home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- On Brahe's death Johannes Kepler (1571 - 1630) inherited all the material based
- on Brahe's observations. After examining them Kepler published 'Astronomia Nova'
- in 1609. In it and the 1619 work 'Harmonices Mundi' Kepler presented his
- interpretation of the heliocentric Copernican system, as well as his famous
- laws. In Kepler's system the planets move around the Sun along ellipses, with
- the Sun as one focus of the ellipse. With this model Kepler was finally able to
- refute the epicycle theory and abandon the idea that celestial movements were
- perfectly circular.
-
- Unlike Aristotle, Kepler presumed that calculations should be compatible with
- observations as accurately as the observations could be conducted. Kepler
- brought empiricism to astronomical research.
-