Astronomy Timeline

Timeline

  • c. 310 BCE - c. 230 BCE
    Life of Greek astronomer and mathematician Aristarchus of Samos.
  • c. 190 BCE - c. 120 BCE
    Life of Hipparchus of Nicea, the ancient Greek mathematician, astronomer and geographer considered the greatest astronomer of antiquity and among the most impressive in world history
  • c. 120 BCE
    Chinese scientist Zhang Heng compiles a catalogue of 2500 stars and discusses the origin of eclipses.
  • c. 100 CE - c. 170 CE
    Life of the Alexandrian astronomer and geographer Claudius Ptolemy.
  • c. 150 CE - 1150 CE
    Claudius Ptolemy publishes Almagest, which becomes the primary book on astronomy.
  • 964 CE
    The Almagest is updated by Persian atronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi giving many stars Arabic names still used today.
  • 11 Nov 1572 CE
    Tycho Brahe first observes the new star or supernova in the Cassiopeia constellation.
  • 1573 CE
    Tycho Brahe publishes his research on the 1572 supernova in his De Nova Stella (1573).
  • 1588 CE
    The Danish astonomer Tycho Brahe publishes his Tychonic model of the comsos in his book Of More Recent Phenomena of the Ethereal World.
  • 1609 CE
    Johannes Kepler discovers that Mars has an eliptical orbit around the Sun.
  • 1658 CE
    Christiaan Huygens presents his disocvery of Saturn's rings and the moon of Titan.
  • 1676 CE
    Danish astronomer Ole Rømer proves that light has finite speed.
  • 1686 CE
    Chrsitiaan Huygens builds an aerial telescope.
  • 1800 CE
    William Herschel discovers infrared radiation.
  • 1842 CE
    Colours of binary stars explained by Christian Doppler.
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