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Kepler's Second Law
Kepler discovered that a planet will cover an equal area in equal time anywhere within its orbit. Meaning that for the area covered in a known time of the planets orbit, anywhere else in that orbit the same amount of time will cover the same area. He also proved the planets move slower away from the sun and faster closer to the sun.
<References>
"Johannes Kepler." Famous Scientists. famousscientists.org. 12 Mar. 2015. Web. 2/22/2020
<www.famousscientists.org/johannes-kepler/>. -
Kepler's First Law
This was actually discovered after his second law! Regardless, the first law states that the planets travel in elliptical orbits with the sun at one focus.
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"Johannes Kepler." Famous Scientists. famousscientists.org. 12 Mar. 2015. Web. 2/22/2020 <www.famousscientists.org/johannes-kepler/>. YouTube video from Socratica -
Kepler Describes the Tides
Among many of the firsts that are credited to Kepler, he correctly suggested that the gravity of the moon was responsible for the earth's tides. Something Galileo Galilei had criticized him for.
<References>
Gould, Alan. “Johannes Kepler: His Life, His Laws and Times.” NASA, NASA, 24 Sept. 2016, www.nasa.gov/kepler/education/johannes. -
Kepler published Astronomia Nova
After publishing his first two laws in Astronomia Nova, he had solidified the heliocentric model of the universe with sound mathematical formulations.
<References>
Kepler, Johannes. "New Astronomy", translated by William H. Donahue, Cambridge Univ. Pr., 1992, Cambridge. -
Kepler's Third Law
States that a planets orbital period is related to its distance from the sun. Such that the square of the orbital period is equal to the cube of its distance from the sun.
<References>
Kepler, Johannes. "The Harmony of the world", translated by E. J. Aiton, Alistair Duncan, and Judith Field, American Philosophical Society, 1997.
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Gould, Alan. “Johannes Kepler: His Life, His Laws and Times.” NASA, NASA, 24 Sept. 2016, www.nasa.gov/kepler/education/johannes.