Tycho Brahe
1546–1601 · Danish · Renaissance / Scientific Revolution
Known for: Greatest pre-telescopic astronomer whose precise observations enabled Kepler's laws
Tycho Brahe was the most colorful scientist in history. He lost part of his nose in a duel over a mathematical formula and wore a gold and silver prosthetic for the rest of his life. He kept a pet moose that died falling down stairs while drunk. He built the most advanced astronomical observatory in the world on his own island, Hven, and made observations of unprecedented accuracy.
He hired Kepler as his assistant, and upon Tycho's death—possibly from a burst bladder after refusing to leave a banquet to urinate, because court etiquette forbade it—Kepler inherited his data and used it to derive the laws of planetary motion.
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