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350 BCE
Aristole describes the geocentric model of the universe
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200 BCE
Aristarchus proposes a heliocentric model of the universe that is widely ignored
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150 BCE
Ptolemy refines the geocentric model of the universe to try to explain the retrograde motion of the planets
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1520
Ferdinand Mageilan is the first European to observe the Magellanic Clouds, which are later recognised as galazies outside the Milky way
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1543
Nicholas Copernicus publishes a paper that presens the heliocentric model of the universe with a number of improvements on Aristarchus version
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Giordano Bruno is burnt at the stake. One of his crimes was promoting the heliocentric model of the universe
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kepler publishes Astronomia Nova, explaining the motion of the planets by using a heliocenntrc model of the universe and elliptical orbits
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Galileo Galilei observes the moons of Jupiter
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Galileo publishes his Dialouge on Two world systems, which argues in favour of the heliocentric model of the universe
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Isaac Newton publishes Princupia Mathematica in which, among other things, he explains thE LAW OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION
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THOMAS WRIGHT SUGGESTS THAT THE milky way galaxy is a flattened disk of stars and that nebulae might be other galaxies
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Wiliiam Herschel discovers Uranus, the first planet not visible to the naked eye to be discovered
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William Herschel constructs the first map of the milky way galaxy
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Friedrich Bassel observes stellar parallax- the apparent movement of starsdue to Earth's movement around the Sun.
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John Couch Adams discovers Neptune.
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Ernst Opik demonstrates that the Andromeda nebula lies outside the Milky Way galaxy.
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Georges Lemaitre proposes the Big Bang theory, which suggests that the universe began as a giant explosion of energy.
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Edwin Hubble discovers evidence of an expanding universe, which supports the Big Bang model.
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Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto.
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Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discover cosmic microwave background radiation, further evidence supporting the Big Bang model.
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Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are the first human beings to walk on the surface of the Moon.
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Pioneer 10 becomes the first spacecraft to leave the solar system. The spacecraft Galileo returns data suggesting that Europa has liquid oceans under its icy surface.
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The spacecraft Galileo returns data suggesting that Europa has liquid oceans under its icy surface.
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Planet-sized objects Eris, Haumea and Makemake are discovered in the Kuiper Belt
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The international Astronomical Union rules that Pluto is not a planet
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