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100
Ptolemy
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Period: 100 to 170
Ptolemy
Ptolemy was a 2nd century Egyptian-Greek astronomer and mathematician. He is best known for authoring the Almagest and for his Ptolemaic System, which suggests that the Earth is the center of the universe, that planetary orbit is a perfect circle, and that planets orbited in an epicycle as well as around the Earth. -
1473
Nicolaus Copernicus
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Period: Feb 19, 1473 to May 24, 1543
Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus was a 13th/14th century astronomer, best known for his Copernican System. Most of what people know about him is myth. Nicolaus Copernicus believed the earth was flat and the Sun was the center of the universe. Copernicus' works weren't published until after his death. -
1546
Tycho Brahe
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Period: Dec 14, 1546 to
Tycho Brahe
Tycho Brahe was a Danish astronomer of the 16th century. He is known for the development of several astronomical instruments, the charting of the positions of nearly 800 stars, and the most sophisticated geocentric model as of yet. -
1564
Galileo Galilei
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Period: Feb 15, 1564 to
Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei was an Italian astronomer of the 16th and 17th centuries. He is best known for inventing the telescope, discovering Jupiter's four largest moons, discovering Saturn's rings, and more. He was a Copernican that was labeled as a heretic. His apprentice was Johannes Kepler. -
1571
Johannes Kepler
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Period: Dec 27, 1571 to
Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer of the 16th and 17th centuries. As an apprentice to Galileo Galilei, he had access to Galileo's journals after his death. Kepler is best known for his three laws of planetary motion, discovered while tracking the orbit of the planet Mars as instructed by his teacher. Johannes Kepler was a devout Christian who attributed all of his discoveries to God. -
Christiaan Huygens
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Period: to
Christiaan Huygens
Christiaan Huygens was a Dutch 17th century astronomer. He created the wave theory for light, discovered what shape Saturn's rings really are, and contributed to dynamics science. The lander craft designated for Titan was named in his honor. -
Isaac Newton
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Period: to
Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton, perhaps one of the greatest scientists of all time, was a 17th/18th century astronomer. In addition to penning his three laws of gravity, he also invented the reflecting telescope and wrote the central book of the Scientific Revolution: The Principia Mathematica. He was also a devout Christian, and wrote more on theology than he did science. -
Edwin Hubble
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Period: to
Edwin Hubble
Edwin Hubble was a one of the most influential American astronomers of the 20th century. He discovered the Universe was expanding, found solid evidence for galaxies outside our own, and set up a classification system for galaxies based on size and shape. The Hubble Space Telescope is named in his honor. -
Carl Sagan
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Period: to
Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan was a late 20th century astronomer who is known for many things, including forming the SETI, the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence, and authoring several books on science, politics, and religion. -
Jocelyn Bell Burnell
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Period: to
Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Jocelyn Bell Burnell is a 20th century astronomer who is most well-known for discovering the pulsar while a student assisting two other guys. When her teachers were awarded Nobel Prizes and she wasn't she took it lightly, despite many people getting mad.