FAMOUS ASTRONOMERS

ARISTOTLE

• He thought Earth was the center of all things
• He thought that the sun orbited Earth
• He made models of stars, the sun, and other planets orbiting Earth
• He created the term parallax
• Parallax is the apparent shift in the position of an object when viewed from different locations.

ARISTARCHUS

• He was not only a astronomer but he was also a mathematician
• He proposed a heliocentric model of the solar system
• He tried to measure the distance between the moon and the sun
• His theory was not widely accepted at the time
• His ratio of distance was much to small but still was important

PTOLEMY

• He was a astronomer, geographer, and a mathematician
• He lived in Egypt
• He made a book called the Almagest
• He believed that a celestial body traveled at a constant speed in a perfect circle
• His beliefs allowed prediction of the motion of planets years in the future

COPERNICUS

• He was a Polish astronomer
• He felt that Ptolemy's model of the solar system was too complicated
• He developed the first detailed heliocentric model of the solar system.
• All his data was based off only his eyes
• Developed the first step to a modern model of the solar system

KEPLER

• A German mathematician and astronomer
• He didn't think circular planetary motion was correct
• He found that the path ellipses fit best
• He formulated three principles know as Kepler's laws
• He thought planets move faster in orbit when they are closer to the sun

GALILEO

• His questions were what we would call scientific methods
• Made big improvements to the telescope
• He was able with his new telescope to view celestial objects
• He observed the moons orbiting Jupiter
• He taught us that earth was not the only thing the could be orbited