Kepler and the Universe

A SCIENTIST AS IMPORTANT AS COPERNICUS, GALILEO, AND NEWTON Carl Sagan described Johannes Kepler as “the first astrophysicist and the last scientific astrologer.” Indeed, Kepler was responsible for a number of “firsts”: he was the first to suggest that the planets were controlled by a physical force emanating from the Sun and to discover the laws governing their motion. In optics, he was the first to explain why corrective lenses improved vision. In this lively and informative biography of an important though sometimes overlooked astronomer of the seventeenth century, David K. Love clearly explains for the lay reader the importance of Kepler’s discoveries for our modern scientific understanding.