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Our Understanding of the Universe

  • Ptolemy
    100

    Ptolemy

    Birth: 100 AD, Alexandria, Egypt
    Death: 168 AD, Alexandria, Egypt
    Discoveries: Ptolemy was an astronomer and mathematician. The word for earth in Greek is geo, so he called this idea a "geocentric" theory. He believed that the Earth was the center of the Universe.
    Influence:
  • Copernicus
    1473

    Copernicus

    Born: 19 February 1473, Toruń, Poland
    Died: 24 May 1543, Frombork, Poland
    Discoveries: Nicolaus Copernicus was a Polish astronomer who put forth the theory that the Sun is at rest near the center of the Universe, and that the Earth, spinning on its axis once daily, revolves annually around the Sun. This is called the heliocentric, or Sun-centered, system.
  • Kepler
    1571

    Kepler

    Born: 27 December 1571, Weil der Stadt, Germany
    Died: 15 November 1630, Regensburg, Germany
    Discover: German astronomer who discovered three major laws of planetary motion