Scientists Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Universe

Scientists Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Universe

Since the dawn of time, man has yearned to know the origin of existence, how life was started, and the source of creation. Many scientists, from ancient Greece to modern civilization, began the search for answers by first studying our solar system, mapping the stars, trying to unlock their secrets. These eight scientists paved the way for any basic knowledge of the universe.

Born in 270 BC, the Greek astronomer Aristarchus of Samos, was the first scientist known to suggest that the earth revolves around the sun. Little is known of the childhood of Aristarchus, as well as his entire life. His only recorded works come from Archimedes and Plutarch, which discuss his ideas of the movement of all the planets in the solar system. Unfortunately, the lack in technological advances greatly affected his observations, making them inaccurate, especially his geometrical equations. The major contribution Aristarchus is known for is a more precise scale of our solar system. Aristarchus of Samos is honored today with a lunar crater named for him, which is also the brightest point on the moon.

Claudius Ptolemaeus, also known as Ptolemy, is considered one of the greatest and most influential astronomers of the ancient world. Almost all of his observations and works were done in Alexandria, Egypt, the home of the largest library and school of the ancient world, which when found, greatly benefited scientists in decoding the ancient astronomers calculations and theories. The life of Ptolomy is vague, as is the reaction to his works at the time. His system of astronomy, which is in his book the Syntaxis, was accepted as correct until the year 1543 AD. In this system, the earth was the center of the universe, and was the axis of a huge rotating sphere, which spun. On the outer edges of the sphere were the stars, and the sun and other heavenly bodies were in between the earth and stars. Ptolomy accounted for the movement of the planets using three mathematical constructions: the eccentric, epicycle, and the equant. The eccentric construction is the only one of the three not centered on the earth. The epicycle says that the planet moves in a small circle, which in itself is moving around a bigger circle. The last of the three constructions, the equant, suggested that the center of motion on a large circle was ...

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...The resultant of this is that no object can move faster than the speed of light. Einstein is also credited with being the scientist who jump-started the creation of the first atomic bomb, the item that ended World War II. Einstein’s achievements are also considered the greatest of all scientists by many.

The history of all the scientists mentioned helps to create a better understanding of the solar system in which we live. These scientists are the world’s keys to solving the mysteries of the universe, which have plagued mankind for all of time.

Sources Cited

Broderick, James, S.J. Galileo: the man, his work, his misfortunes. New York: Harper &Row, 1964.

Drake, Stillman. Galileo. Oxford: Oxford U. Press, 1980.

Ball, W. W. Rouse. A Short Account of the History of Mathematics. New York, Harper & Row, 1974.

Thoren, Visctor E. The Lord of Uraniborg: A biography of Tycho Brahe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

Armitage, A. Copernicus: The Founder of Modern Astronomy. 1963

Turnbull, H. W. The Mathematical Discoveries of Newton. 1990

Gribanov, D.P. The philisophical views of A. Einstein and development of the theory of relativity. Moscow: Nauka, 1987.