8 astronomers
Since the dawn of time, man has yearned to know the origin of existence, how life was started, and the source of creation. Many scientists, from ancient Greece to modern civilization, began the search for answers by first studying our solar system, mapping the stars, trying to unlock their secrets. These eight scientists paved the way for any basic knowledge of the universe. Born in 270 BC, the Greek astronomer Aristarchus of Samos, was the first scientist known to suggest that the earth revolves around the sun. Little is known of the childhood of Aristarchus, as well as his entire life. His only recorded works come from Archimedes and Plutarch, which discuss his ideas of the movement of all the planets in the solar system. Unfortunately, the lack in technological advances greatly affected his observations, making them inaccurate, especially his geometrical equations. The major contribution Aristarchus is known for is a more precise scale of our solar system. Aristarchus of Samos is honored today with a lunar crater named for him, which is also the brightest point on the moon. Claudius Ptolemaeus, also known as Ptolemy, is considered one of the greatest and most influential astronomers of the
Almost all of his observations and works were done in Alexandria, Egypt, the home of the largest library and school of the ancient world, which when found, greatly benefited scientists in decoding the ancient astronomers calculations and theories. In 1589, Galileo received an invit!ation to teach mathematics at the University of Pisa, a position that required him to teach Ptolemic astronomy. He was convinced that the Copernican theory was correct, and in 1609 created his first telescope, which used magnifying glasses to see distant objects. He soon became so obsessed with books and studying that he was sent back to school. In 1632, Galileo published his Dialogue concerning the two Chief World Systems in which he presented his arguments both for and against the earth centered planetary system and the sun centered planetary system. The childhood of Brahe was very traumatic, since he was kidnapped at a young age by his very wealthy uncle and together they lived in his uncle’s castle in Tostrup, Scania. Copernicus was lucky that his uncle was a prominent Bishop and made sure that Nicolaus received a good education. While there, he discovered that al the exsisting almanacs were inaccurate in their mapping of Jupiter and Saturn. In this time of his life, Galileo began to question Aristotelian philosophy and the scientific process at that time. He published a!ll of this in two books, Principia in 1684, and Opticks in 1704. The contributions of Ptolomy are numerous, and today he is known as one of the greatest astronomers and mathematicians of the ancient world. He was the first to realize that all motion and position was relative, and that that the fact that two events happening at the same time was useless knowledge. But Copernicus deemed it necessary to include two of Ptolomy’s constructions, the epicycle and the eccentric, to explain The constant variable in the movement of the planets because he believed that all planets were in a circular orbit around the sun. In 1570, Brahe’s uncle died and he inherited the entire estate, and an observatory was soon built.
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Acceptance Essays
