History of Astronomy

Aristotle 384-322

384 BCE

Aristotle 384-322. The sun, the moon and planets traveled in separate spheres. The greek philosopher proved that the earth is spherical. Proved that the earth was round and that the earth was the center of the universe. They believed that there were clear shells that connected the sun, the moon and the stars.They rotate around the earth.

Hipparchus

190 BCE

Founder of trigonometry. Calculated the length of a year. Discovered the precession of equinox and solstices. Calculated the distance between the earth and the moon. Made the first catalog of stars.

Ptolemy

100 BCE

Believed that the earth was the center of the universe. It was called geocentric because geo means earth in greek and centric means center of. He wrote a book called Almagest.

Copernicus

1473

Mathematician and astronomer who made a model of the universe that placed the sun in middle. That the earth revolves around the sun. that the earth spun on its own axis daily. The name of the model was Heliocentric.

Hans Lippershey

1520

Was a lens maker from germany but moved to the netherlands. Believed to be the first to apply for a patent for the telescope design of 3X magnification.

Tycho Brahe

1546

Nobleman, Astronomer, and writer. He was known for his accurate observations of planetary preservations. The data he collected was of the sun planets and moon relative to the fixed stars to within 1 arc minute.

Galileo

1564

He was italian. Discovered sunspots. Turned toy int telescope. Discovered that stars were not fixed to celestial sphere. Discovered that 4 moons of jupiter proved that not everything in the sky revolves around the earth

Johannes kepler

1571

Mathematician, astronomer. He is best known for his laws of planetary motion. He invented and improved the version of the refracting telescope. He also incorporated religious things in his work. He discovered three major laws of planetary motion. He discovered that the orbit of the plants are not circular but elliptical.

refracting telescope

1610

A refracting telescope is a type of optical telescope that uses a lens as its objective to form an image (also referred to a dioptric.The refracting telescope design was originally used in spy glasses and astronomical telescopes but is also used for long focus camera lenses. Although large refracting telescopes were very popular in the second half of the 19th century, for most research purposes the refracting telescope has been superseded by the reflecting telescope which allows larger apertures

Giovanni Cassini

1625

He is associated with with a number of scientific discoveries and projects including the saturns moons. The cassini spacecraft that launched in 1997 and plunged into the planet in 2017.

Sir Isacc Newton

1643

Further development works of copernicus and kepler using math. Invented reflecting telescope in 1668. And discovered 3 laws of motion.

William Herchel

1738

He discovered the planet Uranus. Hypothesized that nebulae are composed of stars, and developed a theory of stellar evolution. He was knighted in 1816. He also discovered 2 more of Saturn's moons. Preformed a simple experiment determine the temperature of the different colors of sunlight passed through a prism.

Percival Lowell

1855

Discovered the planet the “canals” on mars built the lowell observatory in flagstaff, arizona to study mars

Ejnar Hertzsprung

1873

One of the inventors of the Hertzsprung_Russell diagram. The hr diagram shows the correlation between the absolute magnitude (brightness) and the color of stars.

Albert Einstein

1879

Theory of relativity (1905) and gravitation.

reflecting telescope

1888

A reflecting telescope (also called a reflector) is a telescope that uses a single or combination of curved mirrors that reflect light and form an image. The reflecting telescope was invented in the 17th century, by Isaac Newton, as an alternative to the refracting telescope which, at that time, was a design that suffered from severe chromatic aberration.

Edwin Hubble

1889

He made several significant discoveries that changed how scientists viewed the universe.the universe is expanding and came up with the big bang theory. He oversaw construction of the 200 -inch Hale telescope on Palomar Mountain. Using colors of stars, discovered the universe is expanding. Hubble's law, galaxies are moving away from each other.

Karl Jansky

1905

Joined the staff of the bell telephone laboratories. Jansky was assigned the job of investigating the sources of static that might interfere with radio voice transmissions. Discovered the radio waves are emanating from space. Radio waves are the longest type of energy waves.

John Glenn

1921

Before joining NASA, Glenn was a distinguished fighter pilot in World War II, China and Korea. He shot down three MiG-15 aircraft, and was awarded six Distinguished Flying Crosses and eighteen Air Medals. In 1957, he made the first supersonic transcontinental flight across the United States. His on-board camera took the first continuous, panoramic photograph of the United States. Glenn resigned from NASA in January 1964

Neil Armstrong

1930

Neil Alden Armstrong was an American astronaut, engineer, and the first person to walk on the Moon.

A participant in the U.S. He made his first space flight as command pilot of Gemini 8 in March 1966, becoming NASA's first civilian astronaut to fly in space. He performed the first docking of two spacecraft. This mission was aborted after Armstrong used some of his reentry control fuel to prevent a dangerous spin caused by a stuck thruster.

Yuri Gagarin

1934

Yuri Gagarin was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on 12 April 1961

Sputnik

1957

The importance of sputnik to the US. The midst of the cold war, russia was successful in launching the first satellite into space to orbit Earth. Putting the soviet union ahead of the US. wasn't good for US so we started NASA. This started the space race.

Apollo Missions

1969

launched july 1969

space falcon heavy

1973

Falcon Heavy is the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two. With the ability to lift into orbit nearly 64 metric tons a mass greater than a 737 jetliner loaded with passengers, crew, luggage and fuel. Falcon Heavy can lift more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, at one-third the cost. Falcon Heavy draws upon the proven heritage and reliability of Falcon 9.

first space shuttle

1981

Space Shuttle Columbia (Orbiter Vehicle Designation was the first space-rated orbiter in NASA's Space Shuttle fleet. It launched for the first time on mission STS-1 on April 12, 1981, the first flight of the Space Shuttle program. Over 22 years of service it completed 27 missions before disintegrating during re-entry near the end of its 28th mission, STS-107 on February 1, 2003, resulting in the deaths of all seven crew members

mars pathfinder expedition

1996

Launched by NASA aboard a Delta II booster a month after the Mars Global Surveyor was launched, it landed on Mars's Ares Vallis, in a region called Chryse Planitia in the Oxia Palus quadrangle. The lander then opened, exposing the rover which conducted many experiments on the Martian surface. The mission carried a series of scientific instruments to analyze the Martian atmosphere, climate, geology and the composition of its rocks and soil.

Cassini orbiter

1997

The Cassini–Huygens mission commonly called Cassini, was a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency , and the Italian Space Agency to send a probe to study the planet Saturn and its system, including its rings and natural satellites. The Flagship-class robotic spacecraft comprised both NASA's Cassini probe, and Huygens lander which landed on Saturn's largest moon