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16. THE TYCHO BRAHE PLANETARIUM Tycho Brahe (1546 – 1601) was a famous but quarrelsome Danish-Swedish astronomer. Brahe was notable for his golden nose. He had an unfortunate experience during a duel, and had part of his nose replaced by a piece of material made up of wax, silver and gold! He died suddenly in 1601 and left a vast and very accurate collection of astronomical data on the motion of the planets. It was on the basis of this that his assistant, Johann Kepler, was able to formulate his three laws of planetary motion, leading to our present day understanding of celestial mechanics.
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