Early Astronomers

"If I have seen farther than other men, it is because I stood upon the shoulders of giants."
-- Isaac Newton

Ancient Greeks first wrote about the circular patterns of a geocentric Solar System. By the dawn of the Renaissance, 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. Kepler used the observations of Tycho Brahe to develop three laws of planetary motion that helped 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.

Sir Isaac Newton 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 and the objects within it.