| 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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