Tycho Brahe was a Danish astronomer in the late 16th century who made incredibly accurate observations of the night sky using only basic instruments like a sextant. He lost his nose in a duel as a young man and wore a silver replacement. Supported by the Danish king, he built elaborate observatories on an island where he tracked planetary movements for over 20 years. His data disproved Aristotle's geocentric model of the universe and helped Kepler develop his three laws of planetary motion, moving science closer to the heliocentric model. His suspicious death in Prague may have been from a burst bladder or poisoning.

1. “Rock Star” of Astronomy
The odd life and death of Tycho Brahe

2. Tycho Brahe was a Danish mathematician and
astronomer whose work paved the way for future
discoveries. Image:https://scientificusblogpt.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/brahe.jpg

3. Brahe may have been history’s strangest astronomer.
https://perfectsenseblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/6-gold-silver-nose.jpg?w=440

4. A discussion about math became heated, and a duel followed.
Tycho Brahe’s nose was cut off during this duel.
http://escrime-avenir.org/cntnt/fra/fehtovanie8/fra_history/quelques_m.html

5. Tycho Brahe was born in Denmark in 1546 to a noble
family. He was the nephew of Jorges Brahe, a sailor
who gave his life in an effort to save the life of King
Fredrik II of Denmark. By Unknown - Die Mark Brandenburg; Die ersten Hohenzollern,
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41002393
A strange life

6. Who paid the bills?
Tycho Brahe benefited greatly from
Denmark’s King Fredrik II’s generous support.
Brahe received an island called Hven from the
king. He turned this island into his own little
country. Brahe built a castle on Hven and
named it Uraniborg after Urania, the goddess
of the sky. He also built an observatory on the
island. For over 20 years, Brahe used the
island as his base from which to make
astronomical observations.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Uraniborg_main_building.jpg

7. Uraniborg main building from copper etching of Blaeu's Atlas Major 1663, Tycho
Brahe's observatory on Hven, built ca 1576-1580
date:1663 Source: Blaeu's Atlas Major Author: Blaeu
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Uraniborg_main_building.jpg

8. Astronomer, Astrologer and Cartographer
(map maker)
As part of Tycho's duties to the Crown in exchange for his estate, he
fulfilled the functions of a royal astrologer. At the beginning of each year
he had to present an Almanac to the court, predicting the influence of the
stars on the political and economic prospects of the year. And at the birth
of each prince, he prepared their horoscopes, predicting their fates. He
also worked as a cartographer with his former tutor Anders Sørensen
Vedel on mapping out all of the Danish realm. An ally of the king and
friendly with Queen Sophie (both his mother Beate Bille and adoptive
mother Inger Oxe had been her court maids), he secured a promise from
the King that ownership of Hven and Uraniborg would pass to his heirs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tycho_Brahe

9. Tycho Brahe's Stjerneborg from Johan Blaeu's Atlas Major,
Amsterdam 1662, vol. 1 This image is a drawing by Willem Blaeu
of the Stjerneborg observatory circa 1595, it is taken from an Atlas
by his son, Johan Blaeu, published in 1662 in Amsterdam.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tycho_Brahe#/media/File:Tycho_Brahe%27s_Stjerneborg.jpg

10. Brahe had an elk for his pet.
The elk (moose) died on a visit to
entertain a nobleman at Landskrona.
Apparently during dinner the elk drank
a lot of beer, fell down the stairs, and
died.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tycho_Brahe

11. Tycho Brahe corresponded with other
astronomers of his time. Jost Burgi (top left),
Nicolaus Reimers Baer (center left)and
Johannes Kepler (bottom left).
Image of Burgi: By User Dvoigt on de.wikipedia -
http://www.ethbib.ethz.ch/aktuell/galerie/buergi/buergi.jpg, Public Domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1364332:
http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Nicolaus_Reimers:
Image of Baer: https://images.app.goo.gl/JSvxSdLGthMbNWS29
Image of Keppler:
https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=A0LEVjvnltJYiLIAsX4nnIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTByMjB0aG5z
BGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--?p=Johannes%20Kepler&fr=yhs-mozilla-
001&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-001#id=76&iurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcaravantomidnight.com%2Fwp-
content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F07%2FJohannes-KEPLER-Portrait-e1436484352639.jpg&action=click

12. He had to leave Denmark forever
In time, the king died and his son became the
new king. The new king and Tycho did not get
along well at all. In 1597, after some major
disagreements with the king, Tycho Brahe lost
the Danish king's support. So he went to
Wandsbech in what is today known as
Germany. Then a new offer came his way.

13. A new home and a new title
In 1599, Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II invited him
to become his imperial mathematician.
Tycho accepted a manor house in Benatek, which
today is situated in the Czech Republic. He worked
there for a year, then Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph
summoned him to live in Prague, where he valued
Tycho’s horoscopes.
Tycho eventually settled in Prague, where he
continued his astronomical observations.

14. In Prague, Tycho gave Johannes Kepler a
job as his assistant. Together, they
began working on a new star catalog,
but it was slow work. The catalog was
eventually published by Kepler in 1627
as the Rudolphine Tables. These were by
far the most accurate astronomical data
tables ever published, with planetary
data and 1,006 star positions. The
majority of stars were cataloged to
within one arc minute accuracy, which
had been Tycho’s ambition.
Tycho had left Uraniborg with a precious cargo –
almost two decades worth of accurate observations
of the stars and planets he and his many research
workers had made there."Tycho Brahe." Famous Scientists. famousscientists.org. 19 Sep.
2016. Web. 3/29/2017 <www.famousscientists.org/tycho-brahe/>. Image: https://images.app.goo.gl/RreUPzRHmLXvuzZU8

15. Proving Copernicus’ Heliocentric theory
Over a 20 year period of time, Tycho
Brahe made consistent observations
which supported the heliocentric
theory proposed earlier by
Copernicus. These observations
were made using only a compass
and a sextant. Brahe catalogued
over 1000 stars. Sextant graphics courtesy of Creative
Commons "Tycho Brahe." Famous Scientists. famousscientists.org. 19
Sep. 2016. Web. 3/29/2017
<www.famousscientists.org/tycho-brahe/>.
Image: https://images.app.goo.gl/gPeagzuEMmcHxHEz8

16. Tools used by Brahe
Brahe invented many instruments such as
the Tyconian Quadrant which were widely
copied and led to the invention of improved
observational equipment.
He did not have a telescope.

17. Compass
and
Sextant
Image:
https://images.app.goo.gl/iGE3zYSWsT9myMk3
7

18. Brahe and comets
He also proved that
comets were not just
components of Earth's
atmosphere, but actual
objects traveling
through space. Brahe
showed irregularities in
the Moon's orbit and
discovered a new star
in the Cassiopeia
formation."Tycho Brahe." Famous Scientists.
famousscientists.org. 19 Sep. 2016. Web. 3/29/2017
www.famousscientists.org/tycho-brahe/ Graphic courtesy of
https://images.app.goo.gl/iGE3zYSWsT9myMk37

19. Broken trust
An assistant of Brahe’s, Nicholas Baer,
known as Ursus, took details of Tycho’s
instruments to a rival astronomer and also
seems to have stolen Tycho’s new system for
the solar system before it was fully formed.
Tycho expelled Ursus from Uraniborg after
Ursus was caught snooping among Tycho’s
books.
Ursus later published the work he had seen
under his own name. "Tycho Brahe." Famous Scientists. famousscientists.org. 19 Sep.
2016. Web. 3/29/2017 <www.famousscientists.org/tycho-brahe/>.

20. A new assistant, Kepler
n 1600, Tyco Brahe hired Johannes Kepler as
his assistant. Kepler was a mathematician
and a theorist, rather than a direct observer.
Brahe had kept many of his records hidden
from Kepler for fear that Kepler might take
credit for his work, as Baer had done. When
Brahe died, his son-in-law took the records,
but Kepler desperately wanted those so he
could complete his own astronomical
theories.

21. An astronomer and a burglar
Kepler (1571-1630) believed in Copernicus' picture. Having been raised in
the Greek geometric tradition, he believed God must have had some
geometric reason for placing the six planets at the particular distances
from the sun that they occupied. He thought of their orbits as being on
spheres, one inside the other. One day, he suddenly remembered that
there were just five perfect Platonic solids, and this gave a reason for
there being six planets - the orbit spheres were maybe just such that
between two successive ones a perfect solid would just fit. He convinced
himself that, given the uncertainties of observation at the time, this
picture might be the right one. However, that was before Tycho's results
were used. Kepler realized that Tycho's work could settle the question one
way or the other, so he went to work with Tycho in 1600. Tycho died the
next year, Kepler stole the data, and worked with it for nine years. He
reluctantly concluded that his geometric scheme was wrong. In its place,
he found his three laws of planetary motion.
http://galileoandeinstein.physics.virginia.edu/lectures/tycho.htm

22. Brahe was almost right about orbits
Tycho believed the planets circled the sun, but
the sun circled the Earth. After the Danish
astronomer's death and against the wishes of
his surviving family, Kepler used Tycho's data
to discredit Tycho's system. Kepler believed
the sun was at the system's center.
"Tycho Brahe." Famous Scientists. famousscientists.org. 19 Sep. 2016. Web. 3/29/2017
www.famousscientists.org/tycho-brahe/

23. A suspicious death
After a huge meal and a lot of drinking, guests were not
allowed to leave the banquet table until after the King had
left. Tycho’s bladder may have burst. He suffered several days
and then died. He may have used mercury as a medicine, or
he may have been poisoned. No one knows.
Tycho's body has been exhumed twice, in 1901 and 2010, to
examine the circumstances of his death and to identify the
material from which his artificial nose was made. The
conclusion was that his death was likely caused by a burst
bladder, and not by poisoning as had been suggested, and
that the artificial nose was more likely made of brass than
silver or gold, as some had believed in his time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tycho_Brahe

24. Astronomical clocks
Image: By Uoaei1 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58465831

25. “If I have seen further it is by standing on the
shoulders of Giants.”
Art from Creative Commons)
https://images.app.goo.gl/B7fwDhvPQC5CLPE69
Sir Isaac Newton
(25 Dec 1642 - 20 Mar 1727)
English physicist and mathematician
who made seminal discoveries in
several areas of science, and was
the leading scientist of his era.