History of Astronomy Astronomy Introduction to Astronomy History of Astronomy Questions What were some early civilizations that utilized astronomy in their day to day lives? Who founded the study of astronomy? How has astronomy changed the world? What are the most important discoveries made through research in astronomy? Who discovered the parsec? How did Edwin Hubble change the world? Who are some famous cosmologists? What did Sophists think of cosmology? How did cosmology change during the Renaissance? What were Copernicus's contributions to astronomy? In what ways did the astronomical observations of Galileo support a heliocentric cosmology? How did Kepler's view of the solar system differ from that of Copernicus? Who discovered the size of earth? How did Eratosthenes measure the size of the earth? How was the size of earth first measured? How did scientist measure the size of the earth? How did Eratosthenes determine the circumference of the Earth? How did astronomers originally calculate the distance between the earth and the sun? Who discovered Jupiter? How were the names of the planet decided upon? Who discovered the outer planets? How were they discovered? Which scientists first estimated the age of the earth? What did Edwin Hubble discover? How did his work make a difference to how we understand the universe? How did Hubble find that the objects that were first called spiral nebulae are instead spiral galaxies? When were the first pictures of space taken? What was placed at the center of the greek model of the solar system? When was astronomy first founded? Who discovered cosmic background radiation? Why did Galileo's observations of Venus help to disprove the geocentric model of the solar system? Did we always think that the sun was the centre of the solar system? What evidence is there to support our current knowledge? Did we always think that the sun was the centre of the solar system? What evidence is there to support our current knowledge? How are other galaxies discovered? Who took the first pictures of the earth outside space? When was it taken? Was the first picture of earth taken by a satellite? When was the first picture of the earth taken? What did Andrija Mohorovicic do? What did Andrija Mohorovicic discover? How did Andrija Mohorovicic die? What is the connection between Babylonian cosmology and the Old Testament? Why has Cosmology become a religious battlefield? How is stellar parallax related to the Greeks and the discrediting of the geocentric model? How did the Greeks inability to detect stellar parallax affect their view of the earth and universe? Who first measured the distance from the Earth to the sun? Who first theorized that the earth revolved around the sun? Who is famous for stating that the Earth revolves around the sun, and not the other way around? What scientist first said that the sun revolves around the sun? Who discovered that the earth revolves around the sun and how was it proven? How long did it take for Galileo's' theory on the earth revolving around the sun to be widely accepted? How did Galileo conceptualize that the earth rotates around the sun and not the other way around? Why was Galileo important to the field of astronomy? What events led to the discovery that earth was not the center of the universe? Who developed the classification system that divides galaxies into spiral, elliptical, and irregular and classifies spirals by the size of their nuclear region and the tightness of winding of their arms? How were early astronomers and cultures able to see other planets? What was the first planet to be discovered in our solar system? Who discovered the first exoplanet? How was the location of the Galactic Center first found by Harlow Shapley? Is the precession of the equinoxes a theory? What were the precession of the equinoxes thought to be a result of? What does precession of the equinoxes mean? What was Aristotle's theory of the universe? What event settled the Shapley-Curtis debate about spiral nebulae? How did Kepler and Copernicus believe the universe worked? What did Ptolemy develop? How did Ptolemy's model account for retrograde motion? How did Venus' phases support Copernicus and refuted Ptolemy? What are the contribution of Aristotle to astronomy? How did scientists determine that our sun was a star? What positions do the sun, moon, earth, planets, and stars occupy according to the heliocentric theory? Why was Galileo brought before the inquisition in 1632? Why did the Catholic Church start opposing Copernicus's beliefs? What planet was first discovered? Who discovered it? Early sailors discovered a gradual change in position of the North Star. What did this discovery help to prove? Who discovered planet Mercury? How did Tycho Brahe and Kepler employ the scientific method? Why was Ptolemy s Earth-centered system of epicycles taught throughout Europe for over a thousand years? I've seen that Anaxagoras (500 BCE–428 BCE) was the first to propose that the Moon reflects the Sun's light, but when was that assertion first scientifically proven, and who did it? Question #31692 What is the greatest discovery in astronomy of all time? Question #28077 Introduction to Astronomy View all chapters History of Astronomy Models of the Solar System History of the Telescope Astronomy Basics Next