Doodle commemorates birthday of mathematician and astronomer who realised that the planets orbit the sun elliptically
Google have celebrated the birthday of the astronomer, astrologer and mathematician Johannes Kepler with a Google doodle.
The doodle features a planet orbiting the sun. Kepler's major contribution to science was the discovery that the earth and other planets travel around the sun in an elliptical orbit.
Kepler was born in the German city of Weil der Stadt in what is now Baden-Württemberg in 1571, to a mercenary father and a mother who was a healer and herbalist and was at one point tried for withchcraft.
He had an early fascination with astronomy, observing the Great Comet of 1577 and the lunar eclipse of 1580. After seminary, he studied philosophy at the University of Tübingen. He was a great mathematician and a skilled astrologer, providing fellow students with regular horoscopes.
His research into astronomy was also inspired by religious fervour: he believed that he was close to discovering God's geometrical plan for the universe.
In 1604, while studying the orbit of Mars, he realised that an elliptical orbit fit this data. He concluded that all planets move in ellipses, which is Kepler's first law of planetary motion. His findings were printed in Astronomia Nova, which was published in 1609.
Google is celebrating Kepler's birthday with a special animated doodle.
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