Astronomers
Copernicus
Copernicus was the first man to place the sun in the center of the universe and is considered to be the first modern astronomer and the father of our modern astronomy. He was the first to use math into the study of space and used it to prove that the universe was huge and was not a small sphere that only contained earth,sun,moon, and stars. Copernicus was the first scientist to extend the boundaries of space to stretch beyond the earth, moon, sun, and stars.All his experiments were done 100 yrs. before telescopes were invented.
Copernicus wrote a book stating the sun, not the earth was the center of the universe and that the planets and stars moved around it, not the earth. It was not believed by many to be true and only years after his death, was he given the credit for his work.
Galileo
Galileo used a simple telescope he made to examine Copernicus’s findings and proved that Copernicus was correct and that everything in the galaxy, including earth, rotated around the sun. When he tried to publish his findings, he was called before the Roman Catholic Church and accused of heresy. He was placed under house arrest for the rest of his life.
During the time of his investigations Galileo made more space related observations in two months than had been made to that point in history.He found mountains on the moon, identified the moons of Jupiter, identified the contents of the Milky Way, and researched sun spots.
Kepler
Johannes Kepler was born in Rome. He studied the skies and took an interest in observing the ways planets orbit the sun. He determined thatthe orbits of planets and moons are elliptical(oval shaped) and not circular. His finding is called the Law of Planetary Motion.
Expanding his studies, he found ways to calculate the paths comets and meteors would take over long periods of time. In other words, he could study the orbit of a comet and predict what orbit wit would take 20 years later. Today we use the same formulas to forecast if earth is in danger from any meteors or comets that may be spotted.
Newton
Sir Isaac Newton is well-known for his study of gravity and how all things on earth are affected by it. He also spent a lot of his life studying light and how light waves travel through the air.
He eventually extended his knowledge of gravity and applied it to the planets and how they move.His discovery is named the Law of Universal Gravity.This law helps understand how moons orbit planets, how to place satellites in orbit around the earth and other planets, and how objects in space travel in paths around the sun. His law guided other scientists' view of the universe for the next 300 years.
Newton also explained the effects of weightlessness that would occur in space.
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