Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was a believer of Copernicus's heliocentric theory. His discovery of the telescope (1609) allowed him to confirm the theory and his own beliefs. Galileo was first criticized by Friar Lorini. The Friar said that Copernicus's theory violated the scripture. Galileo responded with the Letter to Castelli, hoping it will give back some hope and trust in science. However, it did the opposite, and Lorini, sent a copy of the letter to the Inquisition (1615). On February 1616, Galileo was warned by Cardinal Bellarmine to keep quiet of his ideas or else stronger measures would be taken.…
At first it was thought that Uranus was a comet. As Herschel’s sister mapped the night sky it was shown that Uranus was a planet. The movement of this planet showed that it had other effect on it than just the sun which lead to the discovery of Neptune and several satellites…
Clyde Tombaugh is not exactly a household name even though he discovered something that each and every one of us has learned about. He is accredited with the discovery of the now ex- planet Pluto. Clyde was born in Streator, Illinois February 4, 1907. At a young age his family moved to Kansas to start their own farm. Clyde had planned on going away to college the fall after moving to Kansas, but this was all put on hold when a hailstorm had ruined his families’ entire crop and he was forced to stay home and work on the farm. Clyde, while stuck on the farm, began to become interested in the sky and the stars, and at the age of 20, he started building his own unique telescopes and lenses to observe planets and he would draw what he saw. He would send these drawings of the planets to the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. This eventually got him a job at the observatory due to his drawings impressing the director of the time Vesto Melvin Slipher. Clyde worked at the observatory from 1929 to 1945 and in this time he made his biggest discovery of finding Pluto in 1930.…
Herschel discovered infrared light when he was observing the sun he noticed that when he put coloured filters over his telescope that different coloured filters heated up his telescope by different amounts. Using a prism he broke up visible light he put a thermometer in the different colours. He found that the temperature got more massive as he moved the thermometer from violet to red after this He then measured the temperature where there was no visible light ( red end of the spectrum) and it was the hottest. This is how he discovered infrared light. Herschel's early observational work soon focused on the search for pairs of stars that were very close together visually. Astronomers of the era expected that changes over time in the apparent separation and relative location of these stars would provide evidence for both the proper motion of stars and, by means of parallax shifts in their separation, for the distance of stars from the Earth. He soon discovered many more binary and multiple stars than expected, and compiled them with careful measurements of their relative positions.…
Julie Wakefield explains, “Uranus possesses a long history of intrigue. The mysterious fleck befuddled Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). Among the first to point a telescope toward the heavens, the keen Italian observer likely spotted the faint pearl about a decade into the 17th century, but Galileo assumed it was a star, much as he had dismissed Neptune. Britain's first Royal Astronomer, John Flamsteed (1646-1719), appointed in 1675, the year the Greenwich Observatory debuted, saw the unidentified object in 1690. Flamsteed recorded it as "34 Tauri" in the constellation Taurus the Bull. A later Royal Astronomer, James Bradley (1673-1762), observed Uranus three times in the mid-18th century and dismissed it as well. And French astronomer Pierre Charles Le Monnier (1715-1799) sighted the celestial body a dozen times, with his last sighting in 1771, and never guessed it might be something other than a…
Astronomer William Herschel was the one that discovered the planet Uranus. His motivation that led to such an amazing discovery is far from what you would think. Herschel actually was fascinated with the power of the eye, calling it the bodies most powerful organ. It was this that gave him the motivation that he needed to be able to stare into a telescope for hours on end mapping stars. He wasn’t alone though. He was surrounded by many other astronomers working toward dividing large groups of stars into “species” in order to gain an understanding of their structure. It was during this process that Herschel ended up discovering the planet…
Science was beginning to become popular within the Scientific Revolution. Many scientists looked for ways to explain the issue of the planets. They became fascinated with astronomy and outer planets. Because of this Copernicus sought the solution to help explain the issue with the planets. He…
I chose to research the discovery of Uranus by William Herschel in 1781. When William first started getting into astronomy he, “…systematically searched for nebulae…” (Mark Bratton, "William Herschel's Extraordinary Night Of Discovery." William enjoyed looking at the stars and enjoyed creating telescopes to do so. But, Alan MacRobert in his article titled, “Ice-Giant Spotting” explained that, “William Herschel in England swept up Uranus by accident in 1781 while using a homemade reflector in his back garden.” William was never specifically looking for planets It was merely discovered on a chance. In fact, Steve Ruskin describes this discovery quite well in his article titled, "William Herschel and the Discovery of the Planet Uranus.", it reads:…
Johannes Kepler was born on December 27, 1571 in Weil der Stadt, Germany to parents Heinrich and Katharina Kepler . From a very young age, Johannes faced countless amounts of struggles, most notably the death of his father at the tender age of five. In addition to this tragedy, Kepler had crippled hands and impaired eyesight, due to his bad health. Despite his physically damaged self, Kepler was able to thrive cognitively. He could solve any problem with numbers and questioned everything, the habit which leads him to his countless discoveries in his later years. In addition to his mathematical proficiency, he had a great interest in the moon and the stars. This came from his mother and her love for the natural world. Set her son on course that transformed our…
He distributed precise information on the positions of stars and planets which were of enormous quality to pilots. He made different commitments to arithmetic, including quicker systems for estimation, and researched the volume of numerous robust bodies. Kepler is perceived as one of the authors of cutting edge science. ' In his three books, Inestimable Riddle, The New Space science, and Amicability of the Planets, he started the procedure that in the end supplanted superstition with reason. Kepler likewise invested time exploring the dating of chronicled occasions in the Book of scriptures, including the conception of Jesus.…
William Herschel’s discovery of the planet Uranus in 1781, was primarily motivated by his passion for studying nebula. While scanning the skies with his home built telescope, Herschel discovered something he initially believed was a comet. Only after further investigation, did he realized that what he had seen was infact, a planet.…
Though William Herschel did not seek Uranus out directly, his observations provided a new perspective and allowed Uranus to take its rightful place among the other planets of our solar system. The same can be said of James Elliot, Edward Dunham, and Jessica Mink, who discovered Uranus' rings. In both cases, we have individuals seeking data to further enhance our understanding of the universe and its mechanics. Though they may have been focused on a particular task at the time, to suggest that their discoveries were mere accidents would be diminishing to the overall goal of science.…
The year of 1610 Galileo Galilei took his telescope to peer up at Jupiter, what he saw there was what looked like to be four stars near the bright disk of Jupiter. Galileo quickly realized that these “stars” were actually moons that orbited Jupiter. This discovery was not only important for Jupiter as a planet, but this revelation also provided important evidence in support of the Copernican model of the solar system. The four moons that Galileo observed are now called the Galilean moons of Jupiter: Callisto, Ganymede, Europa, and Io. The next big discovery to happen to Jupiter was in the 1660s. Through his telescope, Giovanni Cassini noticed spots and bands…
William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus on March 13, 1781; it was the first planet found using a telescope. 1690 was the first recorded sighting of Uranus, but it was categorized as a star. Uranus was first named “The Georgium Sidus” after King George III of England, later it was renamed Uranus to conform with the other planets names that derived from Greek Mythology.…
1st Jan, 1610 Galileo discovers rings of Saturn. This was an important discovery in the world of astronomy. Using the newly invented telescope, Galileo paved the way for others to search the skies and discover more about the universe around us.…