Kepler, Johannes

[person]

German mathematician and astronomer born in Weil der Stadt, Württemburg (now part of Stuttgart, Germany) (1571-1630). Kepler is best known for outlining his laws of planetary motion, which defined the paths of the planets as orbits that could be mathematically represented as an ellipse. He was a champion of the Copernican model of the universe, publishing the Mysterium Cosmographicum in defense of it.