Astronomia

  • Period: 32,000 BCE to 3000 BCE

    Prehistoric Europe

  • Prehistory
    31,000 BCE

    Prehistory

    (France and Germany)
    People made incisions on bones to represent the lunar phases, which might be the oldest astronomical register.
  • Lascaux Caves
    16,000 BCE

    Lascaux Caves

    (France)
    Cave paintings where archeologists think the first stars were charted.
  • Warren Field
    8000 BCE

    Warren Field

    (Scotland)
    12 ditches in the ground represent 12 phases of the moon.
    Oldest known moon calendar.
  • Goseck Circle
    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.
  • Stonehenge
    3000 BCE

    Stonehenge

    (England)
    Created a structure to track the seasons via solstice.
  • Kokino
    1900 BCE

    Kokino

    (North Macedonia)
    Archeological site situated between 1010 and 1030m above sea level.
  • Babylonia
    1730 BCE

    Babylonia

    First known use of mathematics to explain the variation of day time throughout the year.
  • Enuma Anu Enlil
    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.
  • Babylonian Stars Catalogues
    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.
  • Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius
    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

  • Mohammad al-Fazari
    928

    Mohammad al-Fazari

    The earliest surviving astrolabe is constructed by Islamic mathematician–astronomer Mohammad al-Fazari.
  • Crab Nebula's Supernova
    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.
  • Alfonso X of Castile
    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.
  • Nicholas of Cusa
    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.
  • Johannes Muller Regiomontano
    1472

    Johannes Muller Regiomontano

    Johannes Muller Regiomontano determines the location of the comet now known as Halley's comet.
  • Period: 1473 to

    Copernicus Revolution

  • Nicolaus Copernicus
    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.
  • "De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium"
    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

    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

    Hans Lippershey

    (Germany)
    He built lenses and was also an inventor. The inventor of the telescope.
  • Johann Kepler

    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

  • William Herschel

    William Herschel

    (England)
    Discovery of Uranus
  • Robert Wilhelm Bunsen

    Robert Wilhelm Bunsen

    (Bavaria)
    The first spectroscope is made (used to study the spectrum of the sun).
  • Le Verrier, Adams & Galle

    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

    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

    Hubble Telescope

    (United States)
    Hubble discovers the real extent of the universe by measuring the magnitude of a cepheid star in the Andromeda Galaxy.