Yumm, 9th grade science report
Tycho Brahe was born on December 14th, 1546 in a town called
Knudstrup in Scania, Denmark. He was born to
Otto Brahe and
Beatte Bille, whom both came from noble families. Tycho, however, was raised with his
uncle for his uncle and his farther had made an agreement before he was born, and if Brahe was a boy, the uncle could raise him.
At
age seven, Tycho began studying
Latin at his uncle's wishes. His parents did not agree with this, but he was raising Tycho, and he
believed it would make him more suited to be a lawyer. At
age thirteen, a few important things happened around him that affected his life. He went off to study Law and
Philosophy at the
University of Copenhagen. More importantly though, he witnessed a partial
eclipse of the sun. He was fascinated by this event, awed by what he found more amazing then the event itself, the fact that someone had
predicted this long ago. Tycho did what any good geek would do when in wonder; he set out to learn more. The advantage of being from noble family meant he had plenty of money to go buy books (including
Ptolemy's
Almagest) and astronomical tables like the ones Ptolemy used.
After a few years, at age sixteen, he was sent to Leipzig, in
Germany, to continue his studies, or more specifically, his studies of law. A twenty-year-old
tutor accompanied him by the name of
Anders Vedel. As much as others wished him to study law, Brahe wished to study the
stars. He hid from his tutor and late at night would watch the stars. He continued to buy books and other assorted things to quench his thirst for information on the
heavens, information to make him an
astronomer. When he was seventeen, he witnessed a special event. He saw
Jupiter and
Saturn come very close in there orbits, but the charts he had were off at least a few days, and up to a month. Tycho decided this was a
horrible performance by astronomers, and he set out to do better. He decided that's what he wanted to do, become an astronomer. His tutor gave up on trying to teach him law, and afterwards they remained
friends.
Bad news was around the corner though. His uncle had saved the
king from drowning after falling off a bridge, but in doing so, caught
pneumonia. Tycho's uncle died soon after, and when
Tycho returned home, he found the rest of his family displeased with him, and unhappy that he stopped studying law. They did not approve of his
obsession with the night sky, and shunned him away. Tycho returned to Germany, and when he got there met a small group of rich amateur
astrologists. They decided that they needed better tools for studying the stars (there were no telescopes yet). The somewhat
astronomical crew set up large quadrant of a nineteen-foot circle. This was the beginning of accurate
observations of the stars for Brahe.
Brahe was a
short-tempered man, and got into a swordfight with another student over who was a better mathematician. Brahe got a piece of his nose cut out, and replaced it with a
gold or
silver fitting.
After some time, Tycho witnessed another great astronomical event that would change his life forever. On November 11, 1572, walking outside he witnessed an abnormally bright star that he had never seen before. It was so bright; in fact, it could be seen even in
daylight for the next eighteen months. He was curious as to what this thing was. Was it simply a changing in gasses between the earth and the moon; or was it a new star, far out into space? He used his
instruments to see how it moved relative to the other stars. After much research he realized in was in fact out with the other stars, in what was called the eighth sphere. This was
unbelievable for the heavens has supposedly not changed sense the day they where created, and were not supposed to change. He wrote a book about his discoveries, and how he came about proving what he saw was in fact what it was, which we now know as a supernova. He wrote several other books in his lifetime; from 1573-1602 he had 4 books published, all regarding astronomy. Brahe also discovered a comet in 1577, that being a subject for one of his books.
Tycho was now known throughout Europe and traveled the country visiting the towns and noblemen living in them.
King Fredrick II of
Denmark was the king Tycho's uncle has saved, and the King offered him many castles. Tycho did not approve of any of them, and in the end King Fredrick II offered him a whole
island, about three miles long. He offered to pay for the building of an observatory and a castle on this island for Brahe, as well as making all the inhabitants of the island Brahe's subjects.
Tycho hired a
German architect to design his "
Castle of the Heavens" with beautiful domes and rooms surrounded entirely by a 250-foot wall on each side. Brahe was a
heavy drinker, and held many great party's where noblemen came to visit. He has a
dwarf servant who would entertain, and a tame elk, which apparently died after drinking too much and
falling down a
flight of stairs.
Tycho abused his servants and often threw them in chains. It was all going well, but once his friend the king died only to be replaced by another, he decided to leave the island and travel around
England with his group of servants. He did this in
1597. After a short time Tycho decided he would give the king another chance. If the king would agree to the many terms that Tycho set, the astronomer said he would move back onto the island. The king refused, so Tycho continued to travel around, finally gaining a job as a
mathematician as well as receiving another castle, this time from his new employer.
Tycho has several kids to a peasant wife with whom he was never officially
married. He
invented a system of the stars in which the Earth was the center of the universe, the Moon and Sun orbited the earth, and the remaining planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) orbited the sun. The comet he discovered in 1577 was placed between Venus and Mars. Tycho died in 1601 as a direct result of a
liver problem caused by too much
heavy drinking.