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Period: Jan 1, 1500 to
34
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Feb 15, 1564
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
Galileo was born on the 15th of February in 1564, in Pisa, Italy. He told people that the earth orbits around the sun. He did not believe that the Earth was the centre of the universe so he was against the theory He looked at the Milky Way and discovered that it was made up of millions of stars, each at a different distance from the Earth. If the Universe was really a glass sphere, then all the stars would be at the same distance from the Earth. -
Isaac Newton (1643-1727)
Sir Isaac Newton was born on the 4th Of January, in United Kingdom. In 1666, Sir Isaac Newton discovered gravitational force. He discovered gravity when he saw an apple falling off the tree while he was thinking about the forces of nature. -
Charles Messier (1730-1817)
Charles Messier was born on the 26th of June, 1730 in Badonviller, France. While Messier was tracking a comet he had observed before, he noticed a cloudy object in the constellation ‘Taurus’. It turned out to be a nebula (a cloud of dust and gas) which is known nowadays as the Crab Nebula (M1). He made lots of discoveries, including M13 (the great globular cluster in Hercules), the Swan nebula (M17) in Sagittarius and the Andromeda galaxy (M31)... and other Nebulas -
Edmond Halley (1656-1742)
Edmond Halley was born on the 8th of November, 1656 in Haggerston, United Kingdom. He was first to calculate the orbit of a comet that was later named after him. He predicted that the comet would reappear in 1758, but unfortunately, he couldn’t live to see his prediction being tested. On Christmas night, 1758, the comet reappeared of the vindication of his Halley’s clear conjecture and Newton’s gravitational theory. -
Sir Frederick William Herschel (1738-1822)
Sir Frederick William Herschel was born on the 15th of November, 1738 in Hanover, Germany. Herschel is famous for his discovery of the planet Uranus in 13th of March, 1781, the first new planet found since antiquity. Herschel was analytically searching the sky with his telescope then he discovered Uranus. He also discovered the existence of infrared radiation when using filters when he was observing sunspots. -
Johann Gottfried Galle (1812–1910)
Johann Gottfried Galle was born on the 9th of June, 1812 in Radis, Germany. Urbain Le Verrier mathematically predicted that there was the existence of planet Neptune. Galle confirmed the presence of Neptune on the 23rd of September, 1846 by using telescopic observations at the Berlin Observatory. -
William Lassell (1799-1880)
Lassell was born on the 18th of June, 1799 in Bolton, United Kingdom. He used his own polishing machine and his own 24” telescope to discover the largest moon in Neptune, which is known as ‘Tritan’ on the 10th of October, 1846. He found the eighth moon of Saturn, Hyperion, on the 16th of September 1848, aday after William Cranch Bond did. However, Lassell was first to discover Ariel and Umbriel, the moons of Uranus on the 24th of October, 1851. -
Edwin Hubble (1889-1953)
Edwin Hubble was from Marshfield, Missouri. In 1929, Hubble was firm that farther a galaxy is from Earth, the faster it appears to move away. This means that the universe is expanding which forms the basis of the Big Bang theory that states that the universe began with an intense burst of energy, and it has been expanding ever since. He used the 100inch reflecting telescope and measured the distances and motions of the galaxies which resulted in the conclusion that the universe is expanding. -
Stephen Hawking (1942- )
Stephen Hawking was born on the 8th Of January, in Oxford, United Kingdom. In 1976, he calculated that once a black hole forms, it radiates energy and starts losing mass. There is a kind of black body radiation that is named after him (Hawking Radiation). It is released by black holes because of quantum effects.
