Johannes Kepler

High school (ages 12+)
Space & Astronomy

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/johannes-kepler

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. When was Johannes Kepler born?December 27, 1571
2. When did Johannes Kepler die?November 15, 1630 (age 58)
3. Where was Johannes Kepler born?Weil der Stadt, Duchy of Württemberg, Holy Roman Empire
4. Who was Johannes Kepler?Johannes Kepler was a brilliant scientist from the Holy Roman Empire who studied how planets move around the Sun.
5. What did Kepler discover about how planets move?He found that planets travel in oval, or elliptical, paths and that they move faster when they are closer to the Sun and slower when they are farther away.

Elliptical Orbits: The path planets follow around a star, shaped like a stretched circle with the star at one of two focal points.
Universal Gravitation: Newton's theory that explains the force of attraction between any two objects with mass, including celestial bodies.
Scientific Method: A systematic process of observation, measurement, experimentation, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses.