Tycho Brahe's Biography

Image: Tycho Brahe Image Credit: Encarta Encyclopedia

Tycho Brahe(1546-1601) was a Danish astronomer who became famous by creating precise astronomical measurements of the solar system and more than 700 stars. Before becoming an astronomer, he went to the universities of Copenhagen and Leipzig where he studied philosophy and law. Yet during his free time was when he studied the stars. One of his greater discoveries was in 1572 when he found a supernova near the Cassiopeia constellation. Right after this, the king of Denmark and Norway, Frederick II, offered funds to Brahe to build a observatory on an island called Hven (now Ven). So Brahe accepted this, and in 1576 built the observatory which is now known as the castel of Uranienborg ("fortress of heavens").