The Cosmic Mystery of Johannes Kepler

The first of a three part life of Johannes Kepler, successor to Tycho Brahe as court astrologer to the Holy Roman Emperor. The proud and violent Tycho and the humble yet shrewd Kepler were master and servant, allies and rivals in the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century. Together they would determine the true order of the solar system and lay the foundations of astrophysics. Both a mystic and a scientist, Kepler was a canny survivor, who carried on his work amid the splendors and intrigues of renaissance Prague, beset by witchcraft trials, public burnings, and the devastation of the Thirty Years War.