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Nicolaus Copernicus was the first European man to discover the heliocentric theory, the theory that all planets, including Earth, orbit around the sun. -
Hans Lippershey was a Dutch man who created eye glasses, and other glass projects. A lot of professors and scientists believe he was the man who made the first telescope, and sometimes he's given credit to the compound telescope. -
Johannes Kelper was an astronomer and mathematician in the 16th and 17th century. He used his math skills to create laws that are now used and widely known today. He also discovered that when planets are near the sun during their orbits, they move faster than normal. On top of those discoveries, he also wrote multiple books, Kelper was just a scientific bomb! -
In 1610, on January 7th, Galileo made one of his greatest accomplishments with his hand made telescope. He discovered three stars surrounding Jupiter, but he soon found out those were the three moons of Jupiter. -
Cassini discovered the Cassini Division, which was a black gap between the first and second rings of Saturn. He also found that Saturn had four moons. -
Another man, and another homemade telescope. He was watching the stars and noticed one that seemed a bit off. After watching it for a little while longer he noticed it was a planet, our beloved Uranus. -
Caroline Herschel was the first female astronomer, born in March 1750 in Germany. She discovered cataloging objects in space, which is still used today, but she doesn't really get credit for it. She was the first paid woman scientist in 1788. She lived a long life of discovering comets, before she died at 97. -
Annie Jump Cannon was a powerful woman who changed the way scientists nowadays classify stars. In 1922, in Harvard, she created a chart that would help to categorize stars easier, using their heat. She also classified around 350 THOUSAND stars on her own! To my own surprise, she was deaf. -
Cecilia Payne-Gaposhkin was a British woman who changed the way we look at stars! In 1925 she discovered that stars are mainly made of helium and hydrogen. -
Carl Sagan was a consultant and adviser at NASA in the 1950's, so he spoke with the astronauts before the first flight to the moon. He also dove into possible extraterrestrial life, and he thought life on Mars was a possibility.