1. Astronomy
The Walker School

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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 Solar System

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.

9. 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 Saturn
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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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. 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 Uranus
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
40 foot
light other than visible
telescope
light.

16. 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.

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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.

22. 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

23. 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.

24. •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

25. 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.

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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

29. 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

30. • April 23, 1858-

october 4, 1947
 • Founder of the
quantum theory

31. 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


32. 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.