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a bit more about Kepler - for the contest!
[[Image:Gfdse5y465.jpg|right|thumb|Johannes Kepler]]
[[Image:Gfdse5y465.jpg|right|thumb|Johannes Kepler]]
'''Johannes Kepler''' (1571-1630), a [[Protestant]] in [[Germany]], built on [[Copernicus]]'s work and discovered that planets orbited the sun in elliptical rather than perfectly circular orbits. Kepler was a brilliant mathematician, astronomer and devout [[Christian]] who cited God many times in all of his writings. He felt it was his Christian duty to understand the creation of God, the universe. He also felt that man, being in the image of God, was fully capable of understanding the universe. Like [[Plato]] and [[Pythagoras]], Kepler felt that God must have created the universe according to a mathematical plan.
'''Johannes Kepler''' (1571-1630), a [[Protestant]] in [[Germany]], was a brilliant mathematician, astronomer and devout [[Christian]] who cited God many times in all of his writings. He felt it was his Christian duty to understand the creation of God, the universe. He also felt that man, being in the image of God, was fully capable of understanding the universe. Like [[Plato]] and [[Pythagoras]], Kepler felt that God must have created the universe according to a mathematical plan.
Originally an assistant to [[Tycho Brahe]], Kepler was a contemporary of [[Galileo]]. All of Tycho's observations were made with the naked eye, but after Galileo pioneered the use of the newly invented [[telescope]] to scan the heavens, Kepler was able to make observations to an accuracy of less than one tenth of a degree.
Kepler built on [[Copernicus]]'s work and discovered that planets orbited the sun in elliptical rather than perfectly circular orbits. This discovery accounted for the apparent [[retrograde motion]] of the planet [[Mars]].
Kepler overcame an enormous obstacle to become a great scientist, as he suffered from an attack of [[smallpox]] when he was only four years old. The disease left him with poor eyesight and crippled hands for the rest of his life. However, Kepler went on to propose three laws of planetary motion, known as Kepler's Laws, which later helped Newton formulate the theory of [[gravity]]. One of these laws described how the planets have elliptical orbits with the sun at one focus of each [[ellipse]].
Kepler overcame an enormous obstacle to become a great scientist, as he suffered from an attack of [[smallpox]] when he was only four years old. The disease left him with poor eyesight and crippled hands for the rest of his life. However, Kepler went on to propose three laws of planetary motion, known as Kepler's Laws, which later helped Newton formulate the theory of [[gravity]]. One of these laws described how the planets have elliptical orbits with the sun at one focus of each [[ellipse]].