History of Astronomy
- Ancient Greeks:
- the geocentric universe:
- earth is the centre of the universe, around which the sun &
planets rotate
- this held as the popular view almost to the end of the 18thC!!
- Aristarchus' universe:
- the only reference remaining is a critic by Archimedes, and this
view appears to have been lost
- sun & stars are fixed, earth & planets rotate around the
sun.
- 1543: Copernicus' universe:
- published a view similar to Aristarchus but not widely accepted as
opposed religious doctrine, removing humanity as the centre of all
consideration, until Newton & others to spread it, even so, it was
not widely accepted until late 18thC.
- 1572:
Brahe discovers the "New Star" in the Milky Way;
- 1599: Brahe's account of his discoveries & instruments;
- 1609: Galileo's telescope:
- invented the 1st refractor telescope with an upright image some 50yrs
after the 1st telescope by Digges.
- 1610: discovered the 4 largest moons around Jupiter
- 1610: Harriott discovers sunspots;
Pieresc discovers Orion nebula;
- 1618: Kepler's 3rd law of planetary motion;
- 1651: Riccioli introduces on his lunar map many of the modern names of
lunar features;
- 1666: Newton measures the moon's orbit;
- 1668: Isaac Newton (1642-1727):
- popularised the reflector telescope with a 90deg. mirror
sending light sideways & which did not suffer from chromatic
aberration as did the refractor
- 1675: Romer discovers the finite
velocity of light;
- 1705, Halley correctly predicts return of the Halley comet for 1758;
- 1761: atmosphere of
Venus;
- 1800: Herschel discovers infrared solar rays;
- 1802: Herschel disc. binary stars;
- 1805, rockets re-introduced as weapons in UK army;
- 1818: Encke's comet;
- 1838, parallax measurement for a fixed star;
- 1859:
spectroscope;
- 1888:
radio waves;
- 1895: rocket
propulsion principle;
- 1896, helium;
- 1913: Russell's theory of stellar evolution;
- 1914: Goddard's rocketry expts;
- 1917: Mt
Wilson 100in telescope;
- 1921: Oberth's "The Rocket into
Interplanetary Space";
- 1925: cosmic rays in
upper atmosphere;
- 1926: Goddard's 1st liquid fuel rocket;
- 1929: Hubble measures red shifts;
- 1930: pluto; Schmidt makes 1st coma-free 14" mirror
telescope;
- 1932: Piccard reaches 17.5miles high in his stratosphere balloon;
- 1946: sun spots emit radiowaves; pilotless rocket missile;
- 1948: rocket missiles reach 78 miles high & 3000mph; 200in Mt Palomar
telescope;
- 1949: US launches guided missile 250miles;
- 1953: cosmic ray observatory erected; rocket-powered plane flies at
1,600mph;
- 1957: USSR launches Sputnik I & II - 1st earth satellites;
- 1958: NASA established; Van Allen belts
around earth;
- 1959: USSR launches rocket with monkeys aboard;
- 1960: 1st weather
satellite;
- 1961: Yuri Gagarin (USSR) orbits earth; Alan Shepard (US) makes 1st US
space flight;
- 1962: Mariner 2 launched as probe to Venus;
- 1963: quasars;
- 1966: Soviet Luna 9 then US Surveyor I soft-lands on moon; Aldrin's space
walk;
- 1968: Apollo 8 orbits moon; pulsars;
- 1969: Concorde; Apollo 11 - man on moon; Mariner probe images of Mars;
- 1970: Apollo 13;
- 1971: Apollo 14 & 15 explore moon's surface; Mariner 9 orbits Mars;
USSR soft lands capsule on Mars;
- 1972: Apollo 16 & 17 on moon; Soviet Venus 8 lands on Venus;
- 1973: Skylab; Pioneer 10 probe to Jupiter transmits images back; US Pres.
Nixon approves development of the shuttle;
- 1974: Skylab 3 astronauts 84 days in space;
Mariner 10 transmits images of both Venus & Mercury;
- USSR space probe
lands on Mars & detects more water vapour than expected;
- work begins on the 1st shuttle Enterprise - an atmosphere only
shuttle.
- 1975: US & Soviet craft rendezvous in orbit - the 1st joint
international flight & the last US manned mission in the 1970's.
- 1979: Skylab crashes into Western Australia.
- 1981: 1st shuttle flight in space - the Columbia;
- 1983: 1st flight for shuttle Challenger;
- 1984: 1st flight for shuttle Discovery;
- 1985: 1st flight for shuttle Atlantis;
- 1986: after 24 shuttle flights, 1st shuttle tragedy when Challenger
blows up on launch killing all 7 astronauts;
- 1990: shuttle places Hubble Space Telescope in orbit.
- 1992: 1st flight for shuttle Endeavour;
- 1993: Endeavour flight repairs the flawed Hubble telescope;
- 1996: 1st space flight of Australian astronaut Andy Thomas.
- 1998: Russian rocket delivers the 1st International Space Station (ISS)
module into orbit.
- 2003: Columbia breaks up on re-entry killing all 7 astronauts;
- 2005: 114th shuttle mission;
- 2010: ISS likely to finish;
- 2014: proposed launch of 1st Crew Exploration Vehicle - the successor to
the shuttle.
- 2015-20: proposed NASA manned mission to moon.
- 2030-40: proposed NASA manned mission to mars.
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