A History of Space The Major Milestones in Astrophysics and Astronomy.

A History of Space The Major Milestones in Astrophysics and Astronomy. A History of the Great Discoveries in Astrophysics, Astronomy, and Cosmology. ChaptersAristarchus of Samos First Proposes a Heliocentric (Sun-Centred) Universe â€" 270BCTycho Brahe Observes a Supernova â€" 1572The First Refracting Telescope â€" 1608Galileo’s Discoveries Change the Way we Think about the World â€" 1610Isaac Newton Publishes his Book on Gravity â€" 1687William Herschel Discovers Uranus â€" and Extends our Knowledge of the Solar System â€" 1781Joseph van Fraunhofer Builds the First Spectrometer â€" 1814The Largest Telescope Ever Discovers the Whirlpool Galaxy â€" 1845Neptune Discovered â€" 1846Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Theorises (Accurately) the Possibility of Space Flight â€" 1895Einstein’s Theory of Relativity Blows Astrophysical Minds â€" 1905Edwin Hubble Proves that Galaxies Exist beyond Our Own â€" 1923Cecilia Payne Uses Spectroscopy to Show that Stars are Mainly Hydrogen â€" 1925The Discovery of the Big Bang â€" 1927Hans Bethe Explains what Happens in the Centre of the Sun â€" 1938The First Person on the Moon â€" 1969The First Landing on M ars â€" 1971Proof of a Black Hole â€" 1972NASA’s Voyager 1 Leaves the Solar System and Enters Interstellar Space â€" 2013First Image of a Black Hole â€" 2019The history of astronomical science is a fascinating one.To think that the Mayans and the Ancient Greeks used observational techniques and calculations to monitor and even predict orbits and eclipses â€" over two thousand years ago â€" is quite something. And to consider that astrophysicists could postulate the existence of particular planets and stars before they could even see them is pretty cool too.All this knowledge that these days we take for granted â€" that gravity is a thing, that there are eight planets in our solar system, that our galaxy, the Milky Way, is only one of billions â€" had to be discovered. And discovering things like this in physics is really not an easy task.Here we are going to look at the slow development in our knowledge of astronomy and astrophysics. From the days of the first rudimentary telescop es â€" with which we’d stare into the cosmos â€" to now, when we have shuttles outside of our solar system.It’s a long history, and it is based less on genius discoveries â€" although there are some of those â€" and more on the slow accretion and sharing of knowledge. That’s more realistically how an astrophysicist works â€" and how science works in general.Let’s take a look at some of the great steps forward in our cosmological and astrophysical knowledge.Find out everything you need to know about astronomy! PetarPhysics Teacher 5.00 (11) £40/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors MyriamPhysics Teacher 5.00 (13) £20/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors Dr parikhPhysics Teacher 5.00 (8) £40/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors RubenPhysics Teacher 5.00 (1) £15/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors FrankPhysics Teacher 5.00 (8) £90/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors JidePhysics Teacher 4.80 (5) £30/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors Doroth yPhysics Teacher 5.00 (5) £40/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors RahulPhysics Teacher £20/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutorsAristarchus of Samos First Proposes a Heliocentric (Sun-Centred) Universe â€" 270BCAstronomers were hindered for fifteen hundred years due to the influence of Ptolemy, the Greek mathematician, geographer, and astronomy. Whilst undoubtedly an incredibly smart guy, his commitment to the geocentric model of the universe â€" and his general intellectual authority â€" had scientists going in the wrong direction for centuries.Three hundred years before him, Aristarchus, another Greek thinker, had proposed instead the heliocentric model â€" which suggested that the Earth goes around the Sun. If he hadn’t been ignored, this would have been a major scientific breakthrough.Check out the differences between astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology! The sun is the centre of our solar system - not the EarthTycho Brahe Observes a Supernova â€" 1572It was a common idea among scientists up until this point that ‘the heavens’ could not change. However, Tycho Brahe, the Dutch astronomer shook up this perspective when he witnessed a supernova.At the time, he called it a ‘stella nova’, a new star â€" which influences what we call them now: supernovae. From then on, we realised that things in the universe could indeed change.The First Refracting Telescope â€" 1608At the beginning of what became a revolution in astronomy, a Dutch spectacle-maker named Hans Lippershey attempted to patent a telescope based on refraction.He didn’t succeed â€" but his designs spread across Europe and became the basis for the observational technologies of the future.Galileo’s Discoveries Change the Way we Think about the World â€" 1610We missed out Copernicus, who, in 1543, had suggested that, actually, as Aristarchus had suggested, the Earth goes around the Sun. Yet, his theories did not gain traction until Galileo Galilei finally proved them in 1610.With his own telescope, he found spots on the sun and four of the moons of Jupiter. Not everyone liked his discoveries however, and the Church bothered him all his life â€" claiming that he was a heretic.Find out about our solar system!Isaac Newton Publishes his Book on Gravity â€" 1687One of the great scientific breakthroughs in history came from Isaac Newton â€" yes, the guy with the apple.His discoveries were a little more sophisticated than this, however. His work explained the forces acting between all of the celestial objects, whilst proposing general laws of motion too.His ideas were the basis of physics until Einstein in the early twentieth century. Without the apple, we may never have discovered gravityWilliam Herschel Discovers Uranus â€" and Extends our Knowledge of the Solar System â€" 1781Another break with the physics and astronomy of the ancient world came in 1781, when William Herschel discovered Uranus.The significance of this was greater than just the discovery of another planetary object. This was rather the first time at which scientists had to expand their idea of what the Solar System was â€" as it was previously thought to end at Saturn.Joseph van Fraunhofer Builds the First Spectrometer â€" 1814Into the nineteenth century, inventions abounded. One of the most important of these was Fraunhofer’s spectrometer, the first instrument used to observe and analyse the materials of which stars are made.Stellar spectroscopy analyses the light emitted by stars and, with great sophistication, one can use this evidence to infer the make-up of a distant object’s surface.The Largest Telescope Ever Discovers the Whirlpool Ga laxy â€" 1845Knowledge of galactic distances and structures moved forward with William Parsons’s construction of a mega telescope â€" the biggest such structure created to that day.Through it he could see the Whirlpool Galaxy, over twenty-three million light years away â€" and Parsons was the first person to identify its spiral structure. The thing was, he just didn’t know it was a galaxy.Do you know how a star is formed?Neptune Discovered â€" 1846The amazing thing about the discovery of Neptune is that it was actually discovered without ever having been seen. Rather, two astronomers, John Couch Adams and Urbain Le Verrier, actually inferred its presence â€" as its size means that it has an influence on the orbit of Uranus.In 1846, Johann Galle pointed his telescope in the direction that Le Verrier suggested â€" and, lo and behold, Neptune was there.Take classes here with a Superprof's maths physics tutor. Saturn - image from NASA