HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY: TIMELINE

TIME EVENT
3000 B.C. Sumerian record the brightest star and form of the first zodiac of
constellation.
2550 – 2450 Pyramid of Giza in Egypt are built, perhaps to reflect the position
B.C. of the stars.
2296 B.C. the first recorded observation of a comet made by Chinese
Astronomer.
2000 B.C. Lunar and calendar are developed in Egypt and Mesopotamia and
Babylonians use base 60 counting
- Stonehenge in England was constructed to mark the
solstice.
1600-1400 The oldest European star chart “Trenholm Chariot of the sun” is
B.C. created in Denmark
1450 B.C. Sundials are used in ancient Egypt and introduce the 365-day
year.
763 BC Solar eclipsed recorded by Babylonians.
580 BC Thales of Miletus uses observational data to predict
a solar eclipse and that Great philosopher Anaximander proposes
the Earth is a cylinder floating in space
440 BC Leucippus suggests that the universe is made of indivisible atoms
which is also the same time that Eudoxus describes the celestial
sphere.
350 BC Plato and Aristotle put Earth at the center of the Universe, and
Aristotle suggests that Earth and other heavenly bodies are round
270 BC Aristarchus opposes Plato’s geocentric model, and proposes a
heliocentric theory with the Sun at the center of the solar system,
but his view was largely dismissed.
240 BC called Halley’s Comet, it was recorded for the first time in China
194 BC Eratosthenes calculates the size of the Earth using the angle of
the sun.
150 BC early astronomical instrument was invented, when Hipparchus
invents the astrolabe
120 BC Hipparchus divides the night sky into longitude and latitude; he
also shows that Earth wobbles on its axis as it rotates, known as
precession.
65 BC The Antikythera mechanism, a mechanical gear for predicting the
motion of heavenly bodies is built
46 BC Julius Caesar reforms the Roman calendar, creating the “Julian
Calendar” upon which the modern one
990 BC Al-binuri calculates the circumstances of Earth using
measurement taken from a mountaintop in India.
1054 Chinese astronomer sees the supernova that creates the Crab
nebula.
1543 Copernicus publishes details of his heliocentric universe where
earth and the planets orbits the sun.
1570 Tycho Brahe makes the most detailed survey of the night’s sky to
 date.
1582 The Georgian calendar, named for Pope Gregory Xlll introduced
to correct the draft of the Julian calendar
1600 William Gilbert reveals that earth has its own magnetic field.
1608 Hans Lippershey invents the optical telescopes using glass lenses
1609 Kepler’s laws of planetary motion shows that orbiting bodies move
in Ellipses not circles
1610 Galileo publishes his observations of the Sun, Moon and
Planets in “the starry messenger”
1639 Jeremiah Horrocks observes that Transit of Venus having
predicted its occurrence using Kepler’s law
1655 Christian Huygens suggests that the strange shape of Saturn Is
due to rings around the planet
1668 Isaac Newton presents his designs of a reflecting telescope to the
royal society of London
1676 Ole Romer Measures speed of light using observations of
Jupiter’s moons.
1687 Isaac Newton Presents his universal law of gravitation
1705 Edmund Halley calculates orbital period of the comet
That now takes his name, which arrives as he predicts
1739 French Geodesic Mission carries out measurements in Ecuador
and Lapland to Measure the shape of the Earth; it finds that the
planet is flatter at the poles.
1750 Nicolas de Lacaille makes a detailed survey of the sky of the
southern Hemisphere.
1757 the sextant is invented as the latest navigational tool for
Calculating latitude.
1773 John Harrison’s Chronometers are accepted as the best way to
calculate longitude
1779 Comte de Buffon times how long It takes for a ball of iron to cool
and extrapolates the result to arrive a figure for the edge of the
Earth (75,000 years).
1781 William Herschel finds a Sixth planet which is eventually named
“Uranus”.
1784 Charles Messier completes His catalog of astronomical objects
that do not appear to be stars
- John Goodricke defines the term Cepheid variable, a star
that Can be used to calculate interstellar distances
19th century Giuseppe Piazzi finds Ceres, the first Object in the asteroid belt
1814 Joseph von Fraunhofer notices dark lines in the spectra coming
from stars, founding the science of spectroscopy
1835 Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis describes the apparent force behind the
Coriolis Effect, in which the rotation of Earth causes wind and
ocean currents to appear to be reflected.
1838 Friedrich Bessel uses the phenomenon of parallax to Measure the
distance to the stars; he introduces the light – year as a unit of
Distance.
1846 Neptune is discovered following predictions of its orbit made by
mathematician Urbain Le Verrier.
1851 Foucault’s pendulum provides Proof that Earth is actually rotating.
Heinrich Schwabe suggests that sunspots Appear according to an
11-year cycle.
1868 Helium is discovered in the Atmosphere of the sun by
spectroscopic
1877 Giovanni Schiaparelli draws a map on canal on Mars, fueling
debate about alien life.
1884 Sandford Fleming calls a conference in Washington, D.C. to
standardize global time zone
1885 Konstantin Tsiolkovsky suggests ways to reach space
20th century Simon Newcomb measures the angle of Earth axis to the plane of
the ecliptic (or orbit).
1905 Albert Einstein’s theory of special Relativity makes light speed the
speed of limit of the Universe
1912 Victor Hess detects exotic charged particles in the atmosphere,
the first evidence of Cosmic rays.
1913 Hertzsprung-Russell diagram is used to group stars According to
their size, temperature, and brightness
1915 Einstein’s theory of general relativity explains how space and time
can be warped
- Karl Schwarzschild uses it to predict the existence of black
holes.
1925 Edwin Hubble finds objects far beyond the limit of our galaxy,
discovering that it is just one of many galaxies in the Universe
1929 Edwin Hubble discovers that Galaxies are more moving away
from one another and the whole universe is Getting bigger.
1933 Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar Calculates the size of a star
needed to produce a supernova; Walter Baade and Fritz Zwicky
propose the existence of neutron stars.
1939 Hans Bethe explains How stars release energy through nuclear
fusion.
1942 Werner von Braun V2 rocket bombs which make the first
suborbital space flights
1946 Fred Hoyle and others describe stellar nucleosynthesis, in which
all elements Heavier than helium are inside stars.
1947 Chuck Yeager breaks the sound Barrier with the Bell X – 1 rocket
plane.
1957 Sputnik 1 becomes the first artificial satellite
1960 Two Russian dogs, Belka and Strelka, become the first animals to
orbit Earth And return alive to the surface. I
1962 NASA’s Mariner 2 probe, exploring Venus, is the first visitor to
Another planet
1965 The cosmic microwave background, a radiation echo Of the Big
Bang is detected coming from the whole sky
1967 The first Pulsars, which are neutron stars spinning at huge speed
and emitting beams of radiation, are discovered using a radio
telescope.
1969 Apollo II Mission: Neil Armstrong becomes the first person to walk
on the Moon
1971 Salyut 1 is the first space station in orbit around the earth
1974 Sagittarius A*, a giant black hole, is found at the center of the
Milky Way Galaxy.
1975 Venera 9 is the first craft to land on another planet, sending Back
the first pictures from the surface of Venus.
1976 Viking 1st the first Probe to land on Mars
1977 Voyager 1 and 2 are launched to fly by the outer planets.
1979 The first magnetar, a magnetic neutron star is discovered.
1981 NASA’s Columbia shuttle makes its maiden flight into space,
becoming the first reusable spacecraft.
1989 The great attractor, a massive and mysterious object thousands of
times heavier than the entire Milky Way.
1987 SN 1987A becomes the first supernova witnessed by modern
astronomers.
1990 The Magellan orbiter makes a detailed map of the surface of
Venus, normally hidden from view
- Hubble Space Telescope is launched
1992 The Cosmic Background Explorer finds Anomalies in the
temperature of the universe
1994 Galileo probe en Route to Jupiter takes pictures of Comet
Shoemaker Levy 9 colliding with the Giant planet.
1995 Solar and Heliosphere Observatory, is Launched into a halo-
shaped orbit near to the Moon, where it images the Sun And
searches for comets.
1996 NASA scientists suggest that a meteorite Found in Antarctica and
originally from Mars may contain evidence of primitive Bacteria
like forms.
1998 The expansion of the universe is found to be Speeding up,
indicating a new and as yet incomprehensible force called dark
Energy.
2000 Life scientists Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee propose the Rare
Earth Hypothesis, arguing that Earth’s complex life-forms are the
product of several Factors
2001 Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) Shoemaker lands on
Eros, The first touchdown on an asteroid
2003 China is the third country in the World to send an astronaut into
space.
2006 Pluto and Ceres are reclassified as dwarf planets along with
several large Bodies found in the Kuiper Belt and Oort cloud
2011 MESSENGER probe becomes the First to go into orbit around
Mercury.

SUBMITTED BY: SWELLYN KATE SERRANO