Astronomers Throughout History

  • Period: 100 to 170

    Ptolemy

    Ptolemy was a Roman astronomer and mathematician who studied the sky with the naked eye, he also supported the Geocentric model
  • Ptolemy and his orbital observations
    150

    Ptolemy and his orbital observations

    Ptolemy is well known for his maps and calculations for planetary orbit. His system is known as the Ptolemaic system which states that each planet revolves along a circular path. He is also widely known for his stunning maps of Earths longitude and latitude lines.
  • Period: 1508 to 1514

    Nicolaus Copernicus

    Copernicus's book De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium is published after he passes away.
  • Nicolaus Copernicus
    1543

    Nicolaus Copernicus

    Copernicus's book De Revolutionibus Orbium Celestium or On the revolution of heavenly spheres is published
  • Period: 1546 to

    Tcyho Brahe

    Tycho Brahe was a Danish astronomer who spent his entire life studying the night sky. He is known for making very accurate observations of the start and planets in our solar system.
  • Tcyho Brahe advocates for Geo-Heliocentric model
    1570

    Tcyho Brahe advocates for Geo-Heliocentric model

    Tycho Brahe advocated for a Geo-heliocentric model that is now know as the Tychonic system. This model proposed that the Earth and all the other planets orbited around the sun, as opposed to the Heliocentric model which states that all the planets orbit around the sun, with the sun orbiting the Earth.
  • Johannes Kepler

    Johannes Kepler

    Kepler was a German Astrologer who is now known for his discoveries and breakthroughs regarding planetary motion.
    Kepler's biggest achievement was the discovery the the planet Mars orbited in an ellipse. His first law says that all planets orbit in an ellipse.
  • Galileo

    Galileo

    Galileo invents his own telescope. With it he discovered the moons surrounding Jupiter.
  • Period: to

    Giovanni Cassini

    Giovanni Domenico Cassini was an Italian astronomer, Mathematician and engineer. He made many discoveries like the Cassini division and several Saturnian satellites
  • Galileo

    Galileo

    Galileo publishes his book Dialogue Concerning The Two Chief World System.
  • Period: to

    Issac Newton

    Issac Newton was an English mathematician, and astronomer who is know for his famous laws of gravity that have been used by scientists since they were created
  • Issac Newton

    Issac Newton

    Newton is credited with inventing the first reflecting telescope, which was the strongest of his day. He used mirrors in his telescope to reflect images toward the eyepiece making the focus better
  • Giovanni Cassini

    Giovanni Cassini

    Cassini discovered many of Saturn's moons between 1671 and 1684.
  • Giovanni Cassini

    Giovanni Cassini

    Cassini also discovered a gap in the rings of Saturn, this gap is know called the Cassini gap or division.
  • Period: to

    Annie Jump Cannon

    Cannon was an American Astronomer. Her work was critical in the development of stellar classification
  • Period: to

    Henrietta Swan Leavitt

    Leavitt was an American Astronomer who who an important asset to the Harvard College observatory for her unique ability to calculate and catalog positions of stars. She now has an asteroid and a crater on the moon named after her.
  • Period: to

    Albert Einstein

    Einstein was a German born theoretical physicist. While he was not an astronomer, many of his theory's and discovered impact space as we know it
  • Period: to

    Edwin Hubble

    Hubble was an American astronomer who played a huge role in observational cosmology. Hubble was one of the first people to theorize of galaxies outside of our own. He is also credited for discovering/naming nebulas, which were thought to just be gases.
  • Albert Einstein and his theory of relativity

    Albert Einstein and his theory of relativity

    While Einstein wasn't an astronomer, his theory of relativity affected space as well. His theory proposes that the faster you travel though space, the slower you travel through time
  • Henrietta Leavitt

    Henrietta Leavitt

    Leavitt discovered the correlation between period and luminosity.( The correlation between how long an object takes to orbit or complete a cycle or revolution and the energy that a star radiates per second.) She puplished her findings in 1908
  • Annie Cannon

    Annie Cannon

    Cannon is known for her incredible ability to quickly classify stars. Between 1911-1915 Cannon classified 5,000 stars per month. Her classifications were based on size, and heat!
  • Edwin Hubble and an expanding universe

    Edwin Hubble and an expanding universe

    Hubble announced his theory that the universe was expanding contrary to the belief that it was not