The Galileo Project | Science | Tycho Brahe Tycho Brahe Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) Tyge (Latinized as Tycho) Brahe was born on 14 December 1546 in Skane, then in Denmark, now in Sweden. He was the eldest son of Otto Brahe and Beatte Bille, both from families in the high nobility of Denmark. He was brought up by his paternal uncle Jï¿½rgen Brahe and became his heir. He attended the universities of Copenhagen and Leipzig, and then traveled through the German region, studying further at the universities of Wittenberg, Rostock, and Basel. During this period his interest in alchemy and astronomy was aroused, and he bought several astronomical instruments. In a duel with another student, in Wittenberg in 1566, Tycho lost part of his nose. For the rest of his life he wore a metal insert over the missing part. He returned to Denmark in 1570. Tycho Brahe with metal insert over nose In 1572 Tycho observed the new star in Cassiopeia and published a brief tract about it the following year.

In 1574 he gave a course of lectures on astronomy at the University of Copenhagen. He was now convinced that the improvement of astronomy hinged on accurate observations. After another tour of Germany, where he visited astronomers, Tycho accepted an offer from the King Frederick II to fund an observatory. He was given the little island of Hven in the Sont near Copenhagen, and there he built his observatory, Uraniburg, which became the finest observatory in Europe. Tycho designed and built new instruments, calibrated them, and instituted nightly observations. He also ran his own printing press. The observatory was visited by many scholars, and Tycho trained a generation of young Sextant astronomers there in the art of observing. After a falling out with King Christian IV, Tycho packed up his instruments and books in 1597 and left Denmark. After traveling several years, he settled in Prague in 1599 as the Imperial Mathematician at the court of Emperor Rudolph II. He died there in 1601. His instruments were stored and eventually lost.

Tycho's major works include De Nova et Nullius Aevi Memoria Prius Visa Stella ("On the New and Never Previously Seen Star) (Copenhagen, 1573); De Mundi Aetherei Recentioribus Phaenomenis ("Concerning Mural Quadrant the New Phenomena in the Ethereal World) (Uraniburg, 1588); Astronomiae Instauratae Mechanica ("Instruments for the Restored Astronomy") (Wandsbeck, 1598; English tr. Copenhagen, 1946); Astronomiae Instauratae Progymnasmata ("Introductory Exercises Toward a Restored Astronomy") (Prague 1602). His observations were not published during his lifetime. Johannes Kepler used them but they remained the property of his heirs. Several copies in manuscript circulated in Europe for many years, and a very faulty version was printed in 1666. At Prague, Tycho hired Johannes Kepler as an assistant to calculate planetary orbits from his observations. Kepler published the Tabulae Rudolphina in 1627.

Because of Tycho's accurate observations and Kepler's elliptical astronomy, these tables were much more accurate than any previous tables. Tycho Brahe Tycho Brahe's contributions to astronomy were enormous. He not only designed and built instruments, he also calibrated them and checked their accuracy periodically. He thus revolutionized astronomical instrumentation. He also changed observational practice profoundly. Whereas earlier astronomers had been content to observe the positions of planets and the Moon at certain important points of their orbits (e.g., opposition , quadrature , station), Tycho and his cast of assistants observed these bodies throughout their orbits. As a result, a number of orbital anomalies never before noticed were made explicit by Tycho. Without these complete series of observations of unprecedented accuracy, Kepler could not have discovered that planets move in elliptical orbits. Tycho was also the first astronomer to make corrections for atmospheric refraction . In general, whereas previous astronomers made observations accurate to perhaps 15 arc minutes, those of Tycho were accurate to perhaps 2 arc minutes, and it has been shown that his best observations were accurate to about half an arc minute.

Tycho's observations of the new star of 1572 and comet of 1577, and his publications on these phenomena, were instrumental in establishing the fact that these bodies were above the Moon and that therefore the heavens were not immutable as Aristotle had argued and philosophers still believed. The heavens were changeable and therefore the Aristotelian division between the heavenly and earthly regions came under attack (see, for instance, Galileo's Dialogue) and was eventually dropped. Further, if comets were in the heavens, they moved through the heavens. Up to now it had been believed that planets were carried on material spheres (spherical shells) that fit tightly around each other. Tycho's observations showed that this arrangement was impossible because comets moved through these spheres. Celestial spheres faded out of existence between 1575 and 1625. Tychonic Universe If Tycho destroyed the dichotomy between the corrupt and ever changing sublunary world and the perfect and immutable heavens, then the new universe was clearly more hospitable for the heliocentric planetary arrangement proposed by Nicholas Copernicus in 1543. Was Tycho therefore a follower of Copernicus? He was not.

Tycho gave various reasons for not accepting the heliocentric theory, but it appears that he could not abandon Aristotelian physics which is predicated on an absolute notion of place. Heavy bodies fall to their natural place, the Earth, which is the center of the universe. If the Earth were not the center of the universe, physics, as it was then known, was utterly undermined. On the other hand, the Copernican system had a number of advantages, some technical (such as a better lunar theory and smaller epicycles), and others more based on harmony (an obvious explanation of retrograde planetary motion , a strict demonstration of the order and heliocentric distances of the planets). Tycho developed a system that combined the best of both worlds. He kept the Earth in the center of the universe, so that he could retain Aristotelian physics (the only physics available). The Moon and Sun revolved about the Earth, and the shell of the fixed stars was centered on the Earth. But Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn revolved about the Sun. He put the (circular) path of the comet of 1577 between Venus and Mars.

This Tychonic world system became popular early in the seventeenth century among those who felt forced to reject the Ptolemaic arrangement of the planets (in which the Earth was the center of all motions) but who, for various reasons, could not accept the Copernican alternative. Sources: The standard biography of Tycho Brahe is Victor E. Thoren, The Lord of Uraniborg: A Biography of Tycho Brahe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990). Still useful is the more technical treatment by J. L. E. Dreyer, Tycho Brahe: A Picture of Scientific Life and Work in the Sixteenth Century (Edinburgh: Adam & Charles Black, 1890; 2d ed. New York: Dover, 1963). C. Doris Hellman's article in the Dictionary of Scientific Biography is also useful. Tycho's works and correspondence have been collected in Tychonis Brahe Dani Opera omnia, ed. J. L. E. Dreyer, 15 vols. (Copenhagen 1913-1929; reprinted Amsterdam: Swets & Zeitlinger, 1972).

See also John Christianson, "The Celestial Palace of Tycho Brahe," Scientific American, 204, no. 2 (1961):118-128; Charles D. Humberd, "Tycho Brahe's Island," Popular Astronomy, 45 (1937):118-125; Joseph Ashbrook, "Tycho Brahe's Nose," Sky and Telescope, 29, no. 6 (1965):353, 358; C. Doris Hellman, "Was Tycho Brahe as Influential as He Thought?" British Journal for the History of Science, 1 (1963):295-324; Ann Blair, "Tycho Brahe's Critique of Copernicus and the Copernican System," Journal for the History of Ideas, 51 (1990): 355-77. Image: Sextant: From Tycho Brahe's Description of his Instruments and Scientific Work, tr. Hans Rï¿½der et al, Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1946), p. 72.

Tycho Brahe Tycho Brahe Link to Previous Lecture Tycho Brahe, born in 1546, was the eldest son of a noble Danish family, and as such appeared destined for the natural aristocratic occupations of hunting and warfare. However, he had an uncle Joergen, a country squire and vice-admiral, who was more educated, and childless. Tycho's father had agreed with the uncle before Tycho was born that if Tycho was a boy, the uncle could adopt and raise him. He changed his mind and reneged. Then, when a younger brother was born, the uncle kidnapped Tycho. The father threatened to murder the uncle, but eventually calmed down, since Tycho stood to inherit a large estate from the uncle. When Tycho was seven, his uncle insisted that he begin studying Latin. His parents objected, but the uncle said this would help Tycho become a lawyer. At age thirteen, Tycho entered the University of Copenhagen to study law and philosophy. At this impressionable age, an event took place that changed his life. There was a partial eclipse of the sun. This had been predicted, and took place on schedule.

It struck Tycho as "something divine that men should know the motions of the stars so accurately that they were able a long time beforehand to predict their places and relative positions". Perhaps this predictability was especially appealing to one whose personal life was evolving in rather an uncertain way. One of the advantages of being a rich kid was that he could immediately go out and buy a copy of Ptolemy's Almagest (in Latin) , and some sets of astronomical tables, which showed the positions of the planets at any given time. Ptolemy himself had made such tables, and they had been revised in Spain by a group of fifty astronomers in 1252, brought together by Alfonso X of Castile. These were called the Alfonsine tables. Tycho also bought a recent set of tables based on Copernicus' theory. At age sixteen, the uncle sent Tycho to Leipzig, in Germany, to continue his study of law. He was accompanied by a tutor, the twenty year old Anders Vedel, who himself later became famous as Denmark's first great historian. However, Tycho was obsessed with astronomy.

He bought books and instruments, which he hid from his tutor, and stayed up much of each night observing the stars. When he was seventeen, he observed a special event---Jupiter and Saturn passed very close to each other. (This was on August 17, 1563.) He found on checking the tables that the Alfonsine tables were off by a month in predicting this event, and the Copernicus tables off by several days. Tycho decided this was a pathetic performance by the astronomers, and much better tables could be constructed just by more accurate observation of the exact positions of the planets over an extended period of time. He decided that this was what he was going to do. Vedel realized Tycho was a hopeless case, and gave up trying to tutor him in law. The two remained good friends for life. Meanwhile, the uncle died of pneumonia after rescuing the king from drowning after the king had fallen off the bridge to his castle returning from a naval battle with the Swedes. When Tycho returned to Denmark, the rest of his family were quite unfriendly. They despised his stargazing, and blamed him for neglecting the law.

He decided to return to Germany, and fell in with some rich amateur astronomers in Augsburg. He persuaded them that what was needed was accurate observation, and (as telescopes had not yet been invented) this meant rather large quadrants to get lines of sight on stars. They set up a large wooden quadrant, part of a circle with a nineteen foot radius, that took twenty men to set up. It was graduated in sixtieths of a degree. This was the beginning of Tycho's accurate observations. One unfortunate incident during his stay in Germany suggests that Tycho inherited his father's rather hot-headed ways. Tycho lost his temper in a quarrel with another student over who was the better mathematician, this led to a duel in which part of Tycho's nose was cut off. The lost piece was replaced by a gold and silver alloy, and Tycho always carried around with him a snuffbox containing some "ointment or glutinous composition" which he frequently rubbed on his nose, possibly to keep it stuck on (The Sleepwalkers, p 287 - see references at end)). At the age of twenty-six, in 1570, Tycho returned to Denmark.

He lived for a while with his family, then with an uncle, Steen Bille, who had founded the first paper mill and glassworks in Denmark. He was the only family member who approved of star gazing. In 1572, another astronomical event took place that changed Tycho's life. On November 11, walking back from Steen's alchemy lab, Tycho noticed a new star in the sky that was brighter than Venus. He did not believe his eyes. He called some servants, then some peasants, to reassure him that it was really there. The new star was so bright that it could be seen in daylight. It lasted eighteen months. It was what is now called a nova, a rare event. The crucial question from the astronomical and theological point of view was, where exactly was this new star? Was it an event in the upper atmosphere, that is to say, below the moon, what was then termed in the sublunary region? If so, that would be o.k., because this region, below the moon, was where change and decay took place.

On the other hand, if it was out there in the eighth sphere, the fixed stars, the edge of heaven, that contradicted Aristotelian and Christian dogma, because that sphere had remained unchanged since the day of creation, and was supposed to stay that way. Maestlin in Tubingen, and Thomas Diggs in England, leading astronomers, tried to detect movement in the new star by lining it up with known fixed stars, using stretched threads. They could see no movement. Tycho had just finished building a new sextant, with arms five and a half feet long, a massive bronze hinge, a metallic scale calibrated in minutes (sixtieths of a degree) and a table of corrections for the remaining tiny errors in the instrument he had detected. His technology was far ahead of the competition, and he was able to settle the argument. The new star did not move at all relative to the fixed stars. It was in the eighth sphere. Tycho published a detailed account of his methods and findings the next year. He hesitated some time before publishing, because book writing seemed a bit undignified for a nobleman.

Similarly, when some of the other young nobles asked him to give a course on astronomy, he refused, and only changed his mind when the King told him to do it. By 1575, Tycho was famous throughout Europe, and he embarked on a grand tour, visiting astronomers in many cities. He decided it would be nice to move down to Basle, in Switzerland, a charming and civilized town. King Frederick II of Denmark (whose life had been saved by the uncle) was very upset at the thought of losing his best astronomer (and astrologer), and, after offering Tycho various castles, which didn't prove persuasive, offered him a whole island, flat with white cliffs, about three miles long, called Hveen, near Hamlet's castle of Elsinore. Denmark would bankroll building of an observatory and house, and the inhabitants of the island, who worked forty farms grouped around a small village, would become Tycho's subjects. The reason a king of a rather small country had quite so much wealth at his disposal was that the Protestant Reformation had placed the Church's lands and resources in his hands. Tycho hired a German architect and built his Uraniborg (castle of the heavens).

It was surrounded by a square wall 250 feet on a side. It had an onion dome, like the Kremlin, but an Italianate palace facade. It had rooms for huge precision instruments, fantastic murals, a paper mill and printing press, an alchemist's furnace, and a prison for tenants who caused problems. In the library, Tycho installed a brass globe five feet in diameter he had made for him in Augsburg. This was a highly polished accurate sphere, and the positions of the stars were engraved on it as they were measured over a twenty-five year period. In Tycho's study, a quadrant was built into the wall itself, with a mural of Tycho painted on to the wall. The quadrant was centered on an open window through which the observations were made. Several clocks were used simultaneously to try to time the observations as precisely as possible--an observer and a timekeeper worked together. His very large staff and several sets of equipment permitted four independent measurements of the same thing simultaneously, greatly reducing the possibility of error. The precision of measurements, which had held at ten minutes of arc since Ptolemy, was reduced at Uraniborg to one minute of arc.

The observatory was full of gadgets---statues turned by hidden mechanisms, and he had a system of bells he could ring in any room to summon assistants. There was a constant stream of distinguished visitors: princes, savants, courtiers, even King James VI of Scotland. The hard-drinking Tycho threw tremendous feasts for his visitors, at which occasionally silence was ordered to listen to the musings of a dwarf called Jepp, whom Tycho believed had second sight. He also had a tame elk, which died one night stumbling downstairs after too much strong beer (I am not making this up). He had many children, but under Danish custom they were all considered illegitimate, because his wife was a peasant woman. Meanwhile Tycho abused his tenants in an appalling fashion. He made them work and provide goods to which he was not entitled, and threw them in chains if they gave trouble. Unfortunately for Tycho, King Ferdinand died in 1588, of too much drink, as mentioned by Vedel in the funeral oration. The new young king, Christian IV, wrote several letters to Tycho which were unanswered, and Tycho flouted even the high court of justice by holding a tenant and all his family in chains.

Finally, measures were taken to reduce Tycho's income to more reasonable proportions, and as the years went by, Tycho was getting bored on the island, so in 1597, he got together his family, assistants servants, Jepp the dwarf and most of his equipment, and started to move across Europe in search of a suitable new place to set up an observatory. All his instruments could be dismantled and transported, because, he said, "An astronomer must be cosmopolitan, because ignorant statesmen cannot be expected to value their services" (The Sleepwalkers, p 299). Once outside Denmark Tycho decided to give the young king a second chance, and wrote him that he would be willing to come back, but the king must understand that the terms had to be more agreeable to Tycho. The king's response can be summarized as "Forget it". Over the next two years, he stayed in several German towns, then in 1599, the entourage arrived in Prague, Bohemia, where the Emperor Rudolph II appointed Tycho imperial mathematicus, at a salary of 3,000 florins a year, and gave him the castle of his choice.

Citytomb | biography and picturesTycho Brahe Religion: Lutheran Life events: The Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) carried pretelescopic astronomy to its highest perfection and tried to steer a middle course between the Ptolemaic and the Copernican systems. Tycho Brahe was born in 1546 on the family manor Knudstrup in Skåne as the eldest son of Otto Brahe and Beate Bille. Tycho Brahe, however, was reared by his uncle Jørgen Brahe and aunt, Inger Oxe (sister to Peder Oxe) on the manor Tostrup. From his 7th year he was taught Latin and at the age of 12 (in 1559) he began his studies at the University of Copenhagen (Rhetoric and Philosophy). In 1560 Tycho Brahe probably witnessed a partial solar eclipse, and from that time he began his studies of atsronomy. In 1562 he travelled to Leipzig to study law, but Tycho was more interested in astronomy.

He discovered large discrepancies between his own observations of the positions of the planets and the positions noted by astronomers before him. Tycho Brahe returned home from Leipzig in 1565 and between 1566 and 1570 he studied astronomy in Rostock, Wittenberg, Basel and Augsburg. In this period he constructed his first instruments (in 1564 a radius of wood and in 1569 the Great Quadrant at Augsburg). In 1570 his father died, and Tycho returned to Denmark. On November 11th 1572 Tycho discovered a new bright star in Cassiopaia. The star was visible for 18 months. Tycho published his observations on the star in a book, De Nova Stella. Today we know that this was a supernova. In 1574 Tycho married Kirsten Jørgensdatter, with whom he had eight children. In 1575 he travelled south again and made the acquaintance of the Landgrave Wilhelm IV of Hesse, who was very interested in astronomy.

When he returned home again he contemplated leaving Denmark, but the king, Frederick II, at the request of Wilhelm, offered Tycho Brahe the island of Hven as fief and generous financial support (Tycho Brahe received more than 1% of Denmark's income). In August 1576 he began building the combined manor house and observatory Uranienborg on Hven. Because of lack of space he began the construction of another observatory, Stjerneborg on a hill outside Uraniborg. As feudal lord Tycho Brahe had obligations towards the king and the peasants, but he did not fulfil them (e.g. he did not take care of the lighthouse, and he demanded too much work of his peasants and generally treated them badly). When Christian IV took over the throne in 1596, Tycho Brahe lost most of his financial privileges, but he still kept Hven as a fief. He was criticised in particular for his treatment of the peasants. In 1597 Tycho Brahe left Denmark, and in 1598 he accepted a proposal from Emperor Rudolf II that he come to Prague, where he was to work with Johannes Kepler.

Tycho Brahe died in 1601, possibly of ureamia, possibly because of mercury poisoning. He is buried in Prague. Kepler inherited the observations of Tycho Brahe, with the aid of which he was able to find his laws of planetary motion. Family life: Towards the end of 1571, Tycho fell in love with Kirsten, daughter of Jørgen Hansen, the Lutheran minister in Knudstrup. She was a commoner, and Tycho never formally married her. However, under Danish law, when a nobleman and a common woman lived together openly as husband and wife, and she wore the keys to the household at her belt like any true wife, their alliance became a binding morganatic marriage after three years. The husband retained his noble status and privileges; the wife remained a commoner. Their children were legitimate in the eyes of the law, but they were commoners like their mother and could not inherit their father's name, coat of arms, or landholdings. However, Kirsten and Tycho's children were later testified as legitimate by Tycho's younger sister, Sophie.

Kirsten Jørgensdatter gave birth to their first daughter, Kirstine (named after Tycho's late sister, who died at 13) on October 12, 1573. Together they had eight children, six of whom lived to adulthood. In 1574, they moved to Copenhagen where their daughter Magdalene was born. Kirsten and Tycho lived together for almost thirty years until Tycho's death. Education: Tycho attended Latin school from ages 6 to 12, but the name of the school is not known. It is also thought he may have been taught by a private tutor between these ages. At age 12, on 19 April 1559, Tycho began studies at the University of Copenhagen. There, following his uncle's wishes, he studied law, but also studied a variety of other subjects and became interested in astronomy. The solar eclipse of 21 August 1560, especially the fact that it had been predicted, so impressed him that he began to make his own studies of astronomy, helped by some of the professors.

He purchased an ephemeris and books on astronomy, including Johannes de Sacrobosco's De sphaera mundi, Petrus Apianus's Cosmographia seu descriptio totius orbis and Regiomontanus's De triangulis omnimodis. Jørgen Thygesen Brahe, however, wanted Tycho to educate himself in order to become a civil servant, and sent him on a study tour of Europe in early 1562. Tycho was given the 19-year-old Anders Sørensen Vedel as mentor, whom he eventually talked into allowing the pursuit of astronomy during the tour. Occupation and Career: Tycho Brahe was nobleman and astronomer. Tycho studied at the universities of Leipzig, Wittenberg, Rostock, Basel, and Augsburg (1562-1570). On his return to Denmark he went to live with an uncle, Steen Bille, the founder of the first paper mill and glassworks in that country. He was the only one in the family to approve of Tycho's addiction to astronomy.

He let Tycho set up his own observatory and received in turn help from him in the alchemy shop. On the evening of Nov. 11, 1572, Tycho spotted a new bright star near Cassiopeia. Other astronomers too soon noticed the nova, but it was Tycho who provided the best evidence with his huge sextant that the new star was as immobile as the other fixed stars. Tycho's book De stella nova (1573) was a landmark in astronomy and secured for him a lifelong career. First came his appointment at the University of Copenhagen, then the royal patent entrusting him with the construction of the famous observatory called Uraniborg (Castle of Heavens) on the island of Hven. Shortly after this took place (1576), Tycho delivered another blow at the belief codified by Aristotle that no change could occur above the orbit of the moon. In De mundi aetherei recentioribus phenomenis (1577) Tycho proved that the great comet of 1577 had to be at least six times farther than the moon. The book also contained the famous Tychonic system of planets.

There a secondary center was occupied by the sun with Mercury and Venus orbiting around it, forming a small system. The sun with its small system turned around the immobile earth fixed slightly off-center to the sphere of the fixed stars. The three other planets, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, orbited around both the sun and the earth, and their orbits were centered not on the earth but on the sun. The sphere of the fixed stars made a full revolution each day. Tycho left Denmark in 1587 and moved to Prague, carrying along the records of his observations and most of his instruments. In 1600 Johannes Kepler joined him as his assistant. It fell to Kepler to prepare for publication, following Tycho's sudden death in 1601, the latter's collection of astronomical studies, Astronomiae instauratae progymnasmata (1602-1603). Awards /Honors: His reputation began in 1572 when he described a supernova. With the aid of Denmark's King Frederick II, he built a new, larger observatory (Uraniborg), which became northern Europe's centre of astronomical study and discovery.

There he undertook a comprehensive study of the solar system and accurately charted the positions of more than 777 fixed stars. The observational data left at his death was used by his pupil and assistant Johannes Kepler to lay the groundwork for Isaac Newton's work. Books: De stella nova (1573) Death, place of death, Time of death, place of burial: Tycho suddenly contracted a bladder or kidney ailment after attending a banquet in Prague, and died eleven days later, on 24 October, in Prague. A contemporary physician attributed his death to a kidney stone, but no kidney stones were found during an autopsy performed after his body was exhumed in 1901, and the 20th century medical assessment is that it is more likely to have resulted from uremia. Tycho's body is currently interred in a tomb in the Church of Our Lady before Týn, in Old Town Square near the Prague Astronomical Clock. Quotes and Memoirs: Now it is quite clear to me that there are no solid spheres in the heavens, and those that have been devised by the authors to save the appearances, exist only in the imagination.

I conclude, therefore, that this star is not some kind of comet or a fiery meteor... but that it is a star shining in the firmament itself one that has never previously been seen before our time, in any age since the beginning of the world. It was not just the Church that resisted the heliocentrism of Copernicus. When, according to habit, I was contemplating the stars in a clear sky, I noticed a new and unusual star, surpassing the other stars in brilliancy. There had never before been any star in that place in the sky. With a firm and steadfast mind one should hold under all conditions, that everywhere the earth is below and the sky above, and to the energetic man, every region is his fatherland. References: Was Tycho Brahe Murdered? - Renaissance Astronomy and Hamlet Was Tycho Brahe Murdered? Share this page on your website: <a href="">Was Tycho Brahe Murdered?</a> Renaissance Astronomy and Hamlet When we think of Renaissance scholars, we tend to think of dusty, pasty-faced scholars locked in darkened rooms, poring over ancient tomes and tinkering with alchemy equipment.

This article is a part of the guide: Select from one of the other courses available: Discover 19 more articles on this topic Don't miss these related articles: Part II: The Exhumation of Tycho Brahe - Renaissance Astronomy and Hamlet This stereotype, in some cases, may have an element of truth, but it does many of the great Renaissance men a great disservice. Michelangelo was a rugged man, given to dressing in rags and he was renowned for his hot temper, once suffering a broken nose in a fight with a rival sculptor. “When, according to habit, I was contemplating the stars in a clear sky, I noticed a new and unusual star, surpassing the other stars in brilliancy. There had never before been any star in that place in the sky.” Tycho Brahe Tycho Brahe – Living On the Edge Portrait of Tycho Brahe (Public Domain) Another man who breaks the stereotype was Tycho Brahe, surely one of the most fascinating scholars of the Renaissance, renowned for his hard drinking, 'bad boy' image. He allegedly lost his nose in a drunken rapier duel, so he had to wear a silver and gold prosthesis.

However, despite this questionable lifestyle, he was one of the most brilliant astronomers of all time, marrying natural intelligence with intuition and dedication. Tycho Brahe, in 1572, was the first astronomer to describe a supernova, using its appearance to challenge the Ptolemaic, geocentric model of the universe. In an era before the invention of the telescope, his accurate measurements of celestial bodies, using instruments he designed himself, laid the groundwork for the development of astronomy through the Renaissance and the Enlightenment . However, controversy surrounds the death of Tycho Brahe, and modern research has shown that the official cause of death, a twisted bladder, may be open to question. A research team from Aarhus, Denmark, has been given permission to exhume the body and is looking at a new angle: Was Tycho Brahe murdered? The Life of Tycho Brahe Tycho Brahe (1546 – 1601) was born in Scania, a region of Denmark that is now part of Sweden. His father, Otto Brahe, was a member of the Danish nobility, and he was taken in by his uncle, Jurgen Brahe, at the age of two.

In 1559, at the age of 13, Tycho entered the University of Copenhagen, initially to study law, but he soon developed an interest in astronomy. The catalyst for this interest was the eclipse of August 21st, 1560, a phenomenon that had been predicted by astronomers, the accuracy of the eclipse forecasts impressing the young scholar deeply and determining his life course. He purchased an astronomical book, known as an ephemeris, which gave the location of celestial bodies at different times. After studying this and many of the other available texts, he came to realize the weakness of astronomy; very few texts and astronomers agreed about certain phenomena, making it difficult to make observations. In 1563, he wrote that this piecemeal gathering of information held back progress and that a concerted, long-term to chart the heavens was essential. Sky Map, in Tycho Brahe's notebook (Public Domain) With the aid of his sister, Sophia, he began to take detailed measurements of the heavens, meticulously recording positions of celestial bodies, although this was before the discovery of the telescope, restricting the accuracy.

The young astronomer also made many improvements to the available astronomical instruments in his quest for accuracy and perfection. In 1572, Brahe, on a journey home from a dinner in Copenhagen, noticed people staring at the sky in amazement. Following their lead, he looked up and saw that a new star had appeared in the constellation of Cassiopeia. Tycho immediately realized the importance of this discovery – the model of the universe proposed by Ptolemy must be wrong, because this new object proved that the heavens were not unchanging or fixed in a firmament and there was a much more dynamic process in action. Intrigued by the possibilities opened by this discovery, Brahe set out to make measurements of the new object, using surveying techniques to measure the position of the star at 6am and 6pm, every day. This twice-daily measurement, looking at the star at every half of a rotation of the earth, allowed him to use a method called the diurnal parallax to establish if the star was moving when compared to the background stars. After establishing that the parallax of the star was zero, this allowed him to state that the object was much further away than the moon or planets.

In his book, De Stella Nova, Brahe published his belief that the star was a new celestial object and proposed that the heavens could not be regarded as unchanging. We now know that the object was a supernova, a dying star in one last great explosion. The subtle findings contained in the book contributed to an upswing in Brahe’s fortunes, as the king of Denmark and Norway, Frederick II, financed Brahe’s astronomy in Uraniborg, an observatory that incorporated underground rooms packed with astronomical equipment. At one point, Brahe’s research consumed 5% of the yearly economic output of Denmark; such was the King’s devotion to his astronomer. Brahe used the wealth to build huge astronomical instruments in an underground station, complete with a roof that could be pulled aside with pulleys. Brahe remained here for 20 years, making observations that would eventually fall into the hands of Johannes Kepler, allowing him to formulate his theories about the universe, including his Laws of Planetary Motion. These good times had to end and, in 1596, when Frederick II died and was succeeded by his son, Christian IV, Brahe found that the royal goodwill ended, and he had to flee the country.

In 1597, he settled in Prague where he became the court astrologer of Emperor Rudolph II, of the Hapsburg dynasty. The Death of the Astronomer – Was Tycho Brahe Murdered? As the story goes, Brahe, a vivant with a taste for copious amounts of rich food and good wine, died at a banquet. He was too polite to excuse himself from the table to go to the bathroom and this caused his bladder to twist under the pressure of the accumulated urine, ultimately killing him. Kepler related that the astronomer took 11 days to die, unable to urinate and in a great deal of pain. On November 4th, 1601, the astronomer was given a full state burial in Prague, his body kitted out in full armor and his coffin escorted by 12 imperial guards. Rumors of murder resounded around Europe, with wild speculation and conspiracies dominating conversation in aristocratic circles, although there was little evidence to support these theories.

That is, until 1991, when the Prague National Museum, with Brahe’s mustache in its collection, sent a few hair samples to Denmark for analysis, in an attempt to establish the cause of death once and for all. The lab tests found that the hairs contained a huge amount of mercury, more than 100 times larger than the normal level expected in a body of that period. This cause of death was believable, considering the lifestyle of Brahe, but modern researchers made interesting discoveries that cast some doubt upon this official story, creating a whodunit worthy of a Shakespearean play, with some literary historians speculating that the death of Tycho Brahe gave the Bard the idea for the play, Hamlet. .

Question: Astronomer Tycho Brahe was born in which European country in 1546?
Answer: Denmark