astronomy

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Founders of Astronomy

If people can now see further , it is because they stand on the shoulders of giants . Isaac Newton explained this to his scientific rival , Robert Hooke , which Newton borrowed from Bernard of Chartres . Indeed , mankind borrows from each other 's ideas and synthesizes it into new integrated ideas to see further . This has been done since the era of ancient Indians , Arabs and Chinese , moving westwards to Greece , Eastern Europe Western Europe and America . Thus , man leapt forward from the

works of Asia , Copernicus , Kepler , Galileo , Newton , Einstein , NASA and Asia again

Thousands of years ago , many ancients held a geocentric view , but some people challenged this perspective . While ancient Greeks like Aristotle (4th century BCE ) believed that the earth is the center of the universe with celestial spheres revolving around it , other Greeks , such as Aristarchus of Samus (3rd century BCE ) believed in heliocentrism . But most people rejected his work , favoring Aristotle and Ptolemy (2nd century CE

Some Indians and Arabs also held the heliocentric view . Aryabhata (5th century CE , an Indian astronomer , wrote the heliocentric Aryabhatiya which was translated to Latin later for Europeans . Other Indian and Arab astronomers such as Brahmagupta , Varahamihira , Bhaskara II , Abu Rayhan Biruni and al-Sijzi had similar perspectives . Al-Sijzi (9th century CE ) invented an astrolabe based on heliocentrism , but his scientific peers did not take his work seriously (Nasr 135

But in the 16th century , the heliocentric view gained strength Copernicus updated the heliocentric...