Johannes Kepler lived during a resurgence of the black plague. His father left him when Johannes was only five. His mother was an herbalist, accused of practicing witchcraft. His first two children died in infancy. He was hired as a mathematical assistant to Tycho Brahe, whose reluctance to share data frustrated Kepler to no end.


Despite all of his personal tragedy, Kepler achieved the kind of immortality afforded only to the greatest names in the history of the study of astronomy and mechanics. His three laws of planetary motion can be applied to all satellites, natural and man-made. These laws are the cornerstone of our understanding of the mechanics of our solar system.

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