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Period: 32,000 BCE to 3000 BCE
Prehistoric Europe
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31,000 BCE
Prehistory
(France and Germany)
People made incisions on bones to represent the lunar phases, which might be the oldest astronomical register. -
16,000 BCE
Lascaux Caves
(France)
Cave paintings where archeologists think the first stars were charted. -
8000 BCE
Warren Field
(Scotland)
12 ditches in the ground represent 12 phases of the moon.
Oldest known moon calendar. -
4900 BCE
Goseck Circle
(Germany)
Oldest known official solar observatory.
Similar purpose to Stonehenge, aligned to the winter solar solstice. -
Period: 4000 BCE to 476
Ancient Astronomy
Goes from the invention of writing, until the fall of the Roman Empire. -
3000 BCE
Stonehenge
(England)
Created a structure to track the seasons via solstice. -
1900 BCE
Kokino
(North Macedonia)
Archeological site situated between 1010 and 1030m above sea level. -
1730 BCE
Babylonia
First known use of mathematics to explain the variation of day time throughout the year. -
1700 BCE
Enuma Anu Enlil
They were Ancient Babylonian tablets where we see one of the first pieces of evidence that planetary motion was being recognized as a pattern. -
1200 BCE
Babylonian Stars Catalogues
Due to some names being in Sumerian, it is inferred that this is evidence of Sumerian astronomy, dating back to 3000 BC. -
400 BCE
Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius
(Egypt)
Described the model known as the "Egyptian System," where Venus and Mercury revolve around the sun, while the sun revolves around the earth. -
Period: 476 to 1500
Medieval Europe / East
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928
Mohammad al-Fazari
The earliest surviving astrolabe is constructed by Islamic mathematician–astronomer Mohammad al-Fazari. -
1054
Crab Nebula's Supernova
(China)
First observation of the Crab Nebula Supernova. The supernova was visible to the naked eye for about two years after its first observation. -
1252
Alfonso X of Castile
(Toledo)
He funded the creation of the Alfonsine Tables, which provided data for computing the position of the sun, moon, and planets relative to the fixed stars. -
1450
Nicholas of Cusa
(Germany)
He postulated that the Earth was not the center of the universe and that the universe itself was not still, that everything was moving. He also speculated on the existence of other worlds. -
1472
Johannes Muller Regiomontano
Johannes Muller Regiomontano determines the location of the comet now known as Halley's comet. -
Period: 1473 to
Copernicus Revolution
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1500
Nicolaus Copernicus
Great contribution to science: made reappear the ideas of a heliocentric (sun-centered) model of the solar system.
Concluded that the earth was a planet and that they revolved around the sun. Only the moon revolves around the earth. -
1532
"De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium"
Copernicus finished his masterpiece "De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium," on the movements of the celestial spheres. He wrote it over 25 years of work and was published posthumously. -
Galileo Galilei
(Italy)
Galileo’s greatest contributions were in the field of mechanics, the study of motion and the actions of forces on bodies. Galileo was the father of both modern experimental physics and telescopic astronomy. Found that many stars too faint to be seen with the unaided eye became visible with his telescope. -
Hans Lippershey
(Germany)
He built lenses and was also an inventor. The inventor of the telescope. -
Johann Kepler
Fundamentó el sistema copernicano sin necesidad de recurrir a las esferas y encontró armonías matemáticas para describir estos movimientos. -
Period: to
Modern Astronomy
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William Herschel
(England)
Discovery of Uranus -
Robert Wilhelm Bunsen
(Bavaria)
The first spectroscope is made (used to study the spectrum of the sun). -
Le Verrier, Adams & Galle
(Cambridge)
Discovery of Neptune by using a disturbance of Uranus’ orbit to calculate it's position. It was the first planet mathematically discovered. -
Henrietta Leavitt
(United States)
Henrietta Swan Leavitt discovers the period-luminosity relation for Cepheid variables, which creates a new method of measuring large distances. -
Hubble Telescope
(United States)
Hubble discovers the real extent of the universe by measuring the magnitude of a cepheid star in the Andromeda Galaxy.
