-
500 BCE
What Is Astronomy?
Since ancient times, humans have observed the stars for agricultural, scientific, and religious purposes (Canadian Space Agency). This provides us with a rough definition of astronomy - the scientific study of the world beyond ours, which includes stars, planets, moons, astroids, and another celestial objects. While there are many scientific disciplines, I have selected this one due to my personal interest in this subject matter as a citizen scientist. -
400 BCE
Introduction to Five Important Astronomy Books
The history of astronomy is certainly a varied and expansive topic, so this timeline is by no means exhaustive; however, I have tried to select, based upon research, key contextual events along with five important books in the field of astronomy, which have often coincided with the publishing of significant scientific books throughout history. Due to space limitations within each timeline event text field, all references will be listed at the end of this timeline. -
150
Significant Book: Almagest by Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (90 - 168 AD) was an early mathematician and astronomer who lived in ancient Greece (Tillman et al., 2022). Upon the publishing of his book, Almagest, the scientific community embraced the geocentric view of the solar system, with Earth as the center (Tillman et al., 2022). Prior to Copernicus' assertion that the Earth revolved around the sun in the 1543, Almagest was the definitive book used by astronomers, scientists, and mathematicians (Tillman et al., 2022). -
1543
Significant Book: On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres by Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 - 1543) was a Polish astronomer who developed the heliocentric model of the solar system, which places the sun at the center of the solar system instead of the Earth (Tillman et al., 2022). He published his theory in On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres just days before his death, and it wasn't until Galileo popularized this theory 100 years later that heliocentrism became the dominant model of the solar system (Tillman et al., 2022). -
Contextual Event: Galileo Galilei Creates His First Telescope
While Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642) did not create the first telescope, he created the first telescope that was a significant improvement upon existing models and thus more effective for scientific observations - 20x magnification instead of 3x (Tillman et al., 2022). Galileo also embraced heliocentrism, developed by Copernicus, and also defended Kepler's calculations regarding the path of planets, the latter of which placed him under house arrest (Tillman et al., 2022). -
Contextual Event: Johannes Kepler's Three Laws of Planetary Motion
Beginning in 1609, the German astronomer, Johannes Kepler (1571 - 1630), began to publish his three laws of planetary motion, the last of which he published in 1619 (Lea, 2021). These laws note that planets have an elliptical and not circular orbit, in addition to varying orbit speeds (Lea, 2021). Kepler's laws are still in use today and have helped scientists to calculate the mass and orbits of the 4,000 discovered planets beyond our solar system (Lea, 2021). -
Contextual Event: Sir Isaac Newton's Three Laws of Motion
Sir Isaac Newton was an English mathematician and physicist who most famously established the three laws of motion, along with theories regarding gravity in 1867 (Sutter, 2020). His book, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy in English) is still considered one of the most important books in scientific and mathematical history (Sutter, 2020). -
Significant Book: Relativity: The Special and General Theory by Albert Einstein
Relativity: The Special and General Theory by Albert Einstein was published in 1920 and included such ground-breaking concepts as space-time, which can be distorted by gravity (Tillman et al., 2022). He also theorized that the laws of physics are constant throughout the universe (Tillman et al., 2022). Even though this book is roughly 100 years old, it is still considered one of the most important astronomy books in history. -
Significant Book: Cosmos by Carl Sagan
American astronomer, Carl Sagan (1934–1996), was primarily known for his captivating way of explaining dense scientific concepts to a diverse audience. His most famous non-fiction work, Cosmos, was also a TV show that was viewed by more than a billion people in sixty countries (Tillman et al., 2022). Cosmos is widely regarded as one of the best-selling science books of all time (Cosmos). -
Significant Book: A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
One of the best-selling astronomy books of all-time, A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (1942– 2018) explores the theory of everything, black holes, the end of time, and time travel among other topics in plain language intended for a general (and not scholarly) audience (Tillman et al., 20221). While Stephen Hawking published several books throughout his life, A Brief History of Time is his most notable work. -
Significant Book Citations
Copernicus, N. (1543). On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres. Johannes Petreius. Einstein, A. (1920). Relativity: The special and general theory. Methuen & Co Ltd. Hawking, S. (1988). A brief history of time. Bantam Dell Publishing Group. Ptolemy, C. (100 - 170). Almagest. Sagan, C. (1980). Cosmos. Random House. -
References
Canadian Space Agency. (n.d.) A brief history of astronomy. https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/astronomy/basics/brief-history-astronomy.asp Lea, R. (2021, December 20). Kepler's Third Law: The movement of solar system planets. Space. https://www.space.com/keplers-third-law Random House. (n.d.) Cosmos. http://www.randomhousebooks.com/books/159730/ -
References
Sutter, P. (2020, July 7). What are Newton's laws of motion?. Space. https://www.space.com/newtons-laws-of-motion-explained.html Tillman, N. T., & Harvey, A. (2022, February 19). Famous astronomers: How these scientists shaped astronomy. Space. https://www.space.com/16095-famous-astronomers.html