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Was Tycho Brahe Murdered by a Contract Killer?

Over 400 years after the death of Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, scientists in Prague are preparing to exhume his body. Was Europe’s most renowned scholar poisoned with mercury? A Danish scholar claims to have decoded the murderer’s diary. Read the article in Der Spiegel.

Tycho Brahe had measured the heavens and demonstrated that comets follow heliocentrid paths, but stuck with the geocentric system of planetary motion. The murder suspects include the Jesuit order, Brahe’s assistant and fan Johannes Kepler, King Christian IV of Denmark, Brahe himself, and his “affectionate” distant cousin, the Swedish count Erik Brahe.

Tycho was rich, arrogant, condescending, and did not lack for enemies. When he was still at school, a fellow student questioned his abilities in math, so he challenged him to a duel. In the swordfight, part of Tycho’s nose was sliced off. He had the missing part restored in gold and silver and attached to his face.

When my sister and I went to Prague (and nearly froze our noses off), we looked up Tycho Brahe’s grave at Tyn Church in Wenceslas Square. Unfortunately I can’t locate that photo, but I found this snapshot of a monument to Brahe and Kepler.

A view of Prague from the battlements of the Castle.

View from another tower.

If you’re planning to visit Prague (airfares are going down), be prepared to climb a lot of stairs.