Who was Tycho Brahe? All you need to know (2023)

Tycho Brahe was born as Tyge Ottesen Brahe on December 14, 1546 at Knutstorp Castle, eight kilometers north of Svalöv, then under Danish Scania rule but now part of Sweden. The castle was the ancestral home of the Brahes, one of the most powerful noble families in Denmark.

Tycho's father, Otte Brahe, was a wealthy and powerful nobleman who owned vast tracts of land. He served on the Rigsraadet, the Imperial Council, and later became Governor of Helsingborg Castle, which controlled the main waterways to the Baltic Sea.

Tycho's mother, Beate Clausdatter née Bille, also came from another powerful noble family. She was the daughter of Clause Bille, a member of the Norwegian and Danish Imperial Councils. She herself was a member of the royal court and became Queen Sofia's lady-in-waiting.

Tycho was born the second of his parents' twelve children and had an older sister named Lizbeth. He had a twin brother who died before baptism. Three other siblings also died before reaching adulthood. Her younger sister, Sophie Brahe, later became known for her knowledge of horticulture, astronomy, chemistry, and medicine.

At the age of two, Tycho was kidnapped by his childless uncle Jørgen Thygesen Brahe, commander of Tostrup Castle, to raise him as his son. Oddly enough, even after this incident, the family stayed together and his birth parents never tried to accept him.

The adoption was very advantageous for Tycho. While the Brahes and Billes had little interest or time for studying, Tycho's adoptive mother, Inger Oxe, came from an academic family and had a keen interest in it.

Until the age of six, Tycho lived with his adoptive parents at Castle Tostrup. Later, in 1552, the family moved to Vordingborg Castle, where Tycho began his formal education at the local cathedral school, receiving an extensive education, graduating at the age of twelve.

On April 19, 1559, at the request of his adoptive father, 12-year-old Tycho entered the Lutheran University in Copenhagen to study law. However, he also had to study various other subjects, including mathematics, philosophy, Aristotelian physics, and cosmology.

His interest turned to astronomy when he witnessed a total solar eclipse on August 21, 1560. What intrigued him most was that the event had been previously predicted. The fact that it wasn't the right time also brought down the fourteen-year-old Tycho, who he was determined to do better.

He immediately obtained a copy of the Stadius Ephemerides and began to study it. Very soon he immersed himself in the study of other books on astronomy, such as De sphaera mundi by Johannes of Sacrobosco, Cosmographia seu descriptio totius orbis by Petrus Apianus and De triangulis omnimodis by Regiomontanus.

His interest in astronomy alarmed his adoptive parents. So in February 1562 the fifteen-year-old Tycho was removed from the University of Copenhagen and brought to the University of Leipzig, sending nineteen-year-old Anders Sørensen Vedel as tutor.

Tycho arrived in Leipzig in March 1562. Although astronomy was not part of his curriculum there, he had taken his books with him, and despite his teacher's efforts to keep him busy studying law, he secretly studied astronomy at night. .

He also saved what he could to buy books and astronomical instruments. He slowly began to make observations and keep track of them. However, it was not until he observed the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in August 1563 that he devoted himself entirely to astronomy.

He found that neither Ptolemy nor Copernicus could give the exact date and recognized that more systematic and rigorous observations were necessary to make accurate predictions. He now began to keep a detailed journal of all of his astronomical observations and began to study astronomy with Bartholomäus Schultz.

In May 1565 Tycho returned home, and his adoptive father died the following month. Since he was under eighteen; his biological parents now took care of him.

In 1566 he left his homeland again and enrolled at the University of Wittenberg on April 15. Here he studied for five months with Casper Peucer. He then enrolled at the University of Rostock on September 24, where he had part of his nose cut off in a sword duel.

In Rostock he observed a lunar eclipse on October 28, 1566, and a partial solar eclipse on April 9, 1567. Also in April, after graduating from the University of Rostock, he returned home to have an artificial nose made of brass, the which he used for the rest of his life.

Although his father wanted him to go into public service immediately, Tycho Brahe convinced him to allow him one more trip. In January 1568 Tycho returned to Rostock, and later visited Basel, Freiburg, and Augsburg.

In Augsburg he gained a patron on whose property he built a huge quadrant. Although very accurate, it was very large and allowed only one observation per night. He also built a large celestial globe out of wood.

Tycho returned home in late 1570, and his father died in May 1571. Thereafter his maternal uncle, Steen Bille, suggested that he settle at Herrevad Abbey, which was then under his control.

With the financial help of Steen Bille, Tycho Brahe built a laboratory at Herrevad Abbey, where he invented an improved technique for making paper and soon began making the material at the nearby Klippan Mill. He later also helped set up a glassworks at the abbey.

On the night of November 11, 1572, after leaving his laboratory, Tycho noticed a new star in the constellation Cassiopeia. Unsure, he called his assistant, possibly his sister Sophia, to verify. After that he kept him under constant observation until March 1574.

Tycho soon realized that the new star was beyond the moon in the realm of the fixed stars. In 1573 he published his observation as "De nova stella" and prompted other scholars to observe it. Today, the star is known as "Tychos Supernova."

The discovery of the supernova made Tycho Brahe a leading astronomer. In September 1574 he was appointed professor of astronomy at the University of Copenhagen; but it ceased the following spring when he began to receive an annual income from his father's estate.

After leaving his job, Tycho undertook a tour that visited several cities. Upon his return, King Frederick offered him control of several important states; but he refused, preferring to devote his time to the study of astronomy, finally relenting when the king offered him the island of Ven in Øresund.

In Hven, with financial help from King Frederick, Tycho built the first custom-built laboratory in Europe, dedicating the building to the muse of astronomy, Urania, and naming it Urania or Uraniborg Castle. However, he soon discovered that the tower-mounted instruments moved easily in the wind.

In search of a more suitable location, he now built Stjerneborg, or the Castle of the Stars, on the ground floor. Working in these laboratories, surrounded by scholars, Tycho continued to observe the sky, not only making new entries but also correcting errors in previous observations.

He also kept in touch with astronomers and scientists across Europe through letters, asking them about their work and discussing his own progress. Although many of these scholars visited him in Hven, he developed enmity with a few others.

Tycho's good times ended when his mentor, King Frederick of Denmark, died in 1588. Funds were running out due to his feud with the powerful nobles surrounding the new King Christian IV. However, he remained there until 1597, completing his star catalog by giving the positions of more than 777 stars.

After leaving Hven, Tycho first moved to Copenhagen, where an angry mob surrounded his house. It is believed that they were instigated by his opponents. Concerned for the safety of his family, he moved to his friend Heinrich Rantzau's castle in Wandesburg, on the outskirts of Hamburg.

He lived in Wandesburg until 1598, and then moved to Wittenberg for a short time. Also in 1598 he published Astronomiae institutae Mechanicala (Instruments for the recovery of astronomy).

In 1599 he received the patronage of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, and moved to Prague to become an imperial mathematician and astrologer. Here he was joined by Johannes Kepler as an assistant. Later, Tycho built a new observatory in Benátky nad Jizerou and started working from there.

Tycho Brahe worked at his new observatory for only one year, after which the Emperor took him back to Prague. Here he lived until his death, working on a set of astronomical tables based on thirty years of observation by him. Later they were called Rudolf tables.

Tycho's first major work was the discovery of a new star in 1572. It is now numbered SN 1572 and is also known as Tycho's Supernova or Tycho's Nova. The discovery disproved contemporary belief that the world beyond the moon remained unchanged and established him as an astronomer.

Tycho is also known for having determined the position of more than 777 stars as accurately as possible without the aid of the telescope, which has yet to be invented. To back up his observations, he invented various instruments that later paved the way for further inventions.

He also carried out a comprehensive study of the solar system. However, he believed that unlike other planets that revolved around the sun, the earth was static and the moon revolved around it.

At the end of 1571, Tycho Brahe met Kirsten Jørgensdatter, the daughter of Jørgen Hansen, the Lutheran minister in Knudstrup. Since she was a commoner, they could not marry without jeopardizing their noble privileges. But since the law allowed morganatic marriage, they lived as husband and wife until her death.

They had eight children, six of whom survived to adulthood. Their surviving children were Kristen/Kristine (1573), Magdalene (1574), Elizabeth (1579), Tycho (1581), Cecilie (1582), and George (1583).

Under Danish law, his wife and children were stripped of noble status and prohibited from inheriting his property. Although King Frederick agreed to pass the Hven estate to his heirs, his successor refused to do so. At the imperial court in Prague, however, they were treated as nobles.

On October 13, 1601, Tycho had to urinate while attending a banquet at the palace of Peter Vok Ursinus Rozmberk. But he held off the pressure by leaving the table before the host was ruled to have violated etiquette.

When he got home, his condition was such that he could not relieve himself. After suffering for eleven days, he finally died on October 24, 1601. Before dying, he asked Kepler to complete Rudolf's tables with his planetary system instead of the Copernican system.

Tycho Brahe is buried in the Tyn Church in Prague's Old Town Square. In 2010, his body was exhumed and scientists now believe he may have died from a ruptured bladder.