Kepler
Kepler showed that the orbits of the planets are elliptical, with the Sun at one of the focal points. This discovery led to his laws of planetary motion, which describe how planets move in their orbits.
Kepler used Tycho Brahe's precise observational data to formulate his three laws of planetary motion. These laws described the shape and speed of planetary orbits as ellipses and showed that planets move at varying speeds along their orbit. Kepler's calculations were based on observation and meticulous mathematical analysis, laying the foundation for modern celestial mechanics.
Because that's the way gravity works. If you take Newton's formula for the forceof gravity, and you have enough geometry and calculus, you can massage theformula around and derive Kepler's three laws of planetary motion. His first lawsays that planets move in ellipses with the sun at one focus. Kepler got that fromTycho's notebooks, where he wrote down the results of years and years of watchingand measuring the positions of the planets. Kepler showed that the ellipse was thebest fit to what Tycho actually saw happening in the sky. Then 100 years later, Newtoncame along and showed, with one simple formula to describe gravity, why orbits mustbe ellipses.
Johannes Kepler, working with the detailed observational data compiled by Tycho Brahe, showed that the ratio of (orbital period)2 to (mean distance from the sun)3 is a constant for the earth and the five other visible planets. A generation after Kepler, Sir Isaac Newton showed that his law of universal gravitation could predict the shape and periods of the planetary orbits.
Johannes Kepler gathered the data that showed the planets travel in elliptical paths around the sun. He formulated his laws of planetary motion based on observations made by Tycho Brahe.
Kepler showed that planetary orbits were actually ellipses, not circles as proposed by Copernicus.
Kepler showed that the orbits of the planets are elliptical, with the Sun at one of the focal points. This discovery led to his laws of planetary motion, which describe how planets move in their orbits.
Kepler used Tycho Brahe's precise observational data to formulate his three laws of planetary motion. These laws described the shape and speed of planetary orbits as ellipses and showed that planets move at varying speeds along their orbit. Kepler's calculations were based on observation and meticulous mathematical analysis, laying the foundation for modern celestial mechanics.
Everyone from the ancient Greeks on knew that the planets move in oval-type orbits, which were simulated by systems of circles. Later, after years of hard work, Johannes Kepler published the laws of planetary motion in 1618 which showed that the orbits are more accurately represented by ellipses, and each planet has its own ellipse with the Sun at one focus. Ellipses make very good approximations to the actual orbits of planets, but the gravitational effects of the other planets, especially Jupiter, mean that the planets depart slightly from true elliptical orbits. That is taken care of by regular updates to the orbital elements of the planets, which are numbers which describe the sizes and shapes, orientation and inclination of all the planets' elliptical orbits.
Johannes Kepler showed that IF the planetary orbits are elliptical,THEN that would explain the measurements that Tycho Brahe collectedduring his whole life.Isaac Newton showed that IF gravity works the way he thought it does,THEN the planetary orbits would have to be elliptical.Both of these are only theories. They have never been proven.
Johannes Kepler, using measured planetary positional data provided by Tycho Brahe, showed that the orbits of the planets were ellipses ("flattened circles"), with the Sun at one focus of the eliipse.
Either the heliocentric or the geocentric model would allow predictions of thefuture motions of the planets. It was not the inability to predict that sackedthe geocentric model. It was the simplicity of the heliocentric model. Kepler'shypothetical ellipses helped a lot, and Newton's gravitation sealed the deal,when he showed that heliocentric, elliptical planetary orbits, just as Keplerdescribed them, had to spring forth from gravitation.
you showed it
He showed that the planets traveled in elliptical orbits
The general laws about the planets' orbits were known before Newton - mainly, through the three Laws of Planetary Motion, by Kepler. Newton showed that the movement - as explained in Kepler's Laws - was a result of the laws of motion (especially Newton's Second Law), and of the force of gravitation.
Kepler
Isaac Newton