Astronomical Timeline

Year Who Did What
1543 Copernicus publishes De revolutionibus
1584 Giordano Bruno -- On the Infinite Universe and Worlds, the Ash Wednesday supper.
1609-1619 J. Kepler, Laws of planetary motion
1609 Galileo Galilei makes first telescope, sees Milky Way (our galaxy), satellites of Jupiter
1687 Isaac Newton publishes his Principia
1718 Edmund Halley, Proper Motions of Stars.
1783 W. Herschel, Proper Motion of the Sun
1784 Hersdel, First model of Milky Way
1835 Struve, Stellar Paradoxes.
1859 R. Bunsen and S. Kirchoff, spectral analysis.
1860 D. Donati, spectra of stars.
1868 W. Huggins, radial velocity of stars.
1900 M. Planck, quantum mechanics.
1905 Albert Einstein publishes his special theory of relativity.
1911-1913 Hertzsprung-Russell diagram shows relationship between spectrum, luminosity and type of stars
1912-1922 V.M. Slipher, red shift of spiral nebulae
1916

Albert Einstein: General theory of relativity, first static cosmological model, cosmological constant (Note: Galaxies not yet discovered by astronomers.)

   
   
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