Kepler and the Universe by David K. Love

Author:David K. Love
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781633881075
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Published: 2015-10-20T04:00:00+00:00

CORRESPONDENCE WITH DAVID FABRICIUS

During his time in Prague, Kepler corresponded with a large number of people. One of the most important of these relationships was with David Fabricius (1564–1617), a Lutheran minister and amateur astronomer who lived in the north of Germany. Fabricius acted as Kepler's sounding board when Kepler was writing his Astronomia Nova.38 Today, his main claim to fame is for his discovery of the variable star now known as Mira. Mira (Latin for wonderful) is a red giant star in the obscure constellation of Cetus. Fabricius was the first person to notice that it varied regularly in brightness over a period of a little less than a year. It is visible to the naked eye for some four months, before it fades away and becomes invisible—except through a telescope—for about seven months. It was the first such variable star to be discovered and was another nail in the coffin of the belief that the heavens were unchanging. Fabricius himself came to an unfortunate end when he was murdered by an irate parishioner in 1617.

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