AstronomyThe Walker School

Aristarchus lived from 310 B.C to approximately 230 B.C.

He made his discovery on the Greek island of Samos.

He was the first to propose the idea of a heliocentric solar system, or a solar system that revolves around the sun, instead of the earth.

For his works, he was greatly influenced by Pythagorean Philolaus.

Archimedes’ book, The Sand Reckoner advances on Aristarchus’ theory by stating the stars are much farther from the earth than he once thought.

Born in Egypt after AD 85, died in Egypt in AD 165

Wrote several treatises, The Almagest is the only surviving astronomical treatise.

Contains tables that Ptolemy used to predict the future positions of the planets, as well as a star catalogue, appropriated from Hipparchus’s star catalogue. (so Hipparchus aided him)

Estimated that the sun was a distance of 1210 Earth radii away from the earth.

1473-1543 A native of Poland, Copernicus

was the first astronomer to figure that the Earth was not the center of the universe, by using “scientifically-based heliocentric cosmology”

Helped to kick-off the Scientific Revolution.

Galileo improved Copernicus’ studies.

Helped us today with universal placement, his work jumpstarted tons of scientists’ work with astronomy.

1564-1642 He was famous for making the

telescope, trying to prove Copernicus’ theories, and for discovering the moons of Jupiter. This helped the reasoning that the earth is not the center of the universe.

Galileo was impeded by the Catholic church, because what he suggested was against the teachings of the Vatican.

His work was not accepted until 1741.

Hans Lippershey lived from 1570 to 1619.

He made his great innovations in the Netherlands from the town of Middelburg.

Lippershey is famous for creating the first practical telescope.

With the telescope, astronomers were able to observe the stars more closely than with the naked eye.

Lippershey was apparently inspired to create the telescope when he noticed children playing with lenses. The children, by placing one lens in front of the other, were able to see objects more closely.

Galileo would improve on Lippershey’s telescope and after that, Niccolo Zucchi would eventually create the first reflecting telescope. Today’s telescopes can now work in wavelengths such as gamma rays or radio waves.

1546-1601 Tycho was famous for

discovering as well as naming what is known as a supernova. This was helpful because he found an anomaly in the parallax measurements. He was assisted by Johannes Kepler.

Later, much of his theories were discredited, but what was not is considered to be a major help in the scientific revolution.

Johannes Kepler lived from 1571 to 1630.

He got much of his education from the University of Linz in Austria, where he made many of his discoveries.

His contribution to astronomy was proposing his laws of planetary motion, which helps to detect the movement of planets in the solar system.

The law helped us find out how earth and the other planets moved around the sun.

His observation to the Great Comet of 1577 enhanced his interest in astronomy. He learned very much from Ptolemaic and Copernican system of planetary motion. His knowledge of heliocentrism helped him develop his theories as well.

Isaac Newton used this law to deduce his laws of gravitational motion, which explains the gravitational attraction between bodies of mass.

Solar System

April 14, 1629 - July 8, 1695 Netherlands Huygens discovered the first of

Saturn's moons, Titan. He also observed and sketched the Orion Nebula

Proposed Saturn's ring is solid He used a 50 power refracting

telescope that he designed himself

On May 3, 1661, he observed planet Mercury transit over the Sun, using the telescope of telescope maker Richard Reeves in London together with astronomer Thomas Streete and Richard Reeves

Saturn

1642-1727 Englishman who was responsible

for describing universal gravitation & the 3 laws of motion (among other discoveries)

By combining Kepler’s laws of planetary motion with his own theory of gravitation, Newton proved that the movements of objects in Earth and of celestial bodies are under the control of the same set of natural laws.

Important to understanding our place in the universe mainly with placement and gravity. How we know our literal “placement” is much in thanks to Newton.

Newton’s Telescope

1656-1742 Englishman remembered for his own

discovery, Halley’s Comet. Influenced by John Flamsteed, the

astronomer royal, at Oxford University, who catalogued Northern stars.

Wanted to “compile a catalogue” of his own, of stars in the Southern Hemisphere

Traveled to St. Helena Island and recorded the celestial points of stars and comets.

Ended up succeeding Flamsteed as astronomer royal.

Helped us today with placement of stars, like with latitude and longitude, and Halley’s Comet is a reoccurring celestial body which can be seen every 75 or 76 years.

Halley’s Comet

James Bradley lived from March 1693 to July 1762.

He made his discoveries in the United Kingdom. He was taught from the University of Oxford.

His famous discovery was discovering the aberration of light. Aberration of light helps to detect movement of solar objects.

This eventually enabled Bradley to measure the speed of light and helps monitor the earth’s movement around the sun.

Bradley was actually studying stellar parallax, which is meant to help determine distances of objects. When he could not find the parallax he anticipated, he figured out it was from aberration of light.

Bradley’s theory helped him explain the shifting of the earth’s axis.

November 7, 1728-February 14, 1779

He was an English explorer, navigator, and cartographer.

Cook applied himself to the study of algebra, geometry, trigonometry, navigation, and astronomy, all skills he would need one day to command his own ship.

Cook participated in the Transit of Venus and helped to measure it on a South Pacific island. The transit was an effort to determine the distance from Earth to the sun.

Born in 1730, died 1817, lived in France

First catalogue of deep sky objects (nebulae, star cluster)—Messier objects

Joseph Nicolas Delisle, a fellow astronomer, advised Messier to keep records of all his findings.

It was also improved on when various scientists increased his lists to include 100+ objects.

15 November 1738-25 August 1822

He lived in England and made his discoveries in England

He first discovered Uranus on March 13, 1781 and also built some telescopes which he made more than 400 telescopes with the help of his sister Caroline

He discovered one of the planets in our universe and found that there are other forms of invisible light other than visible light.

Uranus

40 foot telescope

1746-1826 He discovered the

asteroid Cerces, which is the largest asteroid in the belt. He also published a star catalogue. This also helped with the parallax measurements, which was improved upon by Fredrick Bessel.

1749-1827 Frenchman who described

the “nebular hypothesis” of the solar system

Worked a lot with connecting math and physics with astronomy

One of the scientists that noticed the existence of black holes as well as the idea of gravitational collapse

July 22, 1784- March 17, 1846 Kulenkamp and

Bremen(Lilienthal Observatory)

Credited with being the first to use parallax in calculating the distance to a star

Believed that parallax would give the first accurate measurement of interstellar distances

There was a race between a few astronomers that were trying to prove parallax

28th of December, 1798-23 November 1844

Worked as a scientific and practical astronomer

First person to measure the distance to Alpha Centuri

Also studied parallax, but was beaten to the punch by Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel who published a parallax of 10.4 light year

1803-1853 Lived and worked in Prague Discovered the Doppler

effect Published his most notable

work on the colored light of the binary stars and some other stars of the heavens and with that principle, he observed the frequency of a wave and used that concept explaining the color of binary stars

1818-1889 Famous for discovering

a comet in Massachusetts, which was named after her.

She was impeded by another astronomer who claimed to have discovered the comet first, but Maria was chosen over the other.

March 24, 1835-January 7, 1893

Worked at Vienna Academy of Sciences

Discovered the Physical Power Law, which states the total radiation from a blackbody

Was aided by John Tyndall

12 March 1824 – 17 October 1887 Lived and worked in Germany Kirchhoff is perhaps best known for

being the first to explain the dark lines in the sun's spectrum as caused by absorption of particular wavelengths as the light passes through gases in the sun's atmosphere

He created the laws of spectroscopy. His method allows us to chart and analyze the chemical properties of matter and gases by looking at the bands in their optical spectrum

Used the study spectroscopy His students used the texts which he

wrote which contributed to the strong development of theoretical physics in Germany in the forty years after his death.

•1824-1907 •Developing the Kelvin scale

of absolute temperature measurement

•Important work in the mathematical analysis of electricity and thermodynamics

Cambridge, England; Glasgow, Scotland

Considered the ideas which gave rise to the second law of thermodynamics which then lead to his speculation about the heat death of the universe

February 22, 1857- January 1, 1894

He lived in Germany and made most of his discoveries in Germany

In 1885, Hertz became a full professor at the University of Karlsruhe where he discovered electromagnetic waves. He was the first to satisfactorily demonstrate the existence of electromagnetic waves by building an apparatus to produce and detect VHF or UHF radio waves.

July 4, 1868-December 12, 1921

She lived in Massachusetts

She noted thousands of variable stars in images of the Magellanic Clouds

It helped find the patterns of the stars in our universe

Magellanic Clouds

January 13, 1864 –August 30, 1928 Laboratory of Hermann von

Helmholtz Discovered Wien’s Displacement

Law Relates the maximum emission of a

blackbody to its temperature Planck was a colleague that aided

Wilhelm

November 20, 1889 – September 28, 1953

Mount Wilson Observatory, near Pasadena, California

Using the Hooker Telescope, Hubble identified Cepheid variables in several spiral nebulae, including the Andromeda Galaxy

Demonstrated the existence of other galaxies besides the Milky Way

He used the Hooker Telescope, then the world's largest telescope, to aid him in his discoveries

Gérard de Vaucouleurs created a modified version of the Hubble sequence

Born November 11, 1875 in Mulberry, IN

Died November 8, 1969 in Flagstaff, AZ

Spent his entire career at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, where he was named director in 1926

1st to discover shift of spectral lines in galaxies

Hired Clyde Tombaugh, and supervised the work that discovered Pluto

Has a Lunar crater, Martian crater, and an asteroid named after him.

The new science of spectroscopy helped him see the spectral lines of the galaxies shift

• April 23, 1858-october 4, 1947

• Founder of the quantum theory

March 14, 1879 - April 18, 1955

Studied in Switzerland The maximum speed

limit of light affects measurements of time and space

Helped determine how light travels through space

Worked alone

February 4, 1906 – January 17, 1997

Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona

Tombaugh is best known for discovering the dwarf planet Pluto in 1930

Gave Pluto the status of being a planet

Tombaugh used a 13-inch astrograph to take photographs of the sky

In 1930, soon after Pluto's discovery the first astronomer to suggest that Pluto was part of a trans-Neptunian population was Frederick C. Leonard.