A strong crowd! The greatest astronomical discoveries of all time

Nitrogen in the air, calcium in our bones, carbon in our flesh and blood... All this stuff, which we call matter, comes from inside the star. As the romantics so beautifully put it, stardust makes us who we are! Since the beginning of time, mankind has seen it as its mission to explore the universe. It is this exploration of the universe that makes us realize that the universe is bigger than we thought. With each revolutionary breakthrough, mankind becomes more determined and capable of exploring the universe. Now let's take a look at some of the major discoveries that have reinvented our understanding of the universe time and time again.

1. Pattern recognition ability

Since the dawn of ancient civilization, perhaps even before the emergence of civilization, people have been looking up at the sky to observe the movements of the celestial bodies. The ability of simple pattern recognition is considered to be the dividing line between sentient creatures and non-sentient ones. Perhaps if these ancient civilizations had not been wiped out or died out naturally, they would have modeled the universe better than we do today. But the most important conclusion of all these civilizations is that stars and planets follow fixed orbits and follow predictable trajectories. This is the most fundamental concept in astronomy.

2. The earth moves around the sun

When Copernicus first proposed a mathematical proof of this "crazy" idea in 1543, he was met with an avalanche of ridicule. In fact, the "Heliocentric" model of the universe was so shocking that Copernicus himself was afraid to publish it. Once accepted, however, some of the problems with the old model were solved. Since then, the "heliocentric theory" has been recognized as the first time in human history that he seriously acknowledged his place in the universe. We realize that the sun is a star and not a god, and that we are not the center of the universe at all.

3. Kepler's laws

Johannes Kepler proved that the planets in our solar system orbit the sun not in a perfect circle, but in ellipses. This was a revolutionary discovery in 1609, because it meant that the distance of the planets from the sun was changing from moment to moment. At this point, we finally understood why the seasons change and why the planets move the way we see them. Without these discoveries, astronomers would have spent much more time and effort trying to explain how the sun's influence on Earth changes, and how the speed of other planets keeps changing.

4. Jupiter's moon

In 1610, Galileo observed four moons of Jupiter with a telescope he designed and built himself. It is the first time that a satellite has been found that does not orbit the Earth, and thus is the strongest evidence for Copernicus' heliocentric model of the universe. The discovery confirms that Earth is not the only planet with a moon, but that it is a very common planet in the universe. If the universe has taught us anything, it should be to be humble and not always self-righteous!

5. Herschel's Star map

Astronomer William Herschel and his sister Caroline systematically mapped the stars, marking the positions of thousands of stars and nebulae in a project that took nearly 50 years. The map, published in 1834, reveals the shape and scale of the Milky Way galaxy, which is not spherical but shaped like a saucer. And our sun is nowhere near the center of the Milky Way on the map, which reinforces our sense of insignificance. And so the human race finally began to accept the fact that we were just little people in a remote corner of a vast sea of stars. Herschel also discovered Uranus Unanos, which he suggested be named Georges. It would have been a much better name than "Unanos." In all seriousness, it has taken more than 150 years for people to grow out of their ridiculous self-righteousness.

6. The theory of relativity

Before Einstein and his theory of relativity came along, astronomy adhered to Newton's three laws of motion. Einstein proposed that motion is relative, that gravity can change the motion of light, and the world changed beyond recognition. Relativity says that objects with mass can warp space-time, and that objects with enough mass can even change the direction light travels. This shocked the entire scientific community, because until then, the motion of light was thought to be constant. The emergence of relativity perfectly solved the problems that could not be explained under the constraints of Newton's laws before, and completely changed the study of astronomy.

7. The theory of cosmic inflation

When Edwin Hubble told the world that the universe was expanding, it was, to say the least, a ground-breaking discovery. After tracking the movements of other galaxies, which he had first discovered, Hubble concluded that they were moving away from us at an accelerating rate. He also pointed out that the nebulae we see in the night sky are basically galaxies. This provides further evidence for the Big Bang theory and upends our understanding of the universe. What other feat could be accomplished to put someone's name on a giant space telescope?

8. Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMB)

The universe is filled with uniform background radiation, which was discovered by accident in 1964 by two Bell Telephone Company employees studying satellite communications. Given that light from an object a light year away takes a year to reach our location, the CMB is like a snapshot of the universe at a time in the past. The discovery is significant because the uniform background radiation SUPPORTS THE idea that everything in the universe began with a single event. The cosmic microwave background radiation provides strong support for the "Big Bang" theory by restoring an expanding universe.

9. Exoplanets

Exoplanets, also known as exoplanets, are planets that exist outside our solar system. It's not just the fact that exoplanets exist that's amazing, it's how they're observed, and it's these observations of exoplanets that have opened a new chapter in astronomy. Since 1988, nearly 3,000 exoplanets have been observed. By a rough estimate, one in five sun-like stars has an Earth-sized planet orbiting at a habitable distance. Assuming there are 200 billion stars in the Milky Way, that means there are about 11 billion Earth-like planets in the Milky Way alone. That's why many scientists believe it's only a matter of time before we find alien life on a planet that's just out there waiting for us to make contact. Moreover, with the development of interstellar travel, many habitable planets are expected to be home to humans in the future.

After so many breakthroughs over the centuries, astronomy remains the least developed branch of science. But to better understand ourselves, we must fully understand our place among the stars of the universe, and we must rely on astronomical research. Let us conclude with a quote from Edwin Hubble: "Man lives between heaven and earth, using his five senses to perceive the immensity of heaven and earth, and to explore the mysteries of heaven and earth as far as he can. That is science."