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Isaac newton
Newton made up the laws of motion, law of universal gravitation and basis for classical physics -
Wiliam Herschel
He developed a cosmogony—a theory concerning the origin of the universe: the stars originally were scattered throughout infinite space, in which attractive forces gradually organized them into even more fragmented and tightly packed clusters. -
Pierre-simon Laplace
French astronomer Pierre-Simon Laplace publishes his nebular hypothesis, arguing that the planets formed from a mass of incandescent gas -
Percival Lowell
American astronomer who predicted the existence of a planet beyond the orbit of Neptune and initiated the search that ended in the discovery of Pluto. -
Harlow Shapley
He proved that our solar system is only a peripheral member of our galaxy. -
Henrietta Leavitt
She discovered the relation between the luminosity and the period of Cepheid variable stars. -
Willem de Sitter
He developed theoretical models of the universe based on Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity. -
Georges Lemaître
Belgian astronomer and cosmologist who formulated the modern big-bang theory, which holds that the universe began in a cataclysmic explosion of a small, primeval “super-atom.” -
Albert Einstein
His equations predicted that the universe is dynamic—expanding or contracting. This contradicted the prevailing view that the universe was static, so he reluctantly introduced a “cosmological term” to stabilize his model of the universe. -
Edwin Hubble
He discovered that all galaxies seemed to be receding from us with velocities that increased in proportion to their distance from us - a relationship now known as Hubble's Law. -
Fred Hoyle
His theory holds both that the universe is expanding and that matter is being continuously created to keep the mean density of matter in space constant. -
Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson
They discovered the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB), the ancient light that began saturating the universe 380,000 years after its creation.