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322 BCE
Aristotle
Aristotle was born in 384 BC. He was born in Chalcidice, Greece and later became a Greek Philosopher and a scientist. He turned 17 and was trying to get enrolled at Plato’s Academy. When he was enlisted and graduated he had been at the school for 20 years. Aristotle believed in a Geocentric Universe and thought that the rotation of the planet and stars were circular. -
100
Ptolemy
He was born as Claudius Ptolemaeus. Ptolemy was an Egyptian mathematician, astronomer, and a geographer. Ptolemy Believed that astronomy was a way to show the physical effect on Terrestrial Life. He developed several mathematical to come up with how the sun, moon, planets, and stars move. -
1473
Copernicus
When he was 18, he traveled to Italy to study law, but ended up studying Astronomy and Mathematics instead. When he wrote a book he used his theories that the Earth had an axis and would rotate. When he correctly positioned the planets, he came up with why Earth has seasons. And he even provided a statement saying the earth was smaller distance to the sun than other stars. -
1546
Tycho Brahe
Tycho Brahe was born in 1546. When he was alive he was mainly known for 2 things, 1) Measuring the distance (Wasn’t exact) to a supernova and 2) and making the most accurate distances of the planets. He observed and recorded the movement of stars and planets. Out of everyone before him, he was the most accurate with his data. -
1564
Galileo
Galileo Galilei was an Italian Scientist. Galileo had came up with the perfect way to use the telescope though he is often mistaken for inventing it. He is most famous for discovering the four moons on Jupiter, the moon had craters, and venus’ phases. He used Aristotle, and his teachings. However, Galileo did not believe in philosophy but he did use the lessons as experiments to prove his theories -
1570
Hans Lippershey
Hans Lippershey had invented the telescope, which Galileo was mistakenly given credit. This device brings the far away objects, up close to see in perspective. Others, who weren’t supporters, had claimed that he stole the idea from Glasses Maker, Zacharias Jansen. Not only did he invent the telescope he invented microscopes and spyglasses. -
1571
Johannes Kepler
Johannes had come up with most laws of Planetary Motion which explains how and why the planets orbit the sun. When Brahe died, and while he was working with him, they passed on information, which eventually made Kepler’s (3) Laws of Planetary Motion. -
Refracting and Reflecting Telescopes
The difference between the two telescopes is the way the optical part is built. WIth a refracting telescope it uses a lot of lenses to “refract” the light rays it picks up, while a reflecting telescope uses mirrors instead of lenses to reflect the light rays it receives. Reflecting telescopes are often used to view the bright plants and stars. -
Giovanni Cassini
His Earliest studies were on the sun, but after more advanced telescopes came out, he turned his attention to planets. He found Jupiter’s Shadows could help him find the rotational period, and he found Mars’s rotational period was around 24 hrs and 40 mins. He was the first man to come of with the estimation of the solar system and discovered Saturn’s 4 moons with Robert Hooke. -
Sir Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton elaborated on the idea of Gravity, he did not come up with the idea, he just used the source of the falling apple. Isaac used the idea of Heliocentrism to support it, and he was absolutely certain it was right. During his experiments, he had also made a list of laws, like rules, for motion. -
William Herschel
Before WIlliam was an astronomer, he was an army musician. When he got more interested in astrology, he discovered the planet, Uranus, which was the first planet to be discovered since prehistoric times. He was rewarded with Copley Medal and was then elected as a fellow. When he was 43, he then started on his belief of the heavens. -
Percival Lowell
He predicted that there we planets beyond Neptune, which later lead to astronomers finding Pluto. After Giovanni Schiaparelli’s discovery of Canals on Mars, Lowell decided to devote his time and money on the study of Mars. He later built a private observatory in Flagstaff, AZ. After his studies on Mars, he moved on to Uranus to mathematically study its orbit. -
Ejnar Hertzsprung
This Danish Astronomer would classify all types of stars, by their brightness and their color. When 1913 cam around, Hertzsprung created the Luminosity Scale, to measure the stars intergalactic distance. He didn’t have an education in astronomy but rather a technological education. -
Albert Einstein
He found the equation E= mc2, which easily translates to the equation to find the energy in a star. Albert also said that if anyone was able to travel at the speed of light, time would simply stop for you. He was known as one of the best physicist of all time and was even reward with a Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921. -
Edwin Hubble
He came up with Hubble laws, which had something to do with the galaxies. His evidence and data proves that the universe (Galaxy) is constantly expanding and to get this information he used the Hooker Telescope. He even estimated how far away the Andromeda Nebula was from the Milky Way -
Karl Jansky
Karl was hired one day at a telephone laboratory and his job was to track down the different forms that were causing the telephone lines to go haywire. He built an antenna which could track all of them except for 1. Once he studied why he figured out the signals were coming from space. -
Yuri Gagarin
Yuri Gagarin was a soviet cosmonaut, or known as the first man to travel to space. He graduated college with a education of flying or piloting. His flight orbited Earth 1 time in 1 hour and 29 minutes, at the altitude of 187 km. Although he never went back into space, he trained others after his travels. -
Sputnik
Sputnik is a satellite that orbits the Earth. In 1857, Sputnik 1, had been launched by a man and it reached the farthest point in Earth’s Orbit. Later the same year, Sputnik 2 launched, only this time with a living creature, Laika the dog. After the first 2 launches, 8 more developed after that, and they were used to test the spacecraft life support systems. But it did provide data like temperatures, pressure, magnetic fields, particles, and radiation. -
John Glenn
He was the first person to orbit Earth 3 times. In 1957 he had made the first transcontinental flight when flying with an average supersonic speed from New York heading to California. He was then promoted to Colonel in the year of 1959. Military pilot had chosen for the first obit flight. -
The Apollo Program
Apollo was a space program that started with launching people to the moon. There were 17 missions total, and out of those 17, Apollo 7 and Apollo 9 did not land on the moon. The Apollo missions were used to get moon rock samples, and they were to use a seismogram for measurements on the moon surface. -
Neil Armstrong
Neil Armstrong (Along with 2 others) was launched to the moon one July 16th, 1969 in the Apollo 11 spacecraft. When stepping out of the aircraft, 4 days later, Neil said his most famous line. While on the moon surface, Armstrong and Aldrin took samples, took pictures, and used scientific instruments for evidence and data. -
First Space Shuttle Flight
Yuri Gagarin was the first man to fly to space and make a full orbit around Earth in 1961. This flight was simply used to test the docking systems and see if the rendezvous was compatible for safe space travel. -
Mars Pathfinder Expedition
The Pathfinder was used to find a very specific way to enter Mars atmosphere, as they wanted to send humans to Mars. The lander and the rover, both outlived what the astronomers thought they were. The lander survived by 3 times more, and the rover survived as much as 12 times more. While on the expedition, the Pathfinder sent back a total of 2.3 billion parts of info, including 16,500 images from the lander and 550 images from the rover. It also sent 15+ analyses of the rock and soil. -
Cassini Orbiter
This was one of the most ambitious, according to NASA, missions they have ever sent into space. The launch sent 2 things up and away, the Cassini Orbiter and the Huygens Probe. The Cassini Orbiter finally reached Saturn in July of 2004. Its job was to collect the data and transfer back to the dock. The Cassini could navigate the wavelengths of energy and light, it could also determine magnetic fields, and tiny dust pieces, which humans wouldn’t be able to feel. -
Saturn's Rotation Rate
NASA sent up the Cassini orbiter to study Saturn. The astronomers used the infor and studied the wave patterns inside the ring of Saturn, which were super sensitive to the seismograph. Using the seismograph,it did have answer to see how long one day in Saturn was. The day length ended up being around 10 hours long. The astronomers on the case, thought they wouldn’t be able to find it, but now with the new info they can conduct new experiments and send new orbiters.
