HISTORY
OF
ASTRONOMY
OBJECTIVES
❑ IDENTIFY THE VARIOUS HISTORICAL DISCOVERY
DURING PREHISTORIC AND CLASSICAL PERIOD
PREHISTORIC
❑ Prehistoric people-built
structures which were likely
used for astronomical
observation and rituals.
TIME FOR DAY/NIGHT
❑Planting
❑Navigation
NEED TIME OF YEAR
❑ Season changes, marked by
equinoxes and solstices
❑ Important dates for
agriculture and hunting.
Again, use the motion of the
Sun, Moon, and stars.
PLANETS
❑ 3000 BC
❑ Calendars and astrology
Cave paintings
❑ Lascaux (16,000 yr old)
❑ (stars, 5000-yr old map
of the Moon).
Caracol Temple
❑ Mexico's Mayas in the
Yucatán peninsula
Aztec Templo
❑ Mayor in
Tenochtitlán
Big Horn Medicine Wheel
❑ Plains Indians in the US.
STONEHENGE
❑ a site for observing and
recording celestial
phenomena
❑ North of Salisbury,
Wiltshire, England
PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT
❑Aligned with any
particular set of
stars.
❑Aligned with any
particular set of
stars.
CLASSICAL PERIOD
Ptolemy
❑ Geocentric model
❑ Almagest
❑ Standard astronomical
theory for over 1400 years.
Hipparchus
❑ Star catalog with over 850
stars
❑ Developed the concept of
magnitude to describe star
brightness.
Aristarchus of Samos
❑ Heliocentric model
❑ Not widely accepted.
Astrolabes
❑ These instruments were
used to measure the
altitude of celestial objects
and for navigation.
Sundial
❑They were used to tell time by
tracking the position of the sun
in the sky.
Observatories
❑ Roman observatories
like the Torre dei Venti
in Rome were built to
study celestial objects
more accurately.
RENAISSANCE PERIOD
❑ The most significant
period of discovery
and growth of the
sciences in the whole
of history.
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)
❑ Copernican
Revolution
❑ Tycho Brahe was
one of Copernicus’s
successors
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
❑ Believer of heliocentric
model
❑ Published The Starry
Messenger
❑ Published observations on the
full set of phases of Venus,
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
❑ Kepler’s laws of
planetary motion.
TYCHO BRAHE
❑ Uraniborg, (Heavenly
Castle)
❑ Astronomy and of
developing accurate
charts and tables
MODERN PERIOD
❑ Evolved much further
than the mere
observation of the
sky.
TELESCOPES
❑ James Webb Space
Telescope (JWST)
❑ Stunning images of distant
galaxies and revealing the
secrets of the early
universe.
EXPOPLANETS
❑ Planets that orbit
stars outside our solar
system. They offer a
glimpse into the vast
diversity of planetary
systems
KEPLER MISSION
❑ Launched in 2009
❑ Revolutionized exoplanet
research by discovering
thousands of new worlds,
including those within the
habitable zones of their
stars.
Caroline Herschel
❑ German-British
astronomer late 18th
century
❑ Discovered several comets
and nebulae
Vera Rubin
❑ Work on galaxy rotation
curves provided compelling
evidence for the existence
of dark matter, a pivotal
discovery that transformed
our understanding of the
universe.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell
❑ Discoverer of pulsars,
rapidly rotating neutron
stars that emit radiation
❑ Honored with the Special
Breakthrough Prize in
Fundamental Physics.
MARS MISSIONS
❑ Searching for
signs of past life
on the Red
Planet.
Space Telescopes
❑ Nancy Grace
Roman Space
Telescope
❑ Wide Field Infrared
Survey Telescope
(WFIRST)
HUMAN MISSION
❑ The Artemis program aims to
return humans to the Moon
and establish a sustainable
lunar presence, paving the way
for future missions to Mars.
CARL SAGAN
❑ Popularized astronomy and
science communication,
inspiring generations with
his insights and passion for
the universe.
EDWIN HUBBLE
❑ Discovered that the
universe is expanding, a
groundbreaking finding that
led to the Big Bang theory.
ISAAC NEWTON
❑ Developed the law of
universal gravitation,
explaining the motion of
celestial bodies.
GALILEO GALILEI
❑ Revolutionized astronomy
with his telescope,
challenging the geocentric
model of the universe
THANK
YOU
