Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer born in 1571 who made significant contributions to astronomy and astrophysics. He published his book Mysterium Cosmographicum which explained his cosmological model based on the Copernican system. Kepler is renowned for his three laws of planetary motion which accurately described the motion of planets, including that their orbits are elliptical with the sun at one focus. He also discovered that Mars' orbit is not perfectly circular and observed a comet at the young age of six.