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Telescope (-410)
A telescope is an optical device used to observe far-off objects by gathering electromagnetic radiation (such as visible light). At the start of the 1600s, the Netherlands developed the first practical telescopes known to man using glass lenses. Both terrestrial and astronomical applications made use of them. -
Kepler's Laws (-401)
German scientist Johannes Kepler revealed in 1609 that, according to popular belief, planets do not orbit the sun in perfect circles but rather follow elliptical paths. -
The Idea of Universe Expanding (-81)
Edwin Hubble was a huge advancement to the astronomy world, not only did he discover other galaxies, he also came up with the idea of the universe expanding. He did this by observing that other galaxies are moving further away from us, thus coming to the conclusion of the expanding universe. -
Extra Solar Planets (-15)
Astronomers have long speculated in the existence of extrasolar planets—those that are outside of our solar system—but it wasn't until 1995 that the Swiss astronomers Didier Queloz and Michel Mayor made the first direct observation of an extrasolar planet, which they named 51 Pegasi b. -
Discovery of Dark Matter (-13)
Dark matter is not dark energy, dark energy and dark matter are extremely similar, dark energy only takes up about 23% of space. To put into perspective, stars are only 0.4% of space. Dark matter was proposed to explain the gravitational effects within galaxies. -
Bella's Birth (0)
I was actually born a week later than my expected birth date! -
International Space Stations (1)
The International Space Station, otherwise known as ISS is a large spacecraft. It is a huge collaborative science lab between many countries and flies about 250 miles above Earth. Its construction was complete in 2011. -
Voyager 1 Exploring Interstellar Space (2)
The Voyager 1 spacecraft, which was first launched in 1977, finally left the solar system in 2012 and reached interstellar space. The spacecraft returned beautiful images of our solar system over its decades-long mission, including the well-known "Pale Blue Dot" picture it snapped in 1990. -
Gravitational Waves?! (6)
2016 was a historic year for physics. For the first time, scientists have observed evidence of gravitational waves, the folds of space-time that occur when objects collide. In 2016, scientists discovered two sets of his gravitational waves. Both were caused millions of years ago by colliding black holes and reverberated throughout the universe. -
Total Solar Eclipse (7)
A total solar eclipse occurred in 2017 and was observable in the United States and a few other countries. -
First Black Hole Picture (9)
The first direct image of a black hole was captured in 2019 using observations from the Event Horizon Telescope consortium. The galaxy M87 has a supermassive black hole that is 6.5 billion times more massive than the Sun.