Tycho Brahe and Galileo’s observations empirically discredited the organic cosmos

Evidence

The failing plausibility of the organic model of the macrocosm, and thus the need for a new metaphor, was perceived by Johannes Kepler (1571–1630), who wrote to a friend in 1605, “My aim is to show that the celestial machine is to be likened not to a divine organism but to a clockwork.” The sightings of the new star of 1572 and the comet of 1577 by Tycho Brahe had provided evidence of the corruptibility of the unchanging heavens above the moon. The telescopic observations of Galileo Galilei in 1609–10 of craters on the moon, spots on the sun, moons around Jupiter, the phases of Venus, and the multitudes of stars in the Milky Way had further strengthened the belief that the frame of nature was blemished. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 542

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Galileo’s observations challenged the Earth-centered universe model. — Hawking, Stephen, A Brief History of Time, 18

Broader Connections

• Galileo’s observations challenged the Earth-centered universe model. #expands (0.85) — Hawking, Stephen, A Brief History of Time, 18