Who killed Tycho Brahe?

Next time the Moon is close to full, grab a pair of binoculars and take a closer look. The most obvious feature of all, standing out brightly amid the grey lunar plains, is a large, prominent crater surrounded by a bright series of streaks that radiate in all directions. Since the first maps of the Moon were made in the mid-17th century, this crater has been named in honour of Tycho Brahe, the Danish stargazer who brought new precision to astronomy and paved the way for the discovery of the laws of planetary motion and gravity itself.

‘Tycho is world-renowned for his contribution to the foundation of modern observational astronomy,” explains Sacha Kacki of France’s National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Bordeaux. “But beyond this fact he is also famous because he was a colourful figure who was a hearty eater, drank a lot, lost his nose in a duel and died in bizarre circumstances. The controversy around the circumstances of his death is probably one of the main reasons why he attracted so much interest.”

Thanks to recent research by Kacki and others, it seems the truth about that death can now be told – but for the scientists investigating his remains, that’s just one part of the