Tycho Brahe Biography

Tycho Brahe

      Brahe was born in Denmark (now a part Sweden) in 1546.  His father was a nobleman and he was always part of a higher class throughout his entire life which was necessary at the time in order to have the money and power to make his future discoveries.  At one point Brahe was said to have owned one percent of the entire wealth of Denmark. 

      Brahe was alive prior to the invention of the telescope and therefore was never capable of observing the heavens through a telescopic eye piece.  Through his observation he developed the Tychonic System.  In this system the Earth was the center of the universe which we clearly know now as not being true.)  Regardless, the moon and the sun revolved around the Earth.  Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn (the only observable planets without a telescope) revolved around the sun in a seperate revolution.  Although this system was soon discredited in Brahe's defence he was doing all of his experimenting and observation with the naked eye.  In 1572 Brahe observed a change in the heavens with the unexpected appearance of a star in the constellation Cassiopeia.  Prior to this event the heavens were regarded as unchangeable.  He proved that the object was farther away than the moon because parallax could not be observed.  Thus, this was the appearance of a star in the distant heavens which proved that the heavens are always changing.  This caused a large problem with the church at the time because the heavens were thought to be perfect and unchanging.  Brahe figured out that this was not true.  This was one of many contributions to astronomy made by Brahe.   

     Brahe's biggest legacy was his precise and accurate way of measuring the heavens.  He made a major contribution to the scientific method and set a standard for scientific review and observation.  Even though his theories about the composition of the universe were incorrect, he still did a lot for the scientific community.  In his own time he was not just known for his astronomical observation but also for his contributions to medicine and his creation of a higher education institution in Denmark.    

Interesting Fact: Tycho's first published piece of work was a Latin writing that he wrote for his brother who died before being baptized, not a astronomical discovery or hypothesis.