Did Johannes Kepler Believe in Ancient Space Aliens?
Imagine creatures of “monstrous size” with “legs longer than a camel’s.” Some have wings; others have slow respiratory systems so they can stay below the water for extended periods of time. From their home on the Moon, they can watch the earth rise and set.
This seventeenth-century description is perhaps the earliest conception of extraterrestrial beings, and it comes from a surprising source: renowned and respected scientist Johannes Kepler, for whom telescopes, observatories, stars, and lunar craters have been named.
Kepler is best regarded for embracing the Copernican heliocentric model of the universe and defining three laws of planetary motion using the newly-invented telescope and precise mathematical calculations. Yet, his book titled Somnium: A Dream, published posthumously, seems to promote the idea of aliens from outer space.
Was Kepler serious? Did he believe in life on other planets? Or was he, like some people claim, writing the world’s first science fiction story?
Fact or Fiction?
Kepler wrote his first draft of Somnium in 1593 as part of his dissertation at Türbingen University in Germany, where he was studying lunar movements. However, his dissertation was never finished nor published; his professor rejected it because of its reliance on Copernican theory. In those pre-Enlightenment days, the heliocentric model of the universe was considered by many Christian church officials to be heresy.
Still, Kepler kept working on his story on and off throughout his life. He never attempted to publish it during his lifetime, though he did pass the manuscript around to this friends.
In 1634, four years after Kepler died, his son Ludwig published Somnium published it to raise money for the family. At that time, it was presented as a work of fiction. However, the story also includes bits of autobiography and scientific analysis.
The autobiographical aspects are evident in the story’s protagonist, a young named Duracotus, from Iceland. Duracotus is described as a student of Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe; Kepler studied with Brahe in 1600 and 1601. Duracotus’ mother is an herbalist who conjures up a daemon (spirit guide) who uses a type of magic to transport him to Levania (or the Moon). Kepler’s mother was also an herbalist, and in fact was prosecuted and imprisoned for witchcraft in 1615. Kepler used his influence as a famous astronomer to defend her, and she was spared execution.
But the book really isn’t about Duracotus’ travels, nor is it about lunar aliens. Other than a few details, Kepler says very little about the aliens’ origins, culture, traditions, or beliefs. The majority of Somnium focuses on data — lunar geography, orbits, eclipses, and other astronomical matters. Kepler uses the point of view of Duracotus to provide observations about what life might be like on the Moon and what the planets and stars would look like from the Moon’s vantage point.
The book ends suddenly when the main character wakes up from a dream and finds himself back home again.
First Science Fiction Book?
Many people, including astronomer Carl Sagan, have called Somnium the first science fiction novel. If we consider the 1634 publication date, this might be the case. It was nearly 200 years until the publication of the next book regarded as science fiction, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (full edition published in 1831).
But you might argue it’s hard to call Somnium a novel at all, considering the unstructured narrative style, the lack of character growth, and other characteristics we look for in a book of fiction. However, the concept of the novel as we know it today was just in early stages of development in the early seventeenth century. It might be expecting too much for Somnium to resemble the novels we know today.
And, of course, we don’t know Kepler’s intentions, except that he was taking a fanciful angle in writing a dissertation on the workings of the universe. The majority of the book consists of mathematical calculations and descriptions of planetary movements.
Perhaps the best way to categorize Somnium is as a thought experiment. Inspired by years of gazing at heavenly bodies from the Earth, Kepler was simply asking “what if” as thought experiments do. What if he were on the Moon instead? How would the stars and planets look then?
Poetic Inspiration
Kepler’s contributions to science are undisputed. His laws of planetary motion, though imperfect, are still studied by physics and astronomy students. Few of them know that Kepler dabbled in fiction, let alone imagined men on the moon.
Yet, Somnium has inspired a few other literary works, in particular English poet and satirist Samuel Butler’s poem “The Elephant on the Moon.” Written in the mid-1600s, the poem is a critical satire of the Royal Society, an association for scientists that is still active today. Butler refers to Kepler’s tale of lunar creatures to support his opinion that scientists rely too much on speculation.
More recently, Kepler’s fictional fantasies about extraterrestrials were mentioned in Kim Stanley Robinson’s novel, Galileo’s Dream. In the book, Kepler is portrayed as if he truly believed in outer space aliens.
Perhaps the most comprehensive treatment of Somnium is the blog, The Somnium Project, where can read an English translation of the book as well as some history and background.
Could It Be … Kepler’s Aliens are Real…?
Kepler’s idea of aliens on the Moon is clearly wrong, but there is still hope his dream could be a reality. Kepler 22 — named after Johannes Kepler — is a distant star orbited by planets, some of which are in a habitable zone. That means the conditions are favorable for sustaining life forms. One planet, Kepler 22b, has been described by NASA as an Earth-like world.
Kepler may have been more prescient than we think.
