14th December: Tycho Brahe

Tycho Brahe is a Danish nobleman known for his accurate and comprehensive astronomical and planetary observations. Tycho was the last major astronomer to work without the aid of a Telescope. He was born on this date in 1546.

1. He came from a noble family. At the age of two, his uncle kidnapped him (in Tycho's own words, "without the knowledge of my parents took me away with him while I was in my earliest youth to become a scholar". Surprisingly, his parents just accepted this and made no effort to get him back. This may have been because Tycho's parents had promised to hand over one of their sons to the uncle because he was childless, but had never done so, and the uncle was merely collecting what he believed to be rightfully his.
2. Tycho's first published work wasn't anything to do with astronomy. It was an ode to his Twin brother, who had died as an infant.
3. In 1572, Tycho observed a very bright star, now named SN 1572, which had unexpectedly appeared in the constellation Cassiopeia. The following year, he published a book about it and coined the term "nova" for a new star, from which modern astronomers get the term "supernova".
4. Tycho's discovery was the inspiration for Edgar Allen Poe's poem "Al Aaraaf".
5. He wore a false nose after losing his own nose in a duel with his third cousin in 1566. The argument was not over a woman, but about the legitimacy of a mathematical formula! Since neither had the resources to prove the other wrong, they ended up resolving the issue with a duel. For the rest of his life, he was said to wear a prosthetic nose made of Silver and Gold, using paste or glue to keep it attached. Historians argued over what Tycho's false nose was made of. Was it gold, or Copper, or brass? They didn't duel over it - instead, they dug up Tycho's body. They found green marks on his skull and concluded it was copper, although they deemed it possible that he usually wore a copper one but had a gold one for special occasions. In 2010, his body was dug up again for modern scientists to answer the question themselves, and they concluded it was brass.
6. He never married but lived with a common law wife, Kirsten Hansen, for long enough that it was considered binding. He was a nobleman, she was a commoner. Their children were considered legitimate but as commoners, could not inherit land or titles.
7. Tycho is also said to have kept an elk as a pet, and it would apparently accompany him on social visits. According to Tycho's letters, the animal died after drinking too much Beer at a party and falling downstairs.
8. After visiting other countries in Europe, Tycho decided he was going to move to Basel, but King Frederick II of Denmark didn't want to lose the distinguished scientist, so he offered Tycho the island of Hven in Oresund and funding to set up an observatory. Tycho accepted the offer and built the observatory, Uraniborg, which had an alchemical laboratory in the cellar. Tycho took in students and behaved like the lord of the island. While there, he founded a Paper mill to provide material for printing his results.
9. He died of a bladder or kidney infection after refusing to leave a banquet to go to the Toilet, which would have been considered a breach of etiquette. There was speculation that he may have been poisoned. The two main suspects were his assistant, Johannes Kepler, who stood to gain access to Brahe's laboratory and chemicals, and his cousin, Erik Brahe, at the order of the new king, Christian IV who'd heard rumours that Tycho had had an affair with Christian's mother. Tycho's beard hair was examined by scientists who concluded that there was not enough mercury present to have killed him, so they ruled out murder and said that he "most likely died of a burst bladder".
10. The lunar crater Tycho is named after him, as is the crater Tycho Brahe on Mars and the minor planet 1677 Tycho Brahe in the Asteroid belt. The supernova, SN 1572, is known as Tycho's Nova and the Tycho Brahe Planetarium in Copenhagen is also named after him. HEAT1X-TYCHO BRAHE is the name of a manned private spacecraft to be launched by Copenhagen Suborbitals. Other things named after him include a bar in Zagreb and a ferry operating between Sweden and Denmark.