Small format, serious subject matter. This portrait magnet brings one of history's most consequential astronomical minds into your everyday spaces - a daily reminder that the people who shaped civilization are worth remembering.
This Kepler magnet features a bold, graphic portrait, part of the Architects of Reason collection. A distinctive gift for science lovers, astronomy enthusiasts, and educators. Available in three sizes.
ABOUT JOHANNES KEPLER (1571–1630)
Kepler came to astronomy through mysticism and stayed through mathematics. He initially believed the planets moved in circular orbits because circles were perfect - a belief inherited from the Greeks and held by virtually everyone who had thought about the problem. Then he looked at Tycho Brahe's data, which was the most precise observational record of planetary motion ever compiled, and realized the circles didn't fit.
It took him eight years of calculation to work out what did. The answer was ellipses - not circles but ellipses, with the Sun at one focus - and the discovery demolished two thousand years of astronomical assumption in a single stroke. His three laws of planetary motion, published between 1609 and 1619, described not just the shape of orbits but the relationship between a planet's distance from the Sun and the time it takes to complete one orbit. They were the most precise description of celestial motion ever produced.
Newton read Kepler carefully. His law of universal gravitation was, in part, an explanation of why Kepler's laws worked - a synthesis that would not have been possible without the observational foundation Kepler had built.
He worked through war, plague, the trial of his mother for witchcraft, and chronic poverty. He died in 1630 having fundamentally changed how humanity understands its place in the solar system. The universe he described - mathematical, orderly, and vast - is the one we still inhabit.
PRODUCT FEATURES
- Available in three sizes: 3×3, 4×4, and 5×5 inches
- Matte finish for a sophisticated, glare-free surface
- Laminated surface for durability and color vibrancy
- White vinyl with strong magnetic backing
- Indoor use recommended