A bit more about Tycho Brahe (1546-1601)

Tycho was also known as "the man with the golden nose" because, having lost the tip of his nose in a duel, he crafted a replacement made of gold-plated brass. A portrait showing Tycho's distinguishing feature

In the Scientific American of February 1999, in its humorous section "Anti Gravity" (page 29) Steve Mirsky joked about that story: "...and the noseless man in question is the great Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. So how did he smell? Probably pretty bad: daily showers were still a few centuries off, and there was indeed something rotten in Denmark."

Remarkably, Tycho's supernova is still visible--in X-rays. A picture and the story--here.