History of Astronomy Electronic Timeline

Pythagoras ( 570-490 BC)

200

-He believed that everything can be predicted through math -Pythagoras was famous as an expert on the fate of the soul after death, who thought that the soul was immortal and went through a series of reincarnations. Sources http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pythagoras/

Ancient Greek Astronomy (648BC)

200

-They Knew that the the moon and the earth are spherical -Grouped the stars into constellations – different cultures had different constellations, although there were some similarities Sources http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/greek.htm

Aristotle (384-322 BC)

200

• Aristotle followed prior Greek philosophy with an adapted theory of elements.

-Proposed geocentric Universe Sources http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle

Aristarchus of Samos (310-230 BC)

200

-He was the first to formulate plainly the heliocentric theory, the scheme which has the Sun in the center. -He calculated the diameter of the Sun as about seven times the diameter of the Earth Sources http://www.varchive.org/ce/orbit/arisam.htm

Eratosthenes (276-196 BC

200

-Eratosthenes measured the circumference of the Earth -He devised a map system based on latitude and longitude lines Sources http://www.juliantrubin.com/bigten/eratosthenes.html

Hipparchus (190-120BC)

200

-Hipparchus measured the distance from the Earth to the Moon during a solar eclipse that was a total eclipse at Syene and a partial eclipse at Alexandria. -He measured the precession of the Earth's rotation axis. Sources http://www.astro.cornell.edu/academics/courses/astro201/hipparchus.htm

Copernicus (1473-1543)

Jan 1, 1473

-Started the "Copernican Revolution" -He was a mathematician and astronomer who proposed that the sun was stationary in the center of the universe and the earth revolved around it Sources http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/copernicus/
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/copernicus/

Tycho Brahe (1546-1601)

Jan 1, 1546

-Discovered the Supernova -Tycho is credited with the most accurate astronomical observations of his time Sources http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tycho_Brahe

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

Jan 1, 1564

-Invented the telescope -Discovered "4 new plants" -observed sun spots Sources http://www.crystalinks.com/galileo.html

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)

Jan 1, 1571

-Came up with three laws of planetary Motion -He was the founder of "celestial mechanics", having been the first to explain planetary motion Sources http://www.johanneskepler.com/

Isaac Newton (1643-1727)

Jan 1, 1643

-Three Laws of motion -First to built a relfecting telescope
Sources
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/hawking/cosmostar/html/cstars_newt.html

Annie Jump Cannon (1863-1941)

Jan 1, 1863

-She specialized in classifying stars -Pickering conceived the Henry Draper Memorial as a long-term project to obtain optical spectra of as many stars as possible and to index and classify stars by their spectra. Sources http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/cannon.html

George Hale (1868-1938)

Jan 1, 1868

-Studied the Sun -he invented the spectroheliograph Sources http://www.mwoa.org/hale.html

Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1868-1921)

Jan 1, 1868

• Discovered the period of luminosit of cephids.

-Henrietta Swan Leavitt was an unpaid volunteer for five years, working for Edward Charles Pickering and Annie Jump Cannon at the Harvard College Observatory, before being offered 25¢ an hour to help quantify the visual magnitudes of stars.
Sources
http://www.nndb.com/people/047/000170534/

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

Jan 1, 1879

-Theory of relativity -Discovered the Electro-magnetic spectrum
- Won noble prize
Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein

Edwin Hubble (1889-1953)

Jan 1, 1889

-The Hubble law: Galaxies in the Universe are moving towards or away from us. -The Hubble Space Telescope was named after him .
Sources
http://hubblesite.org/the_telescope/hubble_essentials/edwin_hubble.php

Gerald Kuiper (1905-1973)

Jan 1, 1905

-He discovered the Moon of Neptune. -He discovered carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of Mars and the existence of a methane-laced atmosphere above Saturn's satellite Titan in 1944
Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_Kuiper

Bengt Georg Daniel Stromgren (1908-1987)

Jan 1, 1908

-Theorized that there are gas clouds in space

• Swedish astronomer who did important research in stellar structure in the 1930s but is best known for his work on ionized gas clouds – H II regions – around hot stars. Sources http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/S/Stromgren.html

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910-1995)

Jan 1, 1910

• Won Noble prize for evolution of stars.

-Invented the telescope named Chandra
Sources
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1983/chandrasekhar-autobio.html

Grote Reber (1911-2002)

Jan 1, 1911

• First to develope radio telescope.

-Grote Reber donated his telescope to NRAO at Green Bank, WV, and supervised its assembly there in the early 1960s.
Sources
http://www.nrao.edu/whatisra/hist_reber.shtml

James Van Allen (1914-2006)

Jan 1, 1914

-Van Allen radiation belt -Van Allen was involved in the first four Explorer probes, the first Pioneers, several Mariner efforts, and the orbiting geophysical observatory.
Sources
http://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/vanallen.html

Sir Fred Hoyle (1915-2001)

Jan 1, 1915

-Thought there's life in the Universe other than Earth -He has held the position of Plumian Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge University sourcee http://www.coseti.org/hoyle.htm

E. Margaret Burbidge (1919)

Jan 1, 1919

• Leader to end woman discrimination in astronomy

-1st to measure masses + rotation curves of galaxies
Source
http://www.nndb.com/people/692/000168188/

Eugene Shoemaker (1928-1997)

Jan 1, 1928

• Eugene Shoemaker was a member of the Board of Directors of The Spaceguard Foundation,

-One of his aspirations was to be an astronaut and go to the Moon but was thwarted by a medical condition.
Sources
http://www.romesg.com/?p=624
http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/sl9/news81.html

Thomas Mutch (1931-1980)

Jan 1, 1931

-He authored two books, "The Geology of the Moon: Startigraphic View", and, with several colleagues, "The Geology of Mars." -Tim also led the Lander Imaging Team from the Viking Mission to Mars.
Source
http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Geology/colloquia/mutch.html