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Feb 10, 1543
Nicolaus Copernicus--Polish Cleric and Mathematician
Copernicus published the first geometric proof of the heliocentric theory. -
Feb 10, 1576
Tycho Brahe--Danish Noble, Mathematician, and Astronomer
Brahe spent 25 years studying the night sky, finding over 300 astronomical objects. This became the first accurate astronomy database. -
Johannes Kepler--German Mathematician and Astronomer
Kepler became Brahe's assistant at Uraniborg Observatory in 1600 -
Galileo Galilei--Italian Rennaisance man
Galileo was the first to use the telescope for astronomical observations. He observed sun spots, craters on the moon, and the for main moons of Jupiter orbiting. -
Johannes Kepler Publishes First Two Laws of Planetary Motion
Kepler's first law stated that the orbits of planets are elipses, with the sun at one focus. His second law stated that a line connecting a planet to the sun will sweep out equal time as the planet travels in its orbit. -
Kepler Publishes Third Law of Planetary Motion
Kepler's Third Law stated that the squares of the orbital period of a planet are propoortional to the cubes of the average orbital distance for any two objects oribiting the same body. -
Sir Isaac Newton--English Genius
In 1687, Isaac Newton developed the Theory of Universal Gravitation. This theory states that any two bodies in the universe attract each other with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. -
Albert Einstein--German Physicist/Scientist
Einstein developed the Theory of General Relativity. This theory explained how and why gravity works the way it does.
