Name: ____________________________________________
The Copernican Revolution
Date: ___________________
Name
Approximate Year
Major Contribution(s)
Hans Lippershey
1608
Inventor of the telescope.
Aristarchus
310-230 BC
Relative sizes of Earth, Moon,
Sun, and an early heliocentric
model of the solar system.
Eratosthenes
220 BC
Measured the circumference of
the Earth.
Ptolemy
AD 90-168
Geocentric solar system
model.
Tycho Brahe
1546-1601
Incredibly detailed naked eye
observations of the stars.
Mentor to Kepler.
Nicolaus Copernicus
1473-1543
Modern heliocentric model of
the solar system.
Galileo Galilei
1564-1642
Confirmation of Copernicus’s
heliocentric model,
observations of Venus and
Saturn.
Johannes Kepler
1571-1630
Elliptical orbits and Three
Laws of Planetary Motion.
Name: ____________________________________________
The Copernican Revolution
Date: ___________________
Name
Approximate Year
Major Contribution(s)
Isaac Newton
1642-1727
Three Laws of Motion,
invention of the reflector
telescope.
Christiaan Huygens
1629-1695
Confirmed Saturn’s rings,
identified Saturn’s moon,
improved the telescope.
1625-1712
Estimated distance to Mars,
more Saturn moons, a division
in the rings of Saturn, and the
Great Red Spot of Jupiter.
William Herschel
1738-1822
Discovered Uranus, started the
New General Catalogue of
celestial bodies and
contributed 4630 objects.
Edwin Hubble
1889-1953
The universe is expanding,
discoveries beyond the limits
of our galaxy.
Giovanni Cassini
Follow-up Question:
I separated Lippershey on this list because he was more of an inventor/optician than an astronomer. Why,
then, did I separate Tycho (and above) from Copernicus (and below)?
Copernicus ushered in the Copernican Revolution and a new wave of truth in astronomical science.
Brahe and above, aside from Aristarchus, still accepted the geocentric model of the solar system. In
some senses, Copernicus birthed the modern era of astronomy.