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A presentation describing key events in the 

history of astronomy. 

The big bang is the theory of how the universe 

was created. It states that a large amount of 

extremely hot mass, started rapidly expanding. 

After the initial expansion it began to cool and 

released energy in the form of particles. These 

particles are what made up all further 

structures, and eventually, atoms, planets, and 

so on were created due to these particles.

Stonehenge is a ancient structure located in 

Wiltshire, England. The significance of this 

structure relative to astronomy is its 

orientation and design. Although some believe 

that this is coincidence, the structure is set up 

to face the northeast which is where the 

solstice and equinox points can be viewed. 

Because of this it is believed by some that 

Stonehenge is an ancient observatory.

Aristotle was an ancient greek philosopher who 

had an impact in many fields. He studied 

subjects in almost all areas of science. His 

biggest contribution to astronomy was is 

geocentric theory of the universe. This was the 

theory that the earth was the center of the 

universe and all planets revolved about the 

earth. This ideal was adopted by the church for 

centuries after his death.

Aristarchus was another ancient greek, a 

philosopher and astronomer. His main 

contribution to astronomy was his heliocentric 

theory and his solar, and lunar distance 

studies. First, he presented the sun centered 

universe, in which he was almost immediately 

rejected. He also presented so primal methods 

to calculate distances between astronomical 

bodies, and earth.

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Eratosthenes of Cyrene was another 

greek astronomer and mathematician. 

He is known in astronomy for his 

distance calculations. First, he 

accurately estimated the circumference 

of the planet earth. He also estimated 

distances from the moon, and sun.

Hipparchus, was another greek astronomer 

who is known for many things. First he is 

known for is star catalogue which was used as 

a reference by many astronomers after him. 

Next, he basically invented trigonometry and 

used it to calculate distances from the sun, and 

the moon. He also created a method for 

measuring brightness of stars, a method that 

is still in place to this day.

Ptolemy was an Egyptian astronomer of greek 

antiquity. Ptolemy is known mainly for two 

different things. First, he is known for 

preserving the work of Hipparchus, which 

helped kick start the scientific revolution in 

astronomy. He also helped develop tables that 

made it very easy to determine the position of 

different planets and stars. He was also a 

proponent of the geocentric theory.

Polish astronomer, that is also known as the 

father of modern astronomy. He is known for 

his popularization of the heliocentric theory. He 

provided the sun centered theory with new 

evidence that forever changed the way people 

looked at the universe. Because of Copernicus 

the sun was put at the center, and it stayed 

there.

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