who made discoveries in astronomy

Famous astronomers: How these scientists shaped astronomy

• Eratosthenes of Cyrene When most people believed the world was flat, the notable Greek mathematician, astronomer and geographer Eratosthenes (276–195 B.C.) used the sun to measure the size of the round Earth, according to NASA . ...
• Claudius Ptolemy ...
• Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi ...
• Nicolaus Copernicus ...
• Johannes Kepler ...
• Galileo Galilei ...
• Giovanni Cassini ...
• Christiaan Huygens ...

Full Answer

Who was the first to study astronomy?

The ancient Greeks were some of the first people to study the sky and understand astronomy. They realized the Earth was a sphere, or a three-dimensional circular object, and tried to measure its ...

Who founded the study of astronomy?

When discussing who was the founder of modern astronomy, we must not fail to make of the great Nicolaus Copernicus. His name is highly noted in this field, as he is the pioneer of what we now study and practice in the field of modern astronomy.

Who is considered the father of astronomy?

The Father of Modern Astronomy If you ask anyone who was the most influential astronomer of all time, it is a safe bet that the majority would name Galileo Galilei. His contribution to observational astronomy was immense, earning him a place as one of the greatest scientists of all time, notable for his use of the scientific method in finding ...

Who is the founder of astronomy?

REV. MARTIN S. BRENNAN Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543), the founder of modern astronomy, was destined to become, through the publication of his heliocentric theory, one of the seminal figures in the history of scientific thought.

How did they discover astronomy?

Their observations and investigations were strengthened by the invention of the telescope in the early 17th century. Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei popularized the use of telescopes to study and discover celestial objects, including Jupiter's four biggest moons. In his honour, they are known as the Galilean moons.

Who is the scientist of astronomy?

Famous Astronomers and AstrophysicistsClassical PeriodGalileo Galilei1564-1642 ItalianJohannes Kepler1571-1630 GermanJohn Babtist Riccioli1598-1671 ItalianGiovanni Cassini1625-1712 Italian-born French104 more rows•Jan 22, 2020

What was the first astronomy discovery?

The first documented records of systematic astronomical observations date back to the Assyro-Babylonians around 1000 BCE. From this cradle of civilisation in Mesopotamia – in the southern part of present-day Iraq – astronomers had built up knowledge of the celestial bodies and recorded their periodic motions.

What discoveries were made in astronomy?

You can't, so here are the ten most important things astronomers throughout the ages have discovered:The Movement of the Stars and Planets. The Discovery. ... The Heliocentric Model. The Discovery. ... Kepler's Laws. The Discovery. ... The Moons of Jupiter. ... Herschel's Map. ... The Theory of Relativity. ... The Expanding Universe. ... Radio Astronomy.More items...•

Who first discovered stars?

Galileo Galilei, an Italian scientist, lived from 1564 to 1642. In 1610, he was the first person we know of to use the newly invented telescope to look at the stars and planets.

Who first discovered science?

Aristotle is considered by many to be the first scientist, although the term postdates him by more than two millennia. In Greece in the fourth century BC, he pioneered the techniques of logic, observation, inquiry and demonstration.

Who discovered planets?

Even though it had been observed in the sky since prehistory, it wasn't until Galileo came along with his trusty telescope that more was found out about it. In fact, what he saw surrounding the planet led to one of his most important discoveries.

Who first discovered galaxies?

astronomer Charles MessierThe first galaxies were identified in the 17th Century by the French astronomer Charles Messier, although at the time he did not know what they were. Messier, who was a keen observer of comets, spotted a number of other fuzzy objects in the sky which he knew were not comets.

Who were the first people to study space?

The first human in space was the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who made one orbit around Earth on April 12, 1961, on a flight that lasted 108 minutes.

What is the greatest discovery in astronomy?

Top 10 Greatest Discoveries In AstronomyCosmic Microwave Background Radiation. ... Dark Energy. ... Dark Matter. ... Exoplanets. ... Black Holes. ... General Relativity. ... Red-shifting of Objects in the Universe. ... Gamma Ray Bursts.More items...

Who discovered black holes?

Roger Penrose (left) proved black holes are real objects. Andrea Ghez (center) and Reinhard Genzel (right) showed that one weighing 4 million times as much as the Sun lurks in the heart of our galaxy. Since Penrose's advances, astronomers have found a wealth of evidence for black holes.

What is the biggest discovery in space?

Dead Star's Cannibalism of Its Planetary System Is Most Far-Reaching Ever Witnessed.Astronomers Find Evidence for Most Powerful Pulsar in Distant Galaxy.Astronomers Discover a Multiplanet System Nearby.New Maps of Asteroid Psyche Reveal an Ancient World of Metal and Rock.More items...

Who is the most famous astronomer?

Galileo Galilei The astronomer (also mathematician, physicist and philosopher) turned the new observational tool toward the heavens, where he discovered the four primary moons of Jupiter (now known as the Galilean moons), as well as the rings of Saturn (opens in new tab).

Who is the first Indian astronomer?

AryabhataAryabhata, also called Aryabhata I or Aryabhata the Elder, (born 476, possibly Ashmaka or Kusumapura, India), astronomer and the earliest Indian mathematician whose work and history are available to modern scholars.

What are the four astronomers?

Top four most famous astronomersGalileo. Galileo Galilei (say that three times as fast as you can) was an Italian astronomer famous for discovering craters on the Moon, the stars of the Milky Way and is also credited with the creation of the first pendulum clock. ... Isaac Newton. ... Albert Einstein. ... Charles Messier.

Is Stephen Hawking an astronomer?

Hawking has beaten those odds and revolutionized modern science and astronomy.

Who discovered that planets travel in ellipses?

Using detailed measurements of the path of planets kept by Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) determined that planets traveled around the sun not in circles but in ellipses. In so doing, he calculated three laws involving the motions of planets that astronomers still use in calculations today.

Who was the first person to observe the Milky Way?

Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (903–986), known as Azophi to Westerners, made the first known observation of a group of stars outside of the Milky Way, the Andromeda galaxy. Nicolaus Copernicus (Image credit: Public Domain)

What was the Kepler era?

"The era in which Kepler lived was one of tremendous upheaval and change ," said Dan Lewis, curator of the history of science and technology at the Huntington Library in San Marino, Calif. "Religious leaders were reluctant to relinquish their ideas about the heavens. Talk by astronomers of a sky filled with objects moving in non-circular orbits and other phenomena that went against an Earth-centric model threatened their beliefs. As a result, Kepler and his first wife, Barbara, created a code with which to write letters to each other so that their correspondence would not put them at risk of persecution."

What do scientists see in the night sky?

Over the centuries, a geocentric view of the universe — with Earth at the center of everything — gave way to the proper understanding we have today of an expanding universe in which our galaxy is but one of billions. On this list are some of the most famous scientists from the early days of astronomy through the modern era, and a summary of some of their achievements.

What was Newton's greatest achievement?

His improvements on the telescope allowed him to make the first observations of Saturn's rings and to discover its moon, Titan. English astronomer Sir Isaac Newton (1643–1727) is most famous for his work on forces, specifically gravity.

What is the geocentric view of the universe?

Over the centuries, a geocentric view of the universe — with Earth at the center of everything — gave way to the proper understanding we have today of an expanding universe in which our galaxy is but one of billions. On this list are some of the most famous scientists from the early days of astronomy through the modern era, ...

What did Einstein say about the universe?

Einstein suggested that the laws of physics are the same throughout the universe, that the speed of light in a vacuum is constant, and that space and time are linked in an entity known as space-time, which is distorted by gravity.

What is the history of astronomy?

Astronomy is the oldest of the natural sciences, dating back to antiquity, with its origins in the religious, mythological, cosmological, calendrical, and astrological beliefs and practices of prehistory: vestiges of these are still found in astrology, a discipline long interwoven with public ...

Where did astronomy originate?

The origins of Western astronomy can be found in Mesopotamia, the "land between the rivers" Tigris and Euphrates, where the ancient kingdoms of Sumer, Assyria, and Babylonia were located. A form of writing known as cuneiform emerged among the Sumerians around 3500–3000 BC.

How did astronomy play a significant role in religious matters?

Astronomy played a considerable part in religious matters for fixing the dates of festivals and determining the hours of the night. The titles of several temple books are preserved recording the movements and phases of the sun, moon and stars. The rising of Sirius ( Egyptian: Sopdet, Greek: Sothis) at the beginning of the inundation was a particularly important point to fix in the yearly calendar.

What was the Babylonian astronomy?

Babylonian astronomy was the basis for much of what was done in Greek and Hellenistic astronomy, in classic al Indian astronomy, in Sassanian Iran, in Byzantium, in Syria, in Islamic astronomy, in Central Asia, and in Western Europe.

What was the largest source of support for the study of astronomy?

The study of astronomy has received financial and social support from many institutions, especially the Church , which was its largest source of support between the 12th century to the Enlightenment.

When did astronomy start in Europe?

After the significant contributions of Greek scholars to the development of astronomy, it entered a relatively static era in Western Europe from the Roman era through the 12th century. This lack of progress has led some astronomers to assert that nothing happened in Western European astronomy during the Middle Ages. Recent investigations, however, have revealed a more complex picture of the study and teaching of astronomy in the period from the 4th to the 16th centuries.

When was astronomy introduced to China?

Astronomy in China has a long history. Detailed records of astronomical observations were kept from about the 6th century BC, until the introduction of Western astronomy and the telescope in the 17th century.

What was the first major work of astronomy in Arabic?

The first major Arabic work of astronomy is the Zij al-Sindh by al-Khwarizimi. The work contains tables for the movements of the Sun, the Moon, and the five planets known at the time. The work is significant as it introduced Ptolemaic concepts into Islamic sciences. This work also marks the turning point in Arabic astronomy.

Who discovered the period-luminosity relation?

It opened a whole new branch of possibilities of measuring distances on the universe, and this discovery was the basis for the work done by Edwin Hubble on extragalactic astronomy.

What did Plato believe about the universe?

It promotes the idea that everything in the universe moves in harmony and that the Sun, Moon, and planets move around Earth in perfect circles.

What planet did the Russian probe land on?

The Russian probe Venera 9 lands on the surface of Venus and sends back the first picture of its surface. The first probe to land on another planet, Venera 7 in 1970, had no camera. Both break down within an hour in the hostile atmosphere.

What theory did Karl Schwarzschild use to explain the black hole?

German physicist Karl Schwarzschild uses Albert Einstein 's theory of general relativity to lay the groundwork for black hole theory. He suggests that if any star collapse to a certain size or smaller, its gravity will be so strong that no form of radiation will escape from it.

What is the name of the method used to measure the distance of a star from Earth to the Sun?

Friedrich Bessel successfully uses the method of stellar parallax, the effect of Earth's annual movement around the Sun, to calculate the distance to 61 Cygni, the first star other than the Sun to have its distance from Earth measured. Bessel's is a truly accurate measurement of stellar positions, and the parallax technique establishes a framework for measuring the scale of the universe.

What is Johannes Kepler's new astronomy?

In this and later works, he announces his three laws of planetary motion, replacing the circular orbits of Plato with elliptical ones. Almanacs based on his laws prove to be highly accurate.

What are the most important things that astronomers have discovered?

You can’t, so here are the ten most important things astronomers throughout the ages have discovered: 10. The Movement of the Stars and Planets. The Discovery. It’s tough to wade through a couple thousand years of ancient Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, Indian, Chinese, Mayan and Persian astronomical history to pick out the highlights, ...

What did Johannes Kepler discover?

8. Kepler’s Laws. The Discovery. In 1609, a German astronomer named Johannes Kepler told the world that planets moved around the sun on elliptical routes, not in perfect circles as was commonly believed. Yeah, you know science can be boring when ellipses instead of circles is one of its most important discoveries.

How many extrasolar planets are there?

Nearly 500 extrasolar planets are now known to exist, and that’s just the beginning (right now astronomers can only spot ones that are massive). As more and more planets are found, it’s only a matter of time until the most important astronomical discovery in history is made: a planet full of benevolent and sexy aliens.

What are the two most fundamental concepts of astronomy?

The realisation that the stars in the sky follow fixed, predicable patterns, along with the discovery of planets that follow their own paths, are the two most basic, fundamental concepts of astronomy. And also astrology, an equally important field of study.

What evidence did Galileo give to Copernicus?

Remember when we said it took a while for heliocentrism to be accepted? Galileo’s discovery was the most important piece of evidence presented in support of Copernicus’ theory—the moons offered undeniable proof of celestial bodies that orbited something other than Earth. They also proved that planets other than Earth had moons, just in case it wasn’t already clear that we’re not special.

What did Jansky discover?

Scientists that followed up on Jansky’s discovery found that there are all sorts of radio waves coming at us from space, and the sources of most of them are celestial objects that can’t be seen with other methods . Radio astronomy soon turned into a huge field that’s been responsible for the discovery of many stars and galaxies, as well as brand new classes of objects like quasars and pulsars. I don’t really know what those are, but they sound badass so this discovery must be important.

Who was the first person to demonstrate the math behind the idea of heliocentric model?

Astronomers had speculated about heliocentrism (the idea that the Earth revolves around the sun, not the other way around) since ancient times, but in 1543 Copernicus was the first person to actually demonstrate the math behind the idea to prove it was a viable concept.

Gaia mapping the Milky Way

Gaia’s all-sky view of the Milky Way based on the measurements of almost 1.7 billion stars. Credit: ESA

The explosion of exoplanet exploration

An artist’s impression of the Kepler space telescope. Credit: NASA/Ames Research Center/W. Stenzel/D. Rutter

Cassini spies water jets over Enceladus

21st November 2009. A view of Enceladus’s south pole. The amazing fissures along the moon’s linear depressions, known as its ‘tiger stripes’, emit icy particles, water vapour and organic compounds from the moon’s surface. (Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)

Phosphine on Venus

An artist’s impression of Venus, inset showing a representation of phosphine molecule. Credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser / L. Calçada & NASA / JPL / Caltech

Methane on Mars

Mars has been the target of more missions over the past few decades than any other object, and together they have told us a roughly coherent story about the Red Planet’s past.

Rosetta explores a comet

Artist’s impression showing Rosetta over Comet 67P, with the Philae lander approaching for touch-down. Credit: ESA

New Horizons flies by Pluto

The first images of Pluto sent back from New Horizons revealed the dwarf planet’s icy heart. Credit: NASA/JPL

Who discovered the glob of light?

University of Arizona astronomer Christina Williams noticed a strange glob of light resonating from her instruments one day in 2019—and it turned out to be one of the biggest discoveries of the year.

What is the field of astronomy?

Right now, dozens of instruments, rovers, satellites, telescopes, probes, explorers, and other astonishing technological wonders are floating through space, taking pictures, collecting samples, and even driving around on other planets. Few scientific fields have grown more rapidly and more impressively in the last few decades than the field of astronomy. The branch of science that deals with space, the physical universe, and its many celestial objects is enjoying a golden age right now, with astonishing discoveries piling up every month—and for astronomers, 2019 was a banner year.

What are the most important discoveries of 2019?

The year 2019 revealed dead stars that are so big they shouldn’t be able to exist, massive ice stores hidden beneath the surface of Mars, and entire galaxies that date back billions of years to the earliest moments of the universe’s birth. Some discoveries will change how scientists collect data, add new pieces to puzzles that have baffled scientists for generations, or help astronomers protect their equipment in space. Other discoveries don’t have any immediate practical applications but are simply so cool that they made headlines around the world.

How many dwarf galaxies are there?

In one of the odder discoveries of the year, scientists identified 19 previously unknown dwarf galaxies —but that’s not the strangest part. All 19 were missing dark matter, the mysterious, invisible mass that emits no light but exerts a gravitational pull. Scientists have no idea why the new galaxies are void of dark matter or how a galaxy could exist without it.

How big is a neutron star?

Small but extremely dense, neutron stars usually measure only about 12 miles in diameter, but they can have a mass of 100 million tons. This one measures 15 miles in diameter but has a mass 2.14 times greater than that of the sun, which is so massive that scientists previously thought such a find to be impossible.

What planets are dead stars?

The year 2019 revealed dead stars that are so big they shouldn’t be able to exist, massive ice stores hidden beneath the surface of Mars, and entire galaxies that date back billions of years to the earliest moments of the universe’s birth.

What is the new activity of the sun?

In 2019, instruments on NASA’s Parker Solar Probe relayed some surprising information to scientists back on Earth. The probe found that energetic parti cles emanating from the sun are much more varied and numerous than previously thought.

How has astronomy contributed to society?

Astronomy’s contributions to society have only grown more important in the thousands of years since then. The digital camera in your DSLR and smartphone — the devices fueling the rise of social media — likely wouldn’t be what they are today without decades spent by astronomers pushing their limits. Wi-fi was invented by an astronomer trying to sharpen images from his telescope. Even our ideas about the future of Earth were shaped by astronomers’ observations of the runaway global greenhouse effect on Venus — and what it meant for climate change on our own planet.

How did astronomy impact our culture?

From the earliest days of civilization, astronomy has had an outsized impact on our culture. Ancient humans gave names to the constellations and tracked them so they knew when to plant their crops. Astrologers kept a careful watch on the sky for any change that might foretell doom.

What is the ionosphere?

This region is where incoming solar and cosmic radiation ionize our planet’s atmosphere, knocking away electrons from the atoms there.

Where is the largest telescope in the world?

This instrument, owned by the military and run by astronomers at both the U.S. Naval Observatory and Lowell Observatory, is the biggest telescope of its kind.

Who was the first person to show that the Sun uses nuclear fusion to turn hydrogen into helium?

In many places across the world, astronomy keeps the lights on. In the 1930s, German-American astronomer Hans Bethe showed that nuclear reactions are what power our Sun and all other stars. His work described how the Sun uses nuclear fusion to turn hydrogen into helium, releasing huge amounts of energy.

Who was the engineer that helped the Apollo program?

During the Apollo program, Charles Yost, an engineer at North American Aviation Inc., was tapped to work on absorption technology for the command module that carried astronauts to the Moon. Then, just a few years later, NASA enlisted that experience again.

Who was the radio physicist who used the death ray to down enemy planes?

As Britain grew increasingly concerned about German air raids, the country’s defense department asked radio physicist Robert Watson-Watt about employing the technology as a kind of death ray to down enemy planes.

Overview

Early history

Ancient times

Middle Ages

Renaissance and Early Modern Europe

Modern astronomy

See also

Historians of astronomy