People in Astronomy

This table includes astronomers and other scientists and philosophers who have had an impact on how astronomy has taken shape. It does not include the many astronauts who have made contributions to the field. If you would like to see someone added to this list, please submit your suggestion to our comments system.

Person
Region where they lived
and worked...
Lifetime
'Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi Persia 10th century A.D.
Aristotle Greece 384-322 B.C.
Tycho Brahe Denmark 1546-1601 A.D.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell England 1943-- A.D.
Giovanni Cassini Italy 1625-1712 A.D.
Nicolas Copernicus Poland 1473-1543 A.D.
Leonardo Da Vinci Italian 1452-1519 A.D.
Democritus Greece 470-380 B.C.
Christian Doppler Austria 1803-1853 A.D.
Albert Einstein Germany 1879-1955 A.D.
En Hedu' Anna Babylonia ~2354 B.C.
Eratosthenes Cyrene (now Shahhat, Libya) 276-197 B.C.
Williamina Fleming U.S.A. 1857-1911 A.D.
Galileo Galilei Italy 1564-1642 A.D.
Robert Goddard U.S.A. 1882-1945 A.D.
Evelyn Granville U.S.A. 1924-- A.D.
George Hale U.S.A. 1868-1938 A.D.
Edmond Halley England 1656-1742
Stephen Hawking England 1942-- A.D.
Caroline Herschel Germany, England 1750-1848 A.D.
William Herschel Germany, England 1738-1822 A.D.
Hipparchus Greece 190-120 B.C.
Edwin Hubble U.S.A. 1889-1953 A.D.
Christian Huygens Netherlands 1629-1695 A.D.
Hypatia Egypt 370-415 A.D.
Johan Kepler Germany 1571-1630 A.D.
Maria Kirch Germany 1670-1720 A.D.
Gerard Kuiper U.S.A. 1905-1973 A.D.
Henrietta Swan Leavitt U.S.A. 1868-1921 A.D.
Nicole-Reine Lepaute France 1723-1788 A.D.
Simon Marius Germany 1573-1624 A.D.
James Clerk Maxwell Scotland 1831-1879 A.D.
Maria Mitchell U.S.A. 1818-1889 A.D.
Isaac Newton England 1642-1727 A.D.
Hermann Oberth Germany 1894-1989 A.D.
Max Planck Germany 1858-1947 A.D.
Plato Greece 427-327 B.C.
Ptolemy Greece 85-165 A.D.
Pythagoras Greece 580-520 B.C.
Carl Sagan U.S.A. 1934-1996 A.D.
Giovanni Schiaparelli Italy 1835-1910 A.D.
Abe Silverstein U.S.A. 1908-- A.D.
Socrates Greece 470-399 B.C.
Thales Greece 624-546 B.C.
Immanuel Velikovsky Russia, U.S.A. 1895-1979 A.D.
Wernher von Braun Germany, U.S.A. 1912-1977 A.D.

Last modified September 4, 2000 by Jennifer Bergman.

You might also be interested in:

Science, Evolution, and Creationism

How did life evolve on Earth? The answer to this question can help us understand our past and prepare for our future. Although evolution provides credible and reliable answers, polls show that many people turn away from science, seeking other explanations with which they are more comfortable....more

Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher who lived between 384-322 B.C. He was one of the greatest thinkers of the world and his written works encompassed all major areas of thought: logic, science, metaphysics,...more

Tycho Brahe

Tycho Brahe was a Danish astronomer who lived between 1546-1601. Although Tycho had his own model of the solar system, which differed from both the heliocentric and geocentric theories, his contributions...more

Nicholas Copernicus

Nicholas Copernicus was a Polish astronomer who lived between 1473-1543. He was born in Torun, Poland to a middle class family. He attended school at Cracow and eventually moved on to Italy where he received...more

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian artist and scientist who lived between 1452-1519. Leonardo was the archetypical Renaissance man, whose roles included inventor, engineer, architect, mathematician, geologist,...more

Democritus

Democritus was a Greek philosopher who lived between 470-380 B.C. He developed the concept of the 'atom', Greek for 'indivisible'. Democritus believed that everything in the universe was composed of atoms,...more

Christian Doppler

Christian Doppler was an Austrian mathematician who lived between 1803-1853. He is known for the principle he first proposed in Concerning the coloured light of double stars in 1842. This principle is...more

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was a German physicist who lived between 1879-1955. His special and general theories of relativity, theory of Brownian motion, work in quantum physics, statistical mechanics, and on the...more

Windows to the Universe, a project of the National Earth Science Teachers Association, is sponsored in part is sponsored in part through grants from federal agencies (NASA and NOAA), and partnerships with affiliated organizations, including the American Geophysical Union, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Earth System Information Partnership, the American Meteorological Society, the National Center for Science Education, and TERC. The American Geophysical Union and the American Geosciences Institute are Windows to the Universe Founding Partners. NESTA welcomes new Institutional Affiliates in support of our ongoing programs, as well as collaborations on new projects. Contact NESTA for more information. NASA ESIP NCSE HHMI AGU AGI AMS NOAA