Johannes Kepler

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) discovered and demonstrated that the Earth orbits the Sun even though Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) and Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) often receive credit in the popular imagination.

In Kepler's 1609 work, Astronomia Nova (New Astronomy), he demolished the Aristotelian cosmography of perfect forms and unknowable causes, forever changed man’s sense of his place in the Universe, helped launch the scientific revolution--and also identified problems which would motivate the development of calculus.

By introducing readers to key steps in Kepler’s process of discovery, this web module aims to inspire individuals to ask new questions and blaze a path towards discoveries of their own.