Timeline

From ancient Greece to modern times, humanity's comprehension of the universe has undergone profound evolution. Each era has introduced revolutionary ideas and new insights that have reshaped our understanding of the cosmos.

Aristotle

Ancient Greek philosophers, notably Aristotle, laid the groundwork for our cosmic comprehension through philosophical inquiry. Aristotle's geocentric model, positioning Earth at the cosmos' center, held sway over Western thought for centuries.

Hipparchus

Greek astronomer known for creating the first comprehensive star catalog and discovering the precession of the equinoxes. He made fundamental contributions to the advancement of astronomy as a mathematical science and to the foundations of trigonometry. 4

Claudius Ptolemy

Claudius Ptolemy (c. 100 – c. 170 CE) was a Greco-Egyptian astronomer whose work, the Almagest, detailed the geocentric model of the universe. His mathematical model of the universe influenced medieval astronomy in the Islamic world and Europe. He also compiled a star catalog and contributed to geography and optics.

Galileo Galilei

In the 17th century, Galileo Galilei's invention of the telescope challenged prevailing beliefs. His meticulous observations, including the discovery of Jupiter's moons and Venus's phases, supported Nicolaus Copernicus' heliocentric model, ushering in an era of empirical inquiry.

Johannes Kepler

Formulated the laws of planetary motion, which described the elliptical orbits of planets around the sun. His three laws of planetary motion are:

1. planets move in elliptical orbits with the Sun at one focus;
2. the time necessary to traverse any arc of a planetary orbit is proportional to the area of the sector between the central body and that arc; and
3. there is an exact relationship between the squares of the planets’ periodic times and the cubes of their mean distances from the Sun.

Isaac Newton

The 17th and 18th centuries saw Isaac Newton's groundbreaking theories of motion and gravitation. His work, exemplified in "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica," described the universal law of gravitation and provided a comprehensive framework for understanding celestial dynamics.

Albert Einstein

In the early 20th century, Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity revolutionized our perception of space, time, and gravity. His equations, defining gravity as spacetime curvature, challenged classical mechanics and laid the foundation for modern cosmology, leading to discoveries like the expanding universe and black holes.

Edwin Hubble

Discovered that the universe is expanding, leading to the formulation of Hubble's Law. He also classified galaxies based on their shapes and demonstrated that some nebulae were actually galaxies far beyond our Milky Way.

Stephen Hawking

Made significant contributions to theoretical physics and cosmology, including his work on black hole radiation (Hawking radiation), the nature of singularities, and the no-boundary proposal for the universe. His research on the early universe and black holes has profoundly influenced our understanding of the cosmos.