If there’s one photographer to be acknowledged as one of the best in the realm of astronomy, one of the strongest contenders would be Henry Draper. Like other brilliant astronomers in history, Draper delved into various scientific disciplines at a very early age. He grew up being trained by his scientist-father in taking pictures of […]
The greatest contribution of Democritus in astronomy is the atomic theory-the belief that everything in the world consists of particles called atoms. These atoms, Democritus believed, are indestructible, indivisible, and always in motion. They atoms are infinite in numbers, and come in different sizes and shapes. Explaining the nature of atoms was not difficult through
Born in the Netherlands at the end of the 19th century, Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn is one of the most celebrated figures in the field of astronomy. He is primarily credited for devoting his career to the study of the Milky Way galaxy and paving the way to the discovery of the rotation of galaxies. As
Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn Read More »
Edward Charles Pickering made significant contributions to the field of astronomy. His legacy is quite valuable that heavenly bodies have been named after him, among them a minor planet called Pickeringia. Pickering was born in Boston and educated at Harvard University’s Lawrence Scientific School. His scientific endeavor included physics, and this made him a brilliant
Edward Charles Pickering Read More »
Ptolemy, a Greek astronomer and geographer, lived in around 85 to 165 A.D. He was born in Egypt, and he died there too. Egypt was the center of learning in those times, and it was there that Ptolemy got his education. His name Ptolemy is, in fact, an Egyptian name, while Claudius is a Roman
Aristotle is often touted as one of the founding fathers of science. Trained by the great philosopher Plato, Aristotle built a school he called the Lyceum at Athens. He delved into almost all dimensions of knowledge, including philosophy, science, art, literature, and of course astronomy. Based on his writings, Aristotle believed that the cosmos is
Photo by: Creative Commons Hipparchus, a famous Greek mathematician and astronomer, was born in 190 BC in what is now Turkey. He may not be as famous today as Euclid, Pythagoras and other Greek luminaries, but during his time, he was greatly renowned. His mathematical achievements were considered exceptional by his contemporaries and many future
Edwin Hubble, born on November 1889, was an American astronomer who revolutionized man’s point of view on the Universe. Through his observations of movement and light spectrum in space, he had proven that there are other groups of stars in outer space. He is best known for the Hubble Law. There are observable “redshifts” or
Thales lived around 580 BC in Miletus, Greece. Like many prominent Greek scholars, he was adept in not just one but many fields of knowledge. Thales was an accomplished mathematician, philosopher and physicist. In fact, he is often referred to as the “Father of Physics”, and he was one of the “Seven Sages,” Greece’s seven
Eratosthenes was a prominent Greek mathematician, astronomer and geographer who lived between 276 BC and 194 BC. He was born in what is now Libya, to parents who were probably Chaldean. Eratosthenes is famous for many things, including a mapping method that used latitudes and longitudes, and his accurate computation of the circumference of earth.
