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1500 BCE
Aristotle
In this time period, Aristotle was the big man on campus. He was a Greek philosopher who first came up with the idea of the "geocentric solar system". His work was truly astounding, however most of it was proven incorrect. -
100
Ptolemy
The astronomer, Ptolemy, was the one who went further into Aristotle's ideas, creating a full-fledged diagram of our solar system. However, we later learn that this view is still incorrect. -
Jun 6, 1200
Roger Bacon
A Franciscan monk by the name of Roger Bacon favored a system of scientific experimentation instead of "The Church said it is so; therefore it is so." -
Apr 9, 1500
Nicolaus Copernicus
Copernicus opposed Ptolemy's view of the solar system, and created a heliocentric system where the sun is the center of the solar system; not the earth. However, his ideas were not quite right. -
Johannes Kepler
Due to the lack of instruments and mathematics in his arsenal, Copernicus could never really prove his theory. Eventually, hope came in the form of Johannes Kepler who fine-tuned the theory of a heliocentric solar system. He also wrote down the laws of planetary motion, even further proving the heliocentric solar system. -
Galileo Galilei
The heliocentric system had been proven but the Roman Catholic Church still didn't believe in it. The church, and subsequently everyone a part of it, didn't want anyone saying that the earth was not the center of the universe. The Italian scientist, Galileo Galilei, was an enemy to the church, as he sought out to confirm that the sun is actually at the center of the universe. When he showed everyone his findings, he was labeled a heretic and was threatened with excommunication. -
Isaac Newton
Now this guy really figured out the whole heliocentric system. Sir Isaac Newton published a book expanding on previous astronomer's ideas. In the expansion, he discovered that gravity exists and it's the reason all the planets in our solar system orbit the sun. With his findings, he came up with the law of universal gravitation.