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240 BCE
Eratosthenes 276 BC-194 BC
He Found the circumference of the earth. This is important because in modern times we have used the earths circumference to define fundamental units of measurement of the length such as the nautical mile and the metre -
140
Claudius Ptolemy 100 AD-?
In 140 AD he came up with the Ptolemaic Theory which was the idea that planets move around in a circle around the earth. This may have been important because it is sort of similar to Kepler's law's where planets do orbit in a circle just not around the earth. -
1543
Nicolaus Copernicus 1473-1543
In 1543 he established that planets orbit the sun and not the earth. This was and still is important to astronomy because we still use this today. -
Nov 11, 1572
Tycho Brahe 1546-1601
In 1572 he discovered a new star which actually a super nova.
This discovery is important to astronomy because his precise measurements he could prove the super nova never changed, which contradicted the belief that everything revolved around the earth. -
Johannes Kepler 1571-1630
Defined the laws of planetary motion.His laws of planetary motion describe how the planets orbit in ellipses and and the relationship between the sun, planets and their orbits. We still use his laws today and his work influenced other astronomers such as Isaac Newton. -
Sir Isaac Newton 1643-1727
He was the first to make the theory that gravity applied to all objects. It helped prove that all objects are subject to gravity and are attracted towards each other. -
Albert Einstein 1879-1955
In 1905 he introduced the Special Relativity Theory. This is important because we still use this theory today. One of the most famous aspects of this theory is how fast light travels through space.
