Nineteen-year-old Dane Tycho Brahe had decided, upon the death of his guardian uncle in 1565, to travel throughout Europe, and has embarked on the study of science at several universities.

He returns in 1572 to Denmark and installs a chemical laboratory in the castle of a relative at Heridsvad Abbey, where he observes a "new star" (a supernova) in the constellation of Cassiopeia.

Brahe's detailed observations of the appearance of the supernova call into question the notion of immutability of the heavens.

In his first work, De Nova Stella, published in 1573, Brahe establishes that the nova he observed in Cassiopeia is a star beyond the Moon's orbit.