The laws of planetary motion were articulated by _________________, who was the assistant to _________________.
Explanation
Answer: B - Johannes Kepler, an assistant to Tycho Brahe, built on Brahe’s work to explain the laws of planetary motion, which explain how the planets orbit the Sun. Brahe was a Danish astronomer whose celestial observations were the most accurate of the age, despite the fact that he was still using the naked eye, rather than telescopes, to make his observations. Among other things, Brahe established that comets were not atmospherical, but independent celestial bodies separate from Earth entirely. In addition to the explanation of planetary motion, Kepler was also responsible for getting the field of astronomy reclassified, in a sense, as a hard science, a branch of mathematical physics rather than the twin of astrology.
