Final answer:
Johannes Kepler discovered three laws of planetary motion by building on the work of Nicolaus Copernicus, explaining how planets move in the heliocentric model of the universe.
Step-by-step explanation:
Johannes Kepler built on the work of Nicolaus Copernicus to discover three laws of planetary motion and explain the movement of planets in the heliocentric model of the universe. Kepler's laws, discovered through his analysis of the motions of the planets, described the behavior of planets based on their paths through space. This was a significant contribution to the field of astronomy and laid the foundation for future discoveries, including Isaac Newton's law of universal gravitation.