The Brilliantly Bizarre Astronomer With A Fake Nose And A Pet Moose

On December 14, 1546, at Knutstorp Castle in Scania, the great astronomer we now know as Tycho Brahe was born. His given name was Tyge Ottesen Brahe, and he belonged to a powerful Danish noble family. Brahe was expected to follow in his father’s footsteps and go into politics, law, or royal service, but that life wasn’t for him.

According to Brahe, when he was just a toddler, his uncle Jørgen took him from his family and raised him as his own. Jørgen, who was wealthy and had no children of his own, decided to raise Brahe as his heir. Despite the odd arrangement, Brahe seems to have had a good upbringing, and his uncle even financed his education.

Fast forward to Brahe’s early days at the University of Copenhagen, which he entered at just 12 years old. On August 21, 1560, he witnessed a partial solar eclipse that would change his life forever. Now, Brahe was only 13 years old, but he knew at that young age that he wanted to study astronomy, despite his family’s pressure to study law.

Brahe would study astronomy in secret, and during his studies, he noticed a major issue. In 1563, while observing a close conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, he found that its timing was significantly different than some published predictions. He was appalled at the lack of accuracy and felt that astronomy needed more precise observations.

A few years later, on December 29, 1566, Brahe entered a sword duel with Danish nobleman Manderup Parsberg. The two were studying in Rostock and had apparently been arguing over mathematics, each believing they were the more intelligent one. During the duel, a part of the bridge of Brahe’s nose was cut off. He then had to get a prosthetic piece to cover the injury.

One of the things that Brahe is most known for is his silver prosthetic nose. But when researchers examined his remains, they found that the nose was likely brass, not silver. It is worth noting that the prosthesis itself has never been found. What the researchers analyzed was the green staining it left behind on his nasal bone.

On November 11, 1572, Brahe made a discovery that was far brighter than his shiny prosthetic nose. He noticed a very bright star in the constellation Cassiopeia, so bright that it could be seen during the day. We now know that it was a supernova, which we call Tycho’s Supernova.

When Brahe measured the position of the bright star he’d spotted in Cassiopeia, he realized that it couldn’t be a nearby atmospheric phenomenon. He was seeing a star that was beyond the Moon!

Brahe wrote a book in 1573 titled De nova stella, and this really cemented his reputation across Europe. So much so that King Frederick II of Denmark offered him financial support to continue his research. He also granted him access to the island of Hven. Brahe turned the island into a researcher’s paradise.

On Hven, Brahe built Uraniborg (Castle of Urania), which was an observatory, laboratory, and research center. Another observatory called Stjerneborg (Star Castle) was built so that some instruments could be installed partly underground.

Because Brahe died before the telescope was invented, all his observations were done with the naked eye. Without a telescope, he had to get a little creative. He used quadrants, sextants, and armillary spheres.

Brahe wasn’t alone on his island. He employed assistants, students, and other workers to help him with his research. Uraniborg was a student’s dream, full of astronomical instruments and workshops. It even had a library!

We’ve now made it to another famous fact about Brahe: his pet moose. The story goes that the animal was allowed to roam free around his residence. The animal was also once taken to a gathering where it drank beer, fell down some stairs, and sadly passed away. While we don’t know how much of this story is exaggerated, it’s quite silly imagining this esteemed astronomer walking around with his pet moose.

Another inhabitant in Brahe’s residence was a man named Jeppe. Some stories claim that Brahe believed that Jeppe could see the future. Older sources claim Jeppe was a person with dwarfism who served as Brahe’s jester. Whether any of these accounts are true is unclear, but Jeppe was a real person who did in fact live with Brahe.

Brahe was known for his astronomical discoveries, but he also had an interest in astrology and alchemy. He cast astrological charts and had a laboratory where he experimented with chemical preparations.

Brahe was one smart man, but he didn’t always have the best takes. He fully rejected Nicolaus Copernicus’ heliocentric model, which proposed that the Sun was the center of the universe. Instead, he believed that Earth was at the center. However, he saw advantages to the heliocentric system, so he came up with a compromise called the Tychonic system. The Sun and Moon orbited Earth, and other planets orbited the Sun.

In 1577, Brahe made another fascinating discovery. A comet appeared in the sky, and Brahe was able to conclude that it was farther away than the Moon. This challenged Aristotelian cosmology, which followed the belief that comets weren’t celestial bodies.

When King Frederick II died in 1588, Brahe’s royal support took a hit. The new king, Christian IV, wasn’t as supportive of Brahe’s research. In 1597, Brahe left Hven, and two years later settled near Prague, where he became Imperial Court Astronomer to Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II.

In 1600, Brahe began a working relationship with the famous German mathematician Johannes Kepler. The two didn’t always see eye to eye, as they had different working techniques. They worked together for about a year and a half, until Brahe passed away in 1601. When he died, Kepler gained access to his data and discovered that planets travel in elliptical orbits.

In October 1601, Brahe attended a banquet and became very ill. He ended up passing away on October 24 at the age of 54. Some accounts claim that he developed a urinary problem after refusing to go to the bathroom all night. I guess the party was too good. Centuries later, mercury levels found in his remains inspired the belief that he had been poisoned, though this theory was quickly debunked. We may never know his exact cause of death.

This content was created with the help of AI.