Storiascopio · Era 9 of 12 · lower secondary year 2
Kepler describes the orbits
1609 · Prague (now Czech Republic)
In short
Johannes Kepler, a German astronomer, worked in Prague with the very precise measurements collected by his teacher Tycho Brahe. After studying the motion of Mars for years, he realised that the planets do not go round the Sun in perfect circles, but in ellipse-shaped orbits, a kind of squashed circle. He also discovered that a planet moves faster when it is close to the Sun. He published these laws in 1609 in the book Astronomia nova.
Why it matters Kepler's laws made it possible to predict the positions of the planets precisely, and Newton used them for his theory of gravity.
Source: Treccani, entry “Keplero, Giovanni”
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about 1420Event 21 of 251687
Your turn
Name ______________________ Class ______ Date __________
When did it happen? Find the date at the top and write it here:
Tell it in your own words: what happened?
Draw the scene below.
storiascopio.com/en/event/kepler-describes-the-orbits/ · free worksheet, you may photocopy it for your class