ASTRONOMERS IN HISTORY

IMPORTANT ASTRONOMERS IN HISTORY

• Aristotle
• Aristarchus
• Ptolemy
• Copernicus
• Kepler and Galileo

ARISTOTLE

• Greek philosopher who lived from 384-322 BCE
• Believed Earth was the center of the solar system
• His idea of parallax was that the stars and sun would change as earth moved

ARISTARCHUS

• Greek astronomer and mathematician
• Most likely founder of the heliocentric model of the solar system
• His idea was not very well accepted but was an impact for astronomy to come
• Lived from about 310-230 BCE

PTOLEMY

• Astronomer, geographer, and mathematician who lived in Alexandria, Egypt
• His book Almagest is one of the oldest books still here today
• Developed a geocentric model used for 14 centuries
• He believed that the planets moved at constant rate
• His "wheels-on-wheels" idea was used to monitor motion for centuries to come

COPERNICUS

• Polish Astronomer
• Felt Ptolemy's model was too complicated
• Adopted Ptolemy's geocentric model and made it simpler
• He lived from 1473-1543

KEPLER

• German mathematician and astronomer
• Felt ellipses were close to a perfect circle
• Formed the three Kepler laws which are still known and remembered today
• Was born as Johannes Kepler and lived from 1571-1630

GALILEO

• Scientist who made up the scientific methods of questioning
• He made many great changes to the telescope
• Figured out that earth wasn't the only thing being orbited
• Gave support for the heliocentric model
• Study moons now known as the Galilean satellites. He lived from 1564-1642

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