Renaissance astronomer Tycho Brahe's lab is home to a centuries-old chemical mystery

A drawing of tycho brahe with a fur coat and feathered hat, on left. on right is a diagram of the sky showing lines of latitude and longitude and various objects labeled, like the planet jupiter and the star arcturus.

A chemical mystery lurks in the laboratory of Tycho Brahe, one of the most famous astronomers of all time.

Tycho Brahe (1546-1603) was a pioneering Danish astronomy instruments enthusiast in the decades before the telescope was used for peering at the sky. Aside from that and a big supernova discovery, Brahe also experimented with alchemy, which was a common practice of the Renaissance. Brahe attempted to make alchemical medicines while other scientists tried, unsuccessfully as it turned out, to transform base elements into gold.