What is now seen as “Kepler’s third law” was first conceived by Johannes Kepler on March 8, 1618. A.S.Ganesh takes a look at the man and the laws that he formulated over 400 years ago, which forever changed our perception of planets and their motion...

When we are talking about astronomy, it is hard to not mention Johannes Kepler. A German astronomer and mathematician, Kepler was one of the central figures in the scientific revolution of the 17th Century. For the thought that our solar system had planets travelling in circles around the Earth was forever debunked by Kepler and his laws of planetary motion.

Born into an economically weak family in Germany in December 1571, Kepler’s intelligence was apparent from an early age and he won a scholarship to the University of Tubingen. Studying to become a Lutheran minister, it was here that Kepler was introduced to the ideas of heliocentrism by Polish polymath Nicolaus Copernicus.