Editing Tycho Brahe (section)

===Illness, death, and investigations===
Tycho suddenly contracted a bladder or kidney ailment after attending a banquet in Prague. He died eleven days later, on 24 October 1601, at the age of 54. According to Kepler's first-hand account, Tycho had refused to leave the banquet to relieve himself because it would have been a breach of etiquette.{{sfn|Thoren|Christianson|1990|pp=468–469}} After he returned home, he was no longer able to urinate, except eventually in very small quantities and with excruciating pain. The night before he died, he suffered from a [[delirium]] during which he was frequently heard to exclaim that he hoped he would not seem to have lived in vain.{{sfn|Dreyer|1890|p=309}} 

Before dying, he urged Kepler to finish the ''Rudolphine Tables'' and expressed the hope that he would do so by adopting Tycho's own planetary system, rather than that of the [[polymath]] [[Nicolaus Copernicus]]. It was reported that Tycho had written his own epitaph, "He lived like a sage and died like a fool."<ref>{{cite web |title=Brahe, Tycho (1546–1601) |url=http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Brahe.html |website=Eric Weisstein's World of Scientific Biography |publisher=Eric W. Weisstein |access-date=13 August 2012}}</ref> A contemporary physician attributed his death to a [[kidney stone]], but no kidney stones were found during an [[autopsy]] performed after his body was exhumed in 1901. Modern medical assessment is that his death was more likely caused by either a burst bladder,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna49858043|title=Astronomer Tycho Brahe died of burst bladder, not poisoning|date=16 November 2012|website=NBC News|accessdate=4 August 2023}}</ref> [[prostatic hypertrophy]], acute [[prostatitis]], or [[prostate cancer]], which led to [[urinary retention]], [[overflow incontinence]], and [[uremia]].{{sfn|Gotfredsen|1955}}{{sfn|Wyner|2015}}

Investigations in the 1990s suggested that Tycho may not have died from urinary problems, but instead from [[mercury poisoning]].<ref>Kaempe, Thykier, Pedersen. "The cause of death of Tycho Brahe in 1601". ''Proceedings of the 31st TIAFT Congress, Leipzig 1993, Contributions to Forensic Toxicology''. Molina Press, Leipzig 1994, pp.{{nbsp}}309–315</ref> It was speculated that he had been intentionally poisoned. The two main suspects were his assistant, [[Johannes Kepler]], whose motives would be to gain access to Tycho's laboratory and chemicals,{{sfn|Gilder|Gilder|2005}} and his cousin, Erik Brahe, at the order of friend-turned-enemy [[Christian IV]], because of rumors that Tycho had had an affair with Christian's mother.

In February 2010, the Prague city authorities approved a request by Danish scientists to exhume the remains, and in November 2010 a group of Czech and Danish scientists from [[Aarhus University]] collected bone, hair and clothing samples for analysis.<ref>{{cite news| url = http://www.cphpost.dk/culture/culture/122-culture/48128-tycho-brahe-to-be-exhumed.html| title = Tycho Brahe to be exhumed| date = 4 February 2010| newspaper = [[The Copenhagen Post]]| access-date = 27 May 2010| archive-date = 11 August 2011| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110811035807/http://www.cphpost.dk/culture/culture/122-culture/48128-tycho-brahe-to-be-exhumed.html| url-status = dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url =http://humaniora.au.dk/en/events/tychobrahetomb/| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20101023035446/http://humaniora.au.dk/en/events/tychobrahetomb/| url-status =dead| archive-date =23 October 2010| title =The opening of Tycho Brahe's tomb| date =21 October 2010| publisher =[[Aarhus University]]| access-date =27 October 2010}}</ref> The scientists, led by Jens Vellev, analyzed Tycho's beard hair once again. The team reported in November 2012 that there was not enough mercury present to substantiate murder, and there were no lethal levels of any poisons present. The team's conclusion was that "it is impossible that Tycho Brahe could have been murdered".<ref name="BBC2012">{{cite news |title=Astronomer Tycho Brahe 'not poisoned', says expert |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20344201 |access-date=15 November 2012 |work=[[BBC News]] |date=15 November 2012}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://newsfeed.time.com/2012/11/17/was-tycho-brahe-poisoned-according-to-new-evidence-probably-not/ |title=Was Tycho Brahe Poisoned? According to New Evidence, Probably Not|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=17 November 2012|access-date=17 November 2012}}</ref> 

The findings were confirmed by scientists from the University of Rostock, who examined a sample of Tycho's beard hairs that had been taken in 1901. Although traces of mercury were found, these were present only in the outer scales. Therefore, mercury poisoning as the cause of death was ruled out. The study suggests that the accumulation of mercury may have come from the "precipitation of mercury dust from the air during [Tycho's] long-term alchemistic activities".<ref>{{cite journal |title=Detection of mercury in the 411-year-old beard hairs of the astronomer Tycho Brahe by elemental analysis in electron microscopy |last1=Jonas |first1=Ludwig |last2=Jaksch |first2=Heiner |last3=Zellmann |first3=Erhard |last4=Klemm |first4=Kerstin I. |last5=Andersen |first5=Peter Hvilshøj |journal=[[Ultrastructural Pathology]] |date=2012 |volume=36 |issue=5 |pages=312–319 |pmid=23025649 |doi=10.3109/01913123.2012.685686|s2cid=21440099 }}</ref> 

Tycho is buried in the [[Church of Our Lady before Týn]], in [[Old Town Square (Prague)|Old Town Square]] near the [[Prague Astronomical Clock]].