History of Cosmology

By RubsandGrug
  • 2000 BCE

    Ancient Chinese

    Measured time using sundials and water clocks, and studied astronomy in attempt to predict future events.
  • 428 BCE

    Plato

    Said that all the planets revolve around the Earth
  • 190 BCE

    Hippocharus

    Made thousands of measurements and cataloged over 850 stars
  • 100

    Ptolemy

    Thought that the Earth was round
  • 1500

    Copernicus

    Thought that the Sun was the center of the universe and that everything revolved around it.
  • 1564

    Galileo

    Invented the telescope.

  • Isaac Newton

    • Described the movement of the planets with his laws of motion.
    • Motion of the planets was explained with his theory of gravity.
    • Suggested that the Earth’s gravity caused the moons orbit.

  • Mary Sommerville

    Predicted that there was an undiscovered planet behind Uranus… Neptune was discovered twelve years later.

  • Edwin Hubble

    • Suggested that our galaxy is one of billions and that the universe is expanding.
    • The Hubble telescope is named after him.
    • Einstein had calculated that the universe was either expanding or contracting in 1917, but refused to believe his own predictions.

  • Albert Einstien

    • Showed that time does not pass at the same speed everywhere.
    • Predicted the existence of black holes.
    • Said that a rocket travelling at the speed of light will have a higher mass than one not moving.