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1300 BCE
Chinese Begin Centuries Long Series of Eclipse Recording
Chinese recorded 900 solar eclipses and 600 lunar eclipses over 2600 years. -
350 BCE
Aristotle Argues That Celestial Bodies Are Spheres
Used Earths shadow on the moon, including during the lunar eclipses, to prove that the Earth was a sphere. -
140
Ptolemy Creates Geocentric Model
The model said that all planets and stars obrited around the earth and accurately predicted the positions of the planets. -
1350
Oresme Describes "Galilean" Relativity
Oresme explains that we perceive relative motion. Day motion of the stars can be explained by the rotation of the Earth. -
1543
Capernicus Publishes "De Revolutionibus"
De Revolutionibus is Capernicus' description of the Heliocentric Model of the solar system. The Heliocentric Model states that everything orbits around the sun. -
The Telescope Is Invented
Hans Lippershey was the first to apply for the patent for the invention of the telescope. He claimed that the device had three-times magnification. Galileo then created his own version of the telescope, without ever seeing one. He made some improvements and presented it to the Senate for military use, which boosted his salary. Galileo, though, was the first to point it at the sky. -
Galileo Uses The Telescope For Astronomical Observations
Galileo didnt invent the telescope, but he was the first to examine everything around us using the telescope. -
Newton Publishes "Principia"
The book described his discoveries about gravity, motion, and the orbits of the planets. -
William Herschel Discovers Uranus
While measuring the direction and brightness of the stars, Herschel found a fuzzy spot that moved among the stars. This was Uranus, which was not known the acients. -
Neptune is Discovered
Discrepancies in Uranus' orbit prompt the discovery of Neptune by Adams and Leverrier -
William Huggins Identifies Chemical Elements In Stars
Huggins studied the spectra of bright stars and found that the dark lines in their spectra matched the wavelengths of atoms measured in terrestrial laboratories. -
Einstein Discovers explains the Photoelectric Effect
Einstein discovers that light emission at small wavelengths happens because of small particles called photons -
Albert Einstein's Creates General Theory of Relativity
Einstein explained that matter curves space, causing bodies to move in ways we attribute to gravity. -
Harlow Shapley Found The Size and Shape of The Milky Way
Shapley assumed that globular clusters are distributed uniformly about the center of the Milky Way. From this, he found that the Earth is located 15,000 pc from the center of the Milky Way. -
Clyde Tombaugh Discovers Pluto
Tombaugh discovered Pluto by comparing photographic plates taken of the same region of the sky about a week apart. Pluto's image moved among the stars. Later though, Pluto was considered to not be a planet. -
Mariner 4 Flies Past Mars
Mariner 4 sent back pictures of Mars that showed a planet whose surface resembled that of the Moon. -
Astronauts Edwin Aldrin and Neil Armstrong Land On Moon
On July 20, 1969 Aldrin and Armstrong became the first people to land on the Moon.
