History of astronomy

Astronomer who believed in a perfect, stable, geocentric (earth centered) universe that was unchanging. Didn't understand the vastness of space: thought the 'solar system' was the 'universe'.

• Aristotle
• Galileo
• Aristarchus
• Ptolemy

____________ explained the universe in terms of 'epicycles' where the planets move in circles as they orbit the Earth at the center. He was trying to explain why the planets seemed to 'wander', moving back and forth in the sky. His model was accepted for 1,200 years! He wrote down his star catalog and his ideas of a geocentric universe in a book titled 'Almagest'.

• Aristotle
• Aristarchus
• Ptolemy
• Galileo

Astronomer that took the guesswork out of astronomy and was the first to use experimentation and data in his explanations of the universe. He was also the first to explain why Earth has seasons. 100 years after he died his heliocentric model of the universe was finally accepted. His model incorrectly had the planets orbiting in perfect circles.

• Aristotle
• Galileo
• Copernicus
• Johannes Kepler

Was the best 'naked eye' astronomer to have ever lived, making accurate measurements of the distances of planets and stars with no telescope. However, he wrongly believed in a geocentric (Earth centered) view of the universe. He witnessed a Supernova and knew it was not a local occurrence by using parallax. He is also known for owing a pet elk/moose and losing his nose in a duel over who was the better mathematician. The large lunar crater is named after him. and he built an observatory he called 'Uraniborg' in his castle on an island.

• Tycho Brahe
• Johannes Kepler
• Copernicus
• Ptolemy

_______________'s geocentric model of the universe had the Moon and Sun orbiting the Earth at the center while the other planets orbited the Sun.

• Tycho Brahe
• Copernicus
• Ptolemy
• Aristotle

Which of these was NOT a supporter of Geocentrism?

• Aristotle
• Ptolemy
• Tycho Brahe
• Johannes Kepler

He 'popularized' the heliocentric (sun centered) model of the universe 100 years after Copernicus and was the first to point the telescope at the sky. He was put on house arrest for his views of a heliocentric universe where he wrote many books in Italian so everyone could read them. He also discovered the 4 'Galilean' moons of Jupiter, that Venus has phases like the moon, that our moon has mountains and valleys, and he observed sun spots on the sun.

• Galileo
• Aristarchus
• Johannes Kepler
• Tycho Brahe

Astronomer who studied Cephied variable stars which change their brightness back and forth.

• Annie Jump Cannon
• Henrietta Leavitt
• Williamina Fleming
• Antonia Maury

German theoretical physicist that developed the theory of relativity and the mass-energy equivalence formula E=mc². His name has become synonymous with 'genius'.

• Edward Pickering
• Edwin Hubble
• Stephen Hawking
• Albert Einstein

American astronomer who profoundly changed our understanding of the universe by confirming the existence of other galaxies. He also helped us understand how the universe is expanding with his discovery of 'red shift' (the farther a galaxy is from us, the faster it is moving away = Hubble's law).

• Edwin Hubble
• Edward Pickering
• Harlow Shapely
• Albert Einstein