Johnannes Kepler, the student of
Tycho Brahe, came up with the idea of elliptical planetary orbits. His research
was in part motivated by his extreme religious faith that caused him to think
that understanding the heavens would bring him closer to God and his
determination to reach truth through observation. His mentor, Tycho, had
observed the orbits of planets, yet he was unable to make sense of them because
he assumed that he held perfectly circular orbits. Kepler also assumed this
belief, but he struggled to understand the orbit of Mars under this model. Kepler
used Tycho’s models that satisfied Mars’ north-south positions, but not its
east-west positions and vice versa. While Kepler was tempted to just ignore the
differences between the model and his actual observations as they only differed
by 8 arcminutes, though he knew that this would not be a true pursuit of truth.
As a scientist, Kepler struggled between his conceived ideas of the planetary
orbits and his observations. Fortunately for science today, Kepler studied the
planets until he came to terms with the idea of elliptical orbits. From there, he came up with his three laws of
Planetary Motion stating that the planets orbit on an ellipse, planets sweep
out equal area in equal time, and that distant planets orbit the sun at a slower
speed. Kepler came to these laws through persistent and precise observation
until he had come up with theories that matched what he saw in the night sky. As a scientist, Kepler was trying to find more
knowledge about the world around him to find truth. His idea of truth was a
greater understanding of reality that could be gained through observation of
the natural world. By going past what his mentor believed, Kepler was able to
conceive the idea of elliptical orbits that revolutionized the concept of
planetary models at the time.
The piece I find most interesting is how Kepler had to grapple with conflicting ideas surrounding his work, both with Tycho and his religion. I think these dilemmas of attempting to explain what your predecessor could not are still at the heart of science today, and paint a good picture of how scientific discoveries truly occur. Often times they likely take multiple generations of research before someone can find the right answer.
ReplyDeleteI think you did a great job overviewing Kepler and his conclusions on elliptical orbits for planets. While it seems easy to grasp the concept of elliptical orbits for us, I imagine it was difficult for Kepler to go against previous beliefs of perfectly circular orbits, especially when he developed a model without elliptical orbits that was only off by 8 arcminutes. Like Daniel, I too find the conflict between evidence and previous beliefs to be extremely interesting. A fundamental aspect of science is that it depends on evidentiary based claims, rather than a belief system.
ReplyDeleteI like how you mentioned Kepler's relationship with God. I agree that the scientists' religious faith had a large impact on the development of astronomy. For Kepler, religion helped his research, but religion also hurt many scientists, especially Galileo. The Catholic Church did not approve his support of the heliocentric theory, and these conflicts were later dubbed "The Galileo Affair."
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your overview of Kepler's work and I am particularly interested in Kepler's relationship with Tycho Brahe. Their collaboration certainly revolutionized aspects of science and it would appear as though they had a good working relationship, but there was a theory that Brahe's death came as a result of Kepler poisoning him that started in the early 1900s. After Brahe's body was exhumed in 2010 for a second time, medical anthropologists were able to rule out this claim. Pretty interesting that people were able to put that spin on their relationship and that science has progressed to the point of being able to perform DNA tests on someone who died over 400 years ago.
ReplyDeleteMore information can be found here:
http://www.livescience.com/24835-astronomer-tycho-brahe-death.html
It's really crazy to think about the different way religion affected science back in history. Many people claim that religion and science have a very conflicting relationship to say the least. However Kepler saw it differently, and used science to try to bring himself closer to God. He wasn't the only one too, as Newton was deeply religious. Isaac Newton viewed the universe as a giant riddle that God had left mystic clues to help solve. Sounds almost Da Vinci code huh? Newton shared Kepler's belief that by solving the mystery of the heavens, it would bring him closer to God. He even spent many years of his life simply transcribing copies of religious texts for fun. To sum up, I think it's sad that science and religion no longer work hand in hand like they used to, but I don't think anyone could have stopped that relationship from decaying.
ReplyDeleteSource: https://ctools.umich.edu/access/content/group/2410077d-ff36-45bb-9901-ae0d2c39f173/Astro%20301%20F2012%20Readings/Andrade%20and%20Keynes%20on%20Newton.pdf