The Age of Astronomy

Sir Isaac Newton

The Renaissance was a time when astronomy became a true field of science. Thinkers like Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler, and Newton changed the way people viewed the universe. Copernicus started this forward thinking when he placed the Sun at the center of the universe. This went against what people had thought for more than one thousand years. Tycho Brahe, a talented observer, continued the forwarded thinking but did not agree with Copernicus on where the Earth and Sun were located in the universe. Instead, he devised his own model that was not widely accepted. His detailed observations were passed on to Kepler, who was his student. Kepler used Brahe’s work to develop three laws of planetary motion. These laws would help define the motion in the Solar System as you know it today. Galileo used the telescope to study the motions of Jupiter’s moons and Venus. At the time of his discoveries, he was met with great opposition by the Church. Finally, Kepler turned astronomy into a true science with his three laws of motion and gravity. When these laws are applied to celestial bodies, their motions can be predicted precisely. During the Age of Astronomy, thinkers changed the human perspective on space.