Tycho Brahe

What if I told you that one person, using only his eyes and clever instruments, helped scientists discover how planets move? That's Tycho Brahe - and his story is full of stars, careful measuring, and big discoveries.

Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) was a Danish nobleman and astronomer who worked in the late 1500s. The single most important thing about him was his amazingly precise observations of the sky before telescopes were invented. He made the most accurate star and planet measurements of his time.

He built a special observatory called Uraniborg on the island of Hven and used large brass instruments to watch night after night. In 1572 he spotted a 'new star' (a supernova) and proved it was far beyond the Moon. He also tracked a comet in 1577 and showed the heavens could change. His careful lists of star and planet positions were used by later scientists.

After Tycho died, his assistant Johannes Kepler used Tycho's measurements to discover the rules of planetary motion - the idea that planets move in ellipses. Because Tycho turned the sky into numbers you could trust, he helped move astronomy from guesswork to science. So next time you look at the stars, remember Tycho: the man who measured the heavens.