History of Astronomy Timeline

By sesch900
  • 384 BCE

    Aristotle

    Aristotle 384 BC-322 BC philosopher, proved earth is spherical and that sun, moon, planet, stars travel in separate shells around earth.
  • 190 BCE

    Hipparchus

    Hipparchus 190 BC-120 BC compiled very first star catalog(showed stars did not move) First to come up with equinoxes. Calculated distance from earth to moon and was correct.
  • 165 BCE

    Ptolemy-Geocentric Model

    Ptolemy-Geocentric Model
    Ptolemy Geocentric model 100 ad-170 ad Made geocentric model. Called that because it is “Earth centered”. His thought was all celestial object orbited earth. Wrote Almagest(catalogue of eclipses)
  • 1473

    Copernicus-Heliocentric Model

    Copernicus-Heliocentric Model
    Copernicus Heliocentric model 1473 ad-1543 ad Made heliocentric model. Founder of Scientific Method
  • 1546

    Tycho Brahe

    Tycho Brahe 1546 ad-1601 ad Astronomer. Writer known for his accurate and comprehensive astronomical and planetary observations. Recorded enough data on motion if the stars and planets to within 1 arc minute

  • Hans Lippershey

    Hans Lippershey 1570 ad- 1619 ad lens maker. He made a telescope and was the first one to put a patent on it for 3x magnification.

  • Refracting Telescope

    Refracting Telescope
    Refracting Telescope 1608 ad a telescope that uses a converging lens to collect light

  • Galileo-Jupiter's Main Moons

    Galileo Jupiter's main moons 1564 ad-1642 ad Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto are Jupiter's largest moons. Made one of the first telescopes. First to discover sunspots(dark spots on sun)

  • Johannes Kepler-Elliptical Orbits

    Johannes Kepler-Elliptical Orbits
    Johannes Kepler Elliptical Orbits 1571 ad-1630 ad Tycho Brahe’s assistant. Discovered that motion of planets is elliptical.

  • Giovanni Cassini

    Giovanni Cassini 1625 ad-1712 ad Italian mathematician, astronomer and engineer. Discovered division of the rings of Saturn, 4 of Saturn's moons and the rotation periods of Mars and Jupiter.

  • Sir Isaac Newton

    Sir Isaac Newton 1642 ad-1727 ad Further developed Copernicus and Kepler's work using math. Invented reflecting telescope in 1668 ad. Also created 3 laws of motion.

  • Reflecting Telescope

    Reflecting Telescope
    Reflecting Telescope 1668 ad A reflecting telescope is a telescope that uses a single or combination of curved mirrors that reflect light and form an image. This one is different from refracting because this one reflects light instead of collecting light.

  • William Herschel

    William Herschel 1738 ad-1822 ad Discovered the planet Uranus and its moons. Also found 2 more of Saturn's moons. In 1800 he performed an experiment determining the temperature of different colors of light by using a prism and thermometers. That led to the discovery of the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum.

  • Ejnar Hertzsprung

    Ejnar Hertzsprung
    Ejnar Hertzsprung 1873 ad-1967 ad One of the inventors of the Hertzsprung_Russell diagram. The HR diagram shows the correlation between the absolute magnitude (brightness) and the spectral type of star.

  • Albert Einstein

    Albert Einstein
    Albert Einstein 1879 ad-1955 ad One of the influential scientist of all time. Developed theory of Relativity in 1905 and gravitation.

  • Percival Lowell

    Percival Lowell 1855 ad-1916 ad Discovered the planet Pluto and studied the “Canalis” on Mars. Built the Lowell observatory in flagstaff AZ to study Mars.

  • Edwin Hubble

    Edwin Hubble 1889 ad-1953 ad Using the color of the stars, discovered the universe is expanding. Hubble's Law, galaxies are moving away from each other. The idea is that the basis of the Big Band Theory of how the universe began.

  • Sputnik

    Sputnik
    Sputnik 1957 Was the first artificial earth satellite. It is important to the U.S because it raised cold war tensions so the US worked harder to developed new technology. Then we started NASA, “The Space Race” and put education as a priority.

  • Yuri Gagarin

    Yuri Gagarin 1961 ad He was the first human (Soviet) to go to outer space when the Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of Earth for 108 minutes.

  • John Glenn

    John Glenn 1962 ad He was an engineer, astronaut. In 1962, he was the first American to orbit the Earth, circling it three times.

  • Apollo Missions

    Apollo Missions 1963 ad. Purpose was to take people to the moon and bring them back safely. Mission 13 had a malfunction and did not reach the moon.

  • Neil Armstrong

    Neil Armstrong
    Neil Armstrong 1969 ad First person to walk the moon in 1969 and an engineer. He was also an aerospace engineer, naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor.

  • First Space Shuttle Flight

    First Space Shuttle Flight 1981 ad It was called Columbia and orbited the Earth 37 times in 54.5 hours

  • Mars Pathfinder Expidition

    Mars Pathfinder Expedition 1996 ad It launched in 1996 and landed on Mars in 1997. There was a rover on board to explore Mars.

  • Cassini Orbiter

    Cassini Orbiter
    Cassini Orbiter 1997 ad-2017 ad Cassini was a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency. It sent a probe to the planet Saturn.

  • SpaceX Falcon Heavy

    SpaceX Falcon Heavy 2018 ad It launched in 2018. It is a partially reusable heavy lift launch vehicle made by SpaceX.