He lived from December 27, 1571, to November 15, 1630. He is most known for his principles of planetary motion and his publications Astronomia nova, Harmonice Mundi, and Epitome Astronomiae Copernicanae, which he wrote during the 17th century Scientific Revolution. These studies also laid the groundwork for Newton's universal gravitational theory.



Kepler worked as a mathematics instructor at a seminary school in Graz, where he met Prince Hans Ulrich von Eggenberg and became friends with him. Later, he worked as an assistant to Tycho Brahe, an astronomer in Prague, and then as the imperial mathematician to Emperor Rudolf II and his two successors Matthias and Ferdinand II. He also served as an adviser to General Wallenstein and taught mathematics in Linz. In addition, he made important contributions to optics, constructed an improved version of the refracting (or Keplerian) telescope, and was referenced in Galileo Galilei's telescopic discoveries. He was a Rome's Accademia dei Lincei corresponding member.



There was no apparent divide between astronomy and astrology when Kepler lived, but there was a clear distinction between astronomy and physics. Kepler also included theological arguments and reasoning in his work, prompted by his religious conviction and belief that God created the world according to a comprehensible plan that can be understood using natural light. Kepler coined the terms "celestial physics," "an excursion into Aristotle's Metaphysics," and "a supplement to Aristotle's On the Heavens" to describe his new astronomy, which transformed the classical tradition of physical cosmology by presenting astronomy as part of a universal mathematical physics.