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322 BCE
Aristotle
Aristotle is an ancient Greek philosopher. He is considered one of the greatest thinkers in politics psychology, and ethics. He founded his own school in 335. He spent most of his time there studying and teaching and writing. The school was called the Lyceum in Athens. He believed that the planets and stars were perfect spheres but the earth was not, this is know as a geocentric universe. -
168
ptolemy
Ptolemy is an ancient astronomer, geographer, and mathematician. He thought of the earth as the center of the universe. -
1543
Copernicus
Copernicus was a Polish astronomer. He thought that the planets have the sun as the point where their motions are to be referred. He also thought that the earth turns once daily at it's own axis. He also proposed that the earth spun on a very slow, long term rotation which made changes in the direction of the axis. This was accounted for the equinoxes. -
Tycho Brahe
Tycho Brahe was a Danish Astronomer. He worked in developing astronomical instruments. He also worked in measuring and fixing the star's positions. His observations were the most accurate before the telescope. His studies show part of the solar system which included accurate places of 777 stars. -
Hans lippershey
He was a dutch inventor. He got credit for making a telescope. Because everyone knew about the telescope, the state's government decided not to give a patent because everyone knew about it and how to make it. The government gave Lippershey 900 florins for telescope. This telescope helped people understand astronomy way more than they were used to. -
Kepler
He was a German astronomer. He discovered the planets and the sun move in elliptical orbits. He came up with 3 laws that would help people understand astronomy more. His laws went like this, 1) The law of ellipses 2) The law of equal areas in equal times. 3) The law of harmony -
Galileo
He was an Italian scientist, astronomer, mathematician, physicist, philosopher,and professor. He observations of nature with implications with the study of physics that lasted for a long time. He made a telescope which supported Copernic's theory. He was accused of heresy two times by the church. He also wrote many books to support his theory. -
Difference between refracting and refracting telescopes.
A reflecting telescope uses 2 mirrors, not lenses. Isaac Newton made this telescope. Light reflected off an object goes into the telescope tube and then it is reflected off another mirror that is curved at the end. Refractor telescopes has one objective lens that is on the opposite of the eyepeice and gathers light coming from a distant object. -
Difference between refracting and reflecting telescopes.
A telescope that reflects uses 2 mirrors, not 2 lenses. Isaac Newton invented this kind of telescope. A refractor telescope is to gather light coming a far away object. -
Cassini
Cassini was a french astronomer who discovered the Cassini Division. The Cassini Division is a dark between Saturn's rings (A and B) Cassini discovered 4 of Saturn's rings. He was also the first person to make observations on zodiacal light. -
Sir Isaac Newton
Newton discovered the 3 laws of motion. The 1st one states that all objects will remain in a straight line unless it's forced to change. The second law states that that an objects velocity changes when it's hit with a great force. The last law states that for every force opposite reaction that is equal. He discovered calculus and that led to many other mathematical discoveries later on. -
William Herschel
Herschel was a British-German astronomer who was interested in the celestial bodies and he would need a telescope to discover them. The telescopes he would need should have a big mirror. He needed a big mirror because it would be hard to enough light without big mirrors. -
Lowell
He was an American astronomer who studied mars. He thought that thee could be life on mars but this idea is now proven wrong. He thought this because he discovered irrigation systems with water from ice caps that melted yearly. -
Karl Jansky
Jansky was an American engineer who discovered radio waves. He discovered this by and extraterrestrial source that's inaugurated the development of radio astronomy. -
Sputnik
Sputnik is the world's first artificial satellite. Sputnik provided scientists and astronomers very valuable information. This led to the creation of NASA. The satellite discovered the magnetic radiation in belts around the earth. -
Edwin Hubble
Hubble's theory was that the clouds of light astronomers saw in the sky was the milky way. The greatest discovery he made was difference in speed between of a galaxy and a galaxy's distance. -
Albert Einstein
Einstein was a German physicist. He discovered and developed the theory of general relativity. General relativity is the geometric theory of gravitation. -
Yuri Gagarin
Gagarin was the first man to fly to space. He orbited the earth one time in an hour and a half. He became instantly famous for his work. -
John Glenn
Glenn was a NASA astronaut and was the first group of astronauts NASA picked. He also became the oldest person person to fly to space later on. He became the first american to orbit the earth. Two astronauts have been to space before him but neither have orbited the earth before him. -
Hertzsrung
Hertzsprung was a Danish Astronomer who discovered a relationship between the colours of stars and their brightness. He also discovered that giant warf stars must exist. -
Neil Armstrong
Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon. He placed the American flag on the moon. -
The Apollo Program
The Apollo Program put the first humans on the moon. The program also put many other rockets and humans into space. -
First space shuttle flight
This was the worlds's first reusable space shuttle. This was made to carry large loads like satellites, put them into orbit and then bring them back. Other tests didn't go into space and they had a few disasters. -
Mars Pathfinder Expedition
The pathfinder landed on mars on July 4th 1997. This was the first ever robotic rover to go on mars. The pathfinder completed it's goal and came back with extra information. It's job was to find out the geology, climate, atmosphere, and the composition of rocks and soil. -
Cassini Orbiter
The orbiter was sent to Saturn to make discoveries and find out new things. All of it's discoveries were very helpful to scientists It was launched by NASA, European space agency, and the Italy space agency. -
Recent astronomy event.
There is a total eclipse of the moon this week. Jan 11 - 20. This also shows views of Venus and Jupiter before dawn. The moon should turn orange when the lunar eclipse happens on Jan 20/21.
