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322 BCE
Aristotle
( 384-322 B.C. ) Proved the earth was round and was spherial also was the middle of the universe and that the sun, the moon, and the stars travel in seperate spheres that rotate around earth. -
120 BCE
Hipparchus
( 190-120 B.C. ) Founder of trigonometry and calculated the length of a year and found the distance between the earth and the moon. He also came up with the first catalogue of the stars. -
170
Ptolemy
( 100- 170 A.D.) he believed that the earth was the center of the universe, Ptolemaic/Geocentric model. Named that because Geocentric means revolves around earth and is the center of everything. He tried to predict the star movement. He also wrote Almagest which is a catalogue of the stars and planets -
1543
Copernicus
( 1473- 1543 ) formulated a heliocentric model of the universe that placed the sun in the center rather than the earth in the center of the universe. Believed everything revolved around the sun and that earth was on its own axis. -
Tycho Brahe
(1546-1601)Known for his accurate and comprehensive astronomical instruments and planetary observations. Believed in the heliocentric model of the universe. Measured and fixed the positions of the stars. He also laid the foundation for a new understanding for the motion of the planets. -
Refracting telescope
(1608)The refracting telescope is a telescope that uses a converging lens to collect light that was invented by Hans Lippershey -
Hans Lippershey
( 1570-1619 ) He was a lens maker from Germany but moved to the Netherlands. Believed to be the first to apply for a patent for the telescope of 3X magnification. -
Johannes Keppler
( 1571-1630 ) He was Brahe’s assistant. He also discovered that the orbit of the planets are not circular but elliptical (oval) -
Galileo
( 1564-1642 )Made the first telescope.The four main moons of jupiter are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto and proved that not everything in the sky revolves around the earth . He also discovered sunspots and believed stars were not fixed to celestial sphere. -
Reflecting Telescope
(1668) reflecting telescope is a telescope that uses a single or combination of curved mirrors that reflect light and form an image. The reflecting teliscope was made in 1668 by Sir Isaac Newton -
Giovanni Cassini
(1625-1712 )He was the first to observe the division in the rings of Saturn. -
Sir Isaac Newton
(1642-1727) He invented calculus, and formulated the law of gravitation and discovered the laws of motion. He also invented the reflecting telescope. -
William Herschel
(1738-1822) discovered the planet Uranus and 2 more saturn moons.Believed to have found polar ice on mars leading to the studies hoping to find water on mars.He also formulated stellar evolution and the Herschel prism in 1800 which is an optical prism used in solar observation to refract most of the light out of the optical path, allowing safe visual observation. -
Albert Einstein
(1879-1955) Theory of Relativity (1905) and gravitation. -
Percival Lowell
(1855-1916) He discovered the planet pluto and studied the “Canalis” on Mars. Built the Lowell observatory in Flagstaff, AZ to study Mars. -
Karl Jansky
(1905-1950) is known for Radio astronomy which is a subfield of astronomy that studies celestial objects at radio frequencies. Discovered radio waves are emanating from space. Radio waves are the longest type of energy waves. -
Edwin Hubble
(1889-1953). Came up with the big bang theory. Using colors of the stars, he also discovered the universe is expanding. Hubble's law, galaxies are moving away from each other -
Sputnik
(1957) Sputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite that was sent out by russia on October 4, 1957 to orbit earth. Science and space travel became a new priority for the U.S and the educational system. IN 1958 president Dwight Eisenhower created NASA. This was important to the united states because it showed us we were behind the other countries with technology and science in astronomy. -
Yuri Gagarin
(1934-1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on 12 April 1961. The Russians scored the victory of sending the first man into space. -
Ejnar Hertzsprung
(1873-1967) One of the inventors of the Hertzsprung_Russell diagram. The HR diagram shows the correlation between the absolute magnitude (brightness) -
Neil Armstrong
(1930-2012) He was the first person to walk on the Moon in 1969. Armstrong also performed the first successful docking of two vehicles in space in 1966. -
Apollo Missions
There were 28 total Apollo missions. The Apollo program was the third United States human spaceflight program carried out by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which accomplished landing the first humans on the Moon from 1969 to 1972 -
First Space Shuttle Flight
(1981) accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011 -
Mars Pathfinder Expedition
(1996) It was designed as a technology demonstration of a new way to deliver an instrumented lander and the first-ever robotic rover to the surface of the red planet. It not only completed its goal but came back with a lot of data and outlived its primary design life -
Cassini Orbiter
(1997) collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency to send a probe to study the planet Saturn and its system. It is named that because of two famous scientists, Domenique Cassini and Christiaan Huygens. -
John Glenn
(1921-2016) he became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1959, circling it three times.John Glenn was part of “Mercury Seven”. The spacecraft he traveled around earth three times in was named “Friendship 7” and he was in it for five hours. He soon went on another space flight in 1998 -
SpaceX Falcon Heavy
(2018) Falcon Heavy is a partially reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured by SpaceX
