Tycho Brahe: biography of this astronomer

The human being has always looked at the sky and the stars with veneration and respect. An indecipherable unknown for most of the population for much of history, the celestial bodies have been the object of adoration, origin of myths and different mystical beliefs and religious. And since ancient times mankind has tried explain what lies beyond and how the cosmos works.

One of the most influential and important figures throughout history was Copernicus, who proposed the heliocentric theory. Another, perhaps somewhat less well known, is Tycho Brahe.

This man is considered one of the most relevant astronomers in history, born at a time when that there were still no telescopes or precise mechanisms to observe the behavior of stars. Knowing his history is important to understand the importance of his discoveries, and that is why throughout this article let's see a little biography of Tycho Brahe.

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Tycho Brahe biography

Tyge Ottesen Brahe, better known as Tycho Brahe (Latinization of his name), He was born on December 14, 1546 at Knudstrup Castle, a property built by his father and located in a then Danish Scania. He was the firstborn (he was born with a twin but this one died early) of the royal advisor Otte Brahe and Beate Clausdatter Bille, both members of the Danish nobility and aristocracy and with great can.

Young Tycho, however, was not raised by them but by his uncle Joergen Brahe, who had no offspring. Initially he was kidnapped by his uncle, but his parents decided to allow him to keep the child and raise him. Joergen Brahe gave him great support throughout his life and decided to educate him in the best possible way, helping to train him in areas such as knowledge of Latin.

Academic training

When he turned thirteen in 1559 his uncle decided to send him to the University of Copenhagen to study philosophy and rhetoric, with the purpose of having a life as a nobleman in the service of the crown.

A year after his arrival at the University, something happened that would largely mark the destiny of young Tycho Brahe: he was able to observe a solar eclipse. Since then, Brahe's main objective has been to study astronomy, incorporating subjects on this subject and mathematics into his studies.

After finishing his studies at said university, he decided to continue his training at the University of Leipzig in 1562 in order to study law, while his fascination and studies on the stars and astronomy continued growing. During his training in this area he had a dispute with another student, which resulted in a duel in which he lost a large part of his nose. Too he was able to observe that the forecasts of the time at the astronomical level had a lot of errors.

The same year that he lost his nose, 1565, the conflict situation during the Seven Years' War was such that his uncle Joergen sent him back to Copenhagen for safety. He would pass away shortly after, leaving his inheritance to his nephew. With this inheritance he continued his training in astronomy and medicine at the Universities of Wittenberg and Rostock.

Little by little the young Tycho was reaching a certain popularity, something that did not go unnoticed in the eyes of the king and he had a position offered to him in Roskilde cathedral. His father died in 1571, after which he lived with another of his uncles.

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A star in the sky

One day in 1572 a star appeared in the sky that had never been observed before: the constellation Cassiopeia. This star, actually a nova, was of great interest to the author and he spent about a year making various observations. In them he could see that there was no parallax regardless from where he looked (that is, there was no difference in his apparent position). The appearance of this star caused the author to make one of what he would consider older contributions: the contradiction of the idea that fixed stars were immutable, until then current.

In 1573 he published his first work, in which he would reflect his observations: "De nova stella". This work would make her achieve great popularity. Also during that same year he would have a relationship with a woman of peasant origin named Kirstine, with whom he would bond despite opposition from his family and with whom he would come to have children.

The island of Hven and Uraniborg

Tycho Brahe enjoyed the sympathies of the monarch Frederick II, who handed him over the property of the island of Hveen in 1576. In it the astronomer he built the largest and most developed observatory of the time, which he named the city of heaven or Uraniborg. In this observatory he would spend two decades making amazingly precise (remember that the telescope was not yet invented) and numerous measurements and observations of the stars.

Among the observations he made, he could see how the movement of the stars was not perfectly circular but rather traced an ellipse. Specifically, from the analysis of the behavior of comets. This observation and a later one during the year 1588 led him to another great new discovery for the time that contradicted pre-existing beliefs: proved that comets were not found in our planet's atmosphere but outside it.

On the other hand, and largely due to the difficulty of accurately measuring the motion of the stars, Brahe concluded that Copernicus' ideas were incorrect since, if the heliocentric theory is true, the human being should be able to perceive the parallax of the stars (something that has subsequently been seen to occur).

Last years, death and legacy

In the same 1588 King Frederick II died. something that caused Tycho Brahe to lose his claim to the island of Hven and the pension he received from the monarch. That is why during 1597 he decided to leave Denmark. In 1599 he was welcomed in Prague by King Rudolph II, who made him the imperial mathematician and offered him a castle as an observatory and a considerable sum of money as fees. Likewise, he would come into contact with the one who would be his disciple and also a relevant author Johannes Kepler.

A year later Brahe and Kepler met for a collaboration, which was initially full of disagreements but ended up with Kepler as the astronomer's assistant and was highly fruitful. But nevertheless, in 1601 Brahe became seriously ill. His death came to Brahe on October 24, 1601, in the city of Prague, due to kidney failure that killed him. Previously he asked his assistant to finish his work.

The legacy of this important astronomer is enormous, since thanks to him they began to investigate more depth the behavior of the cosmos and it was possible to contrast some beliefs that existed since the Antiquity. Not in vain he is considered one of the most important astronomers in the world, and was a source of inspiration for other greats such as his disciple Kepler.

Bibliographic references:

• Gribbin, J. (2006). History of science, 1543–2001. Barcelona: Criticism.