History:
Historical Figures | wwu.edu
- c. 90 - 168 Claudius Ptolemy Alexandria, Egypt
He promoted the (geocentric) idea that the Earth was the center of the Universe and that all things revolved around it.
The writings of Ptolemy include names and outlines of 48 constellations that are still in use today.
- 1473 - 1543 Nicolaus Copernicus - Sun was more likely to be in the center than the Earth.
- 1564 - 1642 Galileo Galilei - He agreed with Copernicus that the Earth and other planets revolved around the Sun. For promoting this and other science, he was arrested and tried for heresy by the Roman Catholic Church.
- Constructed a refractor telescope with which he viewed craters on the Moon, the phases of Venus, and the rings of Saturn.
- 1571 - 1630 Johannes Kepler - Kepler articulated three laws of planetary motion.
- 1642 - 1727 Isaac Newton - He designed a new type of reflecting telescope.
He used a prism to show that white light is actually made of colors. His laws of motion and gravity are the basis for understanding Kepler's laws of planetary orbits.
- 1656-1742 Edmund Halley - Worked out a theory of the orbits of comets, concluding that the comet of 1682 (which still bears his name) was periodic.
- 1868 - 1921 Henrietta Leavitt - Harvard College Observator - Studying variable stars in the Magellanic Clouds, she discovered that certain variable stars have a cycle that corresponds to their luminosity, which can be used to calculate the distance of a star from the Earth
- 1889 - 1953 Edwin Hubble - Discovered that there are galaxies outside the Milky Way and that they are receding.
- 1879 - 1955 Albert Einstein - New perspective on gravity called the General Relativity.
- The nature of light, gravity, and time.
- And much more.
Events:
Missions - NASA Solar System Exploration
As of December 2021 more than 250 robotic spacecraft—and 24 humans—have ventured into space since we first began exploring beyond Earth’s atmosphere in 1958.
Orbits
See Satellite Orbits
Gaia 2013 L2 measuring the positions, distances and motions of stars
Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) L2 Studying the nature of the universe by mapping background microwave radiation.
Links:
Historical Figures | wwu.edu
Hubble Images
Webb Telescope
Links:
Glossary at hubblesite.org
Science