His extraordinarily accurate planetary observations laid the foundations for modern astronomy but mystery has always surrounded Tycho Brahe's sudden death.
Now a team of scientists has launched its own investigation into the mysterious demise of the famous 16th century Danish astronomer.
Brahe, who was born in 1546, was on Monday removed from his resting place at the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn near Prague's Old Town Square. He has lain there since 1601 apart from an earlier exhumation in 1901 that retrieved samples of his moustache and hair.
Brahe was in Prague at the invitation of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II after he had quit his scientific observatory on the island of Hven over disagreements with the Danish king.
It had been long thought he died of a bladder infection. One tale said that was a result of his hesitation to break court etiquette during a reception by leaving for a toilet. By the time he arrived home he was in agony and died shortly afterwards.
But tests conducted in 1996 in Sweden, and later in Denmark on the samples obtained during the 1901 exhumation, indicated unusually high levels of mercury, leading to a theory of mercury poisoning, even possible murder.
Professor Jens Vellev, a medieval archaeologist at Aarhus University in Denmark, is leading the team of scientists from Denmark and the Czech Republic. He said he decided nine years ago to seek permission from church and Prague authorities to open the tomb again because there had
been no proper archaeological report of the 1901 exhumation and he hoped to gather better samples.
"As a man of science, he's important for the whole world," Prof Vellev said, adding that the modern tests to which Brahe's remains would be subjected included a CT-scan, an X-ray technique known as PIXE analysis, and a neutron activation analysis conducted at the Nuclear Research Institute AS in Rez, near Prague.
Read more at The Telegraph
Brahe was in Prague at the invitation of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II after he had quit his scientific observatory on the island of Hven over disagreements with the Danish king.
It had been long thought he died of a bladder infection. One tale said that was a result of his hesitation to break court etiquette during a reception by leaving for a toilet. By the time he arrived home he was in agony and died shortly afterwards.
But tests conducted in 1996 in Sweden, and later in Denmark on the samples obtained during the 1901 exhumation, indicated unusually high levels of mercury, leading to a theory of mercury poisoning, even possible murder.
Professor Jens Vellev, a medieval archaeologist at Aarhus University in Denmark, is leading the team of scientists from Denmark and the Czech Republic. He said he decided nine years ago to seek permission from church and Prague authorities to open the tomb again because there had
been no proper archaeological report of the 1901 exhumation and he hoped to gather better samples.
"As a man of science, he's important for the whole world," Prof Vellev said, adding that the modern tests to which Brahe's remains would be subjected included a CT-scan, an X-ray technique known as PIXE analysis, and a neutron activation analysis conducted at the Nuclear Research Institute AS in Rez, near Prague.
Read more at The Telegraph
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