Historical Figures in Cosmology

By Bianca.bristow

  • Isaac Newton

    Published three laws of motion.
    Published laws of gravity.

  • William Herschel

    Discovered Uranus

  • Pierre-Simon Laplace

    The first placing of astronomy on a modern mathematical basis

  • Henrietta Leavitt

    Discovered a means by which astronomers became better able to accurately measure extra galactic distances known as the period-luminosity relation.

  • Harlow Shapely

    Discovered that the sun lies near the central plane of the Milky Way Galaxy and is not at the center, but at 30,000 light-years away.

  • Edwin Hubble

    Proved the existence of galaxies other than our own Milky Way

  • Fred Hoyle

    Steady State theory, the story of cosmological discovery was an important role in the acceptance of the Big Bang theory.
    Answered the question: how did the heavier elements come into being?

  • Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson

    Published a prediction that if the universe were created in a Big Bang, today we would see the glow of light that was released when atoms first formed.