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Astronomy was used by early cultures for a variety of reasons. These include timekeeping, navigation, spiritual and religious practices, and agricultural planning. Ancient astronomers used their observations to chart the skies in an effort to learn about the workings of the universe.
Mayan astronomers discover an 18.7-year cycle in the rising and setting of the Moon.From this they created the first almanacs – tables of the movements of the Sun, Moon, and planets for the use in astrology.
The Wilson Chronology of Science and Technology: A Record of Scientific Discovery and Technological Invention, from the Stone Age to the Information Age. New York : H.W. Wilson. ISBN 978-0-8242-0933-9. Rushdī Rāshid; Régis Morelon (1996). Encyclopedia of History of Arabic Science: Astronomy- theoretical and applied. Psychology Press.
The following is a list of astronomers, astrophysicists and other notable people who have made contributions to the field of astronomy.They may have won major prizes or awards, developed or invented widely used techniques or technologies within astronomy, or are directors of major observatories or heads of space-based telescope projects.
1632 – Galileo Galilei is sometimes credited with the discovery of the lunar libration in latitude, [86] although Thomas Harriot or William Gilbert might have done so before. [87] 1639 – Jeremiah Horrocks and his friend and correspondent William Crabtree are the first astronomers known to observe and record a transit of Venus. [88]
The timeline of discovery of Solar System planets and their natural satellites charts the progress of the discovery of new bodies over history. Each object is listed in chronological order of its discovery (multiple dates occur when the moments of imaging, observation, and publication differ), identified through its various designations (including temporary and permanent schemes), and the ...
Italian polymath Galileo Galilei was an early user and made prolific discoveries, including the phases of Venus, which definitively disproved the arrangement of spheres in the Ptolemaic system. Galileo also discovered that the Moon was cratered, that the Sun was marked with sunspots , and that Jupiter had four satellites in orbit around it. [ 13 ]
Early Greek astronomers thought that the evening and morning appearances of Venus represented two different objects, calling it Hesperus ("evening star") when it appeared in the western evening sky and Phosphorus ("light-bringer") when it appeared in the eastern morning sky. They eventually came to recognize that both objects were the same planet.