'Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi

'Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi was a Persian astronomer who lived during the 10th century. In 964, he documented the Andromeda galaxy, our closest neighbor, and called it "little cloud". This was the first record of a star system outside our own galaxy.

Al-Sufi's book on stars was translated into many languages and had a big influence on European astronomy. Many star names used today show evidence of the Arabic name originally applied by al-Sufi.


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