the University. Both the clergy and the doctors of the university envied the great scientist because princes and learned people preferred to visit Tycho at his "private university" on the island of Hven instead of visiting the University of Copenhagen. A new theory about Tycho's death has appeared. It has always been told that he died of a burst urinary bladder because he drank too much at parties. According to forensic medicine, however, this cannot be true. Tycho lived for some time after he became ill, and a bursted bladder would cause sudden death. A more plausible explanation would be that Tycho poisoned himself with his very strong medicines containing heavy metals like mercury and arsenic.
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