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Timeline of Solar System astronomy

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Template:Short description The following is a timeline of Solar System astronomy and science. It includes the advances in the knowledge of the Earth at planetary scale, as part of it.

File:Venustransit 2004-06-08 07-49.jpg
A transit of Venus

Direct observationEdit

Humans (Homo sapiens) have inhabited the Earth in the last 300,000 years at least,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and they had witnessed directly observable astronomical and geological phenomena. For millennia, these have arose admiration and curiosity, being admitted as of superhuman nature and scale. Multiple imaginative interpretations were being fixed in oral traditions of difficult dating, and incorporated into a variety of belief systems, as animism, shamanism, mythology, religion and/or philosophy.

Although such phenomena are not "discoveries" per se, as they are part of the common human experience, their observation shape the knowledge and comprehension of the world around us, and about its position in the observable universe, in which the Sun plays a role of outmost importance for us. What today is known to be the Solar System was regarded for generations as the contents of the "whole universe".

The most relevant phenomena of these kind are:

Along with an indeterminate number of unregistered sightings of rare events: meteor impacts; novae and supernovae.

AntiquityEdit

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File:Venus Tablet of Ammisaduqa.jpg
Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa

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"[The Sun] is a circle twenty-eight times as big as the Earth, with the outline similar to that of a fire-filled chariot wheel, on which appears a mouth in certain places and through which it exposes its fire, as through the hole on a flute. [...] the Sun is equal to the Earth, but the circle on which it breathes and on which it's borne is twenty-seven times as big as the whole earth. [...] [The eclipse] is when the mouth from which comes the fire heat is closed. [...] [The Moon] is a circle nineteen times as big as the whole earth, all filled with fire, like that of the Sun".</ref> But he starts to feed the idea of celestial mechanics as different of the notion of planets being heavenly deities, leaving mythology aside.

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> and uses the size of the Earth's shadow on the Moon to estimate the Moon's orbital radius at 60 Earth radii, and its physical radius as one-third that of the Earth. He also makes an inaccurate attempt to measure the distance to the Sun.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

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  • 28 BCE – Chinese history book Book of Han makes earliest known dated record of sunspot.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
  • Template:Circa 150 CE – Claudius Ptolemy completes his work Almagest, that codifies the astronomical knowledge of his time and cements the geocentric model in the West, and it remained the most authoritative text on astronomy for more than 1,500 years. The Almagest put forward extremely complex and accurate methods to determine the position and structure of planets, stars (including some objects as nebulae, supernovas and galaxies then regarded as stars also) and heavenly bodies. It includes a catalogue of 1,022 stars (largely based on a previous one by Hipparchus of about 850 entries) and a large amount of constellations, comets and other astronomical phenomena.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Following a long astrological tradition, he arranged the heavenly spheres ordering them (from Earth outward): Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and fixed stars.

  • Template:Circa 420 – Martianus Capella describes a modified geocentric model, in which the Earth is at rest in the center of the universe and circled by the Moon, the Sun, three planets and the stars, while Mercury and Venus circle the Sun.<ref>Bruce S. Eastwood, Ordering the Heavens: Roman Astronomy and Cosmology in the Carolingian Renaissance (Leiden: Brill, 2007), pp. 238–39.</ref>

Middle AgesEdit

  • Template:Circa 500 – Indian mathematician-astronomer Aryabhata accurately computes the solar and lunar eclipses, and the length of Earth's revolution around the Sun.
  • Template:Circa 500 – Aryabhata discovers the oblique motion of the apsidial precession of the Sun and notes that it is changing with respect to the motion of stars and Earth.
  • Template:Circa 500 – Aryabhata discovers the rotation of the Earth by conducting experiments and giving empirical examples for his theories. He also explains the cause of day and night through the diurnal rotation of the Earth. He also developed highly accurate models for the orbital motion of the Moon, Mercury and Mars. He also developed a geocentric model of the universe.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • 1019 – Al-Biruni observes and describes the lunar eclipse on September 17 in detail and gives the exact latitudes of the stars during it.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
    File:Lunar phases al-Biruni.jpg
    An annotated diagram explaining the phases of the moon from one of al-Biruni's astronomical works. Sun (far right) – Earth (far left) and Lunar phases
  • Template:Circa 1030 – In his major astronomical work, the Mas'ud Canon, Al-Biruni observed that, contrary to Ptolemy, the Sun's apogee (highest point in the heavens) was mobile, not fixed.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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|CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was the first to demonstrate the motion of the solar apogee relative to the fixed background of the stars, measuring its rate of motion as 12.9 seconds per year, which is remarkably close to the modern calculation of 11.77 seconds.<ref>Template:Citation, at pp. 314–17.</ref> Al-Zarqālī also contributed to the famous Tables of Toledo.

File:Tablas alfonsies.jpg
Alfonsine Tables
  • 1252 – Alfonso X of Castile sponsored the creation and compilation of the Alfonsine Tables by scholars he assemble in the Toledo School of Translators in Toledo, Spain.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> These astronomical tables were used and updated during the following three centuries, as the main source of astronomical data, mainly to calculate ephemerides (which were in turn used by astrologers to cast horoscopes).<ref>Owen Gingerich, Gutenberg's Gift pp. 319–28 in Library and information services in astronomy V (Astron. Soc. Pacific Conference Series vol. 377, 2007).</ref>
  • Template:Circa 1300 – Jewish astronomer Levi ben Gershon (Gersonides) recognized that the stars are much larger than the planets. Gersonides appears to be among the few astronomers before modern times, along Aristarcus, to have surmized that the fixed stars are much further away than the planets. While all other astronomers put the fixed stars on a rotating sphere just beyond the outer planets, Gersonides estimated the distance to the fixed stars to be no less than 159,651,513,380,944 Earth radii, or about 100,000 light-years in modern units.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
  • Template:Circa 1350 – Ibn al-Shatir anticipates Copernicus by abandoning the equant of Ptolemy in his calculations of planetary motion,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and he provides a proto empirical model of lunar motion which accurately matches observations.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
  • Template:Circa 1350 – Nicole Oresme put forward several revolutionary theories like mean speed theorem, which he used in calculating the position and shape of the planetary orbits, measuring the apsidial and axial precession of the lunar and solar orbits, measuring the angles and distance between ecliptics and calculating stellar and planetary distances. In his Livre du Ciel et du Monde, Oresme discussed a range of evidence for the daily rotation of the Earth on its axis.<ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • 1440 – Nicholas of Cusa proposes that the Earth rotates on its axis in his book, On Learned Ignorance.<ref name=cathen>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> Like Oresme, he also wrote about the possibility of the plurality of worlds.<ref>Dick, Steven J. Plurality of Worlds: The Extraterrestrial Life Debate from Democritus to Kant. Cambridge University Press (June 29, 1984). pp. 35–42.</ref>

16th centuryEdit

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  • 1501 – Indian astronomer Nilakantha Somayaji proposes a universe in which the planets orbit the Sun, but the Sun orbits the Earth.<ref name=Joseph>George G. Joseph (2000). The Crest of the Peacock: Non-European Roots of Mathematics, p. 421. Princeton University Press. Template:ISBN?</ref>
  • Template:Circa 1514 – Nicolaus Copernicus states his heliocentric theory in Commentariolus.<ref>Template:Cite book; Template:Harvtxt</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book.</ref>
  • 1522 – First circumnavigation of the world by Magellan-Elcano expedition shows that the Earth is, in effect, a sphere.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • 1543 – Copernicus publishes his heliocentric theory in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • 1576 – Tycho Brahe founds the first modern astronomical observatory in modern Europe, Uraniborg.<ref name="Westman2011">Template:Cite book</ref>
    File:Tycho-Brahe-Mural-Quadrant.jpg
    Engraving of the mural quadrant from Brahe's book Astronomiae instauratae mechanica (1598)
  • 1577 – Tycho Brahe records the position of the Great Comet of that year as viewed from Uraniborg (in the island Hven, near Copenhagen) and compares it with that observed by Thadaeus Hagecius from Prague at the same time, giving deliberate consideration to the movement of the Moon. It was discovered that, while the comet was in approximately the same place for both of them, the Moon was not, and this meant that the comet was much further out, contrary to what was previously conceived as an atmospheric phenomenon.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • 1582 – Pope Gregory XIII introduces the Gregorian calendar, an enhanced solar calendar more accurate than the previous Roman Julian calendar.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The principal change was to space leap years differently so as to make the average calendar year 365.2425 days long, more closely approximating the 365.2422-day 'tropical' or 'solar' year that is determined by the Earth's revolution around the Sun. The reform advanced the date by 10 days: Thursday 4 October 1582 was followed by Friday 15 October 1582. The Gregorian calendar is still in use today.
  • 1584 – Giordano Bruno published two important philosophical dialogues (La Cena de le Ceneri and De l'infinito universo et mondi) in which he argued against the planetary spheres and affirmed the Copernican principle. Bruno's infinite universe was filled with a substanceTemplate:Snda "pure air", aether, or spiritusTemplate:Sndthat offered no resistance to the heavenly bodies which, in Bruno's view, rather than being fixed, moved under their own impetus (momentum). Most dramatically, he completely abandoned the idea of a hierarchical universe. Bruno's cosmology distinguishes between "suns" which produce their own light and heat, and have other bodies moving around them; and "earths" which move around suns and receive light and heat from them. Bruno suggested that some, if not all, of the objects classically known as fixed stars are in fact suns,<ref name="thirddialogue">Template:Cite book</ref> so he was arguably the first person to grasp that "stars are other suns with their own planets." Bruno wrote that other worlds "have no less virtue nor a nature different from that of our Earth" and, like Earth, "contain animals and inhabitants".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • 1588 – Tycho Brahe publishes his own Tychonic system, a blend between Ptolemy's classical geocentric model and Copernicus' heliocentric model, in which the Sun and the Moon revolve around the Earth, in the center of universe, and all other planets revolve around the Sun.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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17th centuryEdit

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> and observes the phases of Venus,<ref>Galileo's observations of the phases of Venus (slide 4)</ref> disproving the Ptolemaic system though not the geocentric model.

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  • 1659 – Huygens estimated a value of about 24,000 Earth radii for the distance Earth-Sun, remarkably close to modern values but he was based on many unproven (and incorrect) assumptions; the accuracy of his value seems to be based more on luck than good measurement, with his various errors cancelling each other out.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
  • 1665 – Cassini determines the rotational speeds of Jupiter, Mars, and Venus.<ref name="CassiniOnSaturn">Template:Cite journal</ref>
  • 1668 – Isaac Newton builds his own reflecting telescope, the first fully functional of this kind, and a landmark for future developings as it reduces spherical aberration with no chromatic aberration.<ref name="books.google.com">Template:Cite book</ref>
  • 1672 – Cassini discovers Saturn's moons Iapetus and Rhea.<ref name="CassiniOnSaturn" />
  • 1672 – Jean Richer and Cassini measure the Earth-Sun distance, the astronomical unit, to be about 138,370,000 km.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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18th centuryEdit

File:Solar eclipse 1715May03 Halley map.png
Halley's map of the path of the Solar eclipse of 3 May 1715 across England
  • 1704 – John Locke enters the term "Solar System" in the English language, when he used it to refer to the Sun, planets, and comets as a whole.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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19th centuryEdit

  • 1801 – Giuseppe Piazzi discovers Ceres, a body that filled a gap between Mars and Jupiter following the Titius-Bode rule. At first, it was regarded as a new planet.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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|CitationClass=web }}</ref> He proposed that the two objects were the remnants of a destroyed planet,<ref name="ARX-20060816">Template:Cite journal</ref> and predicted that more of these pieces would be found.

  • 1802 – Due their star-like apparience, William Herschel suggested Ceres and Pallas, and similar objects if found, be placed into a separate category, named asteroids, although they were still counted among the planets for some decades.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
  • 1804 – Karl Ludwig Harding discovers the asteroid Juno.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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File:John W Draper-The first Moon Photograph 1840.jpg
The earliest surviving dagerrotype of the Moon by Draper (1840)
File:Percival Lowell observing Venus from the Lowell Observatory in 1914.jpg
Percival Lowell in 1914, observing Venus in the daytime with the Template:Convert Alvan Clark & Sons refracting telescope at Flagstaff, Arizona

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  • 1845 – Karl Ludwig Hencke discovers a fifth body between Mars and Jupiter, Astraea<ref name="Encyclopedia-of-Astronomers">Template:Cite book</ref> and, shortly thereafter, new objects were found there at an accelerating rate. Counting them among the planets became increasingly cumbersome. Eventually, they were dropped from the planet list (as first suggested by Alexander von Humboldt in the early 1850s) and Herschel's coinage, "asteroids", gradually came into common use.<ref name="asteroids">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Since then, the region they occupy between Mars and Jupiter is known as the asteroid belt.

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1900–1957Edit

File:Palomar Mountain Observatory 3c 1948 issue U.S. stamp.jpg
Palomar Mountain Observatory featured on 1948 United States stamp

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|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Within it lies the Solar System.

File:First photo from space.jpg
The first photo from space was taken from a V-2 launched by US scientists on 24 October 1946.

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  • 1946 – American launch of a camera-equipped V-2 rocket provides the first image of the Earth from space.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • 1949 – Gerard Kuiper discovers Uranus's moon Miranda and Neptune's moon Nereid.<ref name="OnKuiper" />
  • 1950 – Jan Oort suggests the presence of a cometary reservoir in the outer limits of the Solar System, the Oort cloud.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1951 – Gerard Kuiper argues for an annular reservoir of comets between 40 and 100 astronomical units from the Sun having formed early in the Solar System's evolution, but he did not think that such a belt still existed today.<ref name="Jewitt">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Decades later, this region was named after him, the Kuiper belt.

1958–1976Edit

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File:First View of Earth from Moon.jpg
Earth taken from Lunar Orbiter 1 in 1966. Image as originally shown to the public displays extensive flaws and striping.
File:Pioneer 10 at Jupiter.jpg
Artist's impression of Pioneer 10Template:'s flyby of Jupiter

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  • 1959 – Luna 3 sends the first images of another celestial body, the Moon, from space, including its unseen far side.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • 1962 – Mariner 2 Venus flyby performs the first closeup observations of another planet.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • 1964 – Mariner 4 spacecraft provides the first detailed images of the surface of Mars.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • 1970 – Venera 7 Venus lander sends back the first information successfully obtained from the surface of another planet.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
  • 1971 – Mariner 9 Mars spacecraft becomes the first to successfully orbit another planet.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> It provides the first detailed maps of the Martian surface,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> discovering much of the planet's topography, including the volcano Olympus Mons and the canyon system Valles Marineris, which is named in its honor.

  • 1971 – Mars 3 lands on Mars, and transmits the first partial image from the surface of another planet.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • 1973 – Skylab astronauts discover the Sun's coronal holes.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • 1973 – Pioneer 10 flies by Jupiter, providing the first closeup images of the planet and revealing its intense radiation belts.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • 1973 – Mariner 10 provides the first closeup images of the clouds of Venus.<ref name="BeyondEarth" />
  • 1974 – Mariner 10 provides the first closeup images of the surface of Mercury.<ref name="BeyondEarth" />
  • 1975 – Venera 9 becomes the first probe to successfully transmit images from the surface of Venus.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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1977–2000Edit

File:Venus map with labels.jpg
A map of Venus produced from Magellan data

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  • 1978 – Peter Goldreich and Scott Tremaine present a Boltzmann equation model of planetary-ring dynamics for indestructible spherical ring particles that do not self-gravitate, and they find a stability requirement relation between ring optical depth and particle normal restitution coefficient.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
  • 1979 – Pioneer 11 flies by Saturn, providing the first ever closeup images of the planet and its rings. It discovers the planet's F ring and determines that its moon Titan has a thick atmosphere.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • 1979 – Goldreich and Tremaine postulate that Saturn's F ring is maintained by shepherd moons, a prediction that would be confirmed by observations.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • 1979 – Voyager 2 flies by Jupiter and discovers evidence of an ocean under the surface of its moon Europa.<ref name="Voyager2">National Aeronautics and Space Administration "Voyager 2" NASA Science: Solar System Exploration. Updated January 26, 2018. Accessed December 12, 2018.</ref>
  • 1980 – Voyager 1 flies by Saturn and takes the first images of Titan.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> However, its atmosphere is opaque to visible light, so its surface remains obscured.

  • 1982 – Venera 13 lands on Venus, sends the first photographs in color of its surface, and records atmospheric wind noises, the first sounds heard from another planet.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • 1986 – Voyager 2 provides the first ever detailed images of Uranus, its moons and rings.<ref name="Voyager2" />
  • 1986 – The Giotto probe, part of an international effort known as the "Halley Armada", provides the first ever close up images of a comet, the Halley's Comet.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • 1988 – Martin Duncan, Thomas Quinn, and Scott Tremaine demonstrate that short-period comets come primarily from the Kuiper Belt and not the Oort cloud.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • 1989 – Voyager 2 provides the first ever detailed images of Neptune, its moons and rings.<ref name="Voyager2" />
  • 1990 – The Hubble Space Telescope is launched.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Aimed primarily at deep-space objects, it is also used to observe faint objects in the Solar System.<ref>Template:Cite APOD</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • 1990 – Voyager 1 is turned around to take the Portrait of the Planets of the Solar System,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> source of the Pale Blue Dot image of the Earth.<ref name=planet-soc>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • 1991 – The Magellan spacecraft maps the surface of Venus.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • 1993 – Asteroid Ida is visited by the Galileo before heading to Jupiter. Mission member Ann Harch discovers its natural satellite Dactyl in images returned by the spacecraft, the first asteroid moon discovered.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
  • 1994 – Comet Shoemaker–Levy collides with Jupiter, providing the first direct observation of an extraterrestrial collision of Solar System objects.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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2001–presentEdit

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  • 2004 – M. Brown, C. Trujillo, and D. Rabinowitz discover the TNO Orcus.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • 2004 – M. Brown, C. Trujillo, and D. Rabinowitz discover the Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) Haumea.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> A second team led by José Luis Ortiz Moreno also claims the discovery.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • 2004 – The Cassini–Huygens spacecraft becomes the first to orbit Saturn. It discovers complex motions in the rings, several new small moons and cryovolcanism on the moon Enceladus, studies the Saturn's hexagon, and provides the first images from the surface of Titan.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • 2005 – M. Brown, C. Trujillo, and D. Rabinowitz discover Eris, a TNO more massive than Pluto,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> and later, by other team led by Brown, also its moon, Dysnomia.<ref name="IAUC 8747"> Template:Cite journal</ref> Eris was first imaged in 2003, and is the most massive object discovered in the Solar System since Neptune's moon Triton in 1846.

  • 2005 – M. Brown, C. Trujillo, and D. Rabinowitz discover another notable KBO, Makemake.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • 2005 – The Mars Exploration Rovers perform the first astronomical observations ever taken from the surface of another planet, imaging an eclipse by Mars's moon Phobos.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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File:PIA17356-MarsCuriosityRover-EclipseOfSunByPhobos.jpg
Annular eclipse of the Sun by Phobos as viewed by the Mars Curiosity rover (20 August 2013).
  • 2005 – Hayabusa spacecraft lands on asteroid Itokawa and collect samples. It returned the samples to Earth in 2010.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • 2007 – Dwarf planet Gonggong, a large KBO, was discovered by Megan Schwamb, M. Brown, and D. Rabinowitz.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • 2008 – The IAU declares Makemake and Haumea dwarf planets.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • 2011 – Dawn spacecraft enters orbit around the large asteroid Vesta making detailed measurements.<ref name="Dawn">Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 2012 – Saturn's moon Methone is imaged up close by the Cassini spacecraft, revealing a remarkably smooth surface.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • 2012 – Dawn spacecraft breaks orbit of Vesta and heads for Ceres.<ref name="Dawn" />
  • 2013 – MESSENGER spacecraft provides the first ever complete map of the surface of Mercury.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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|CitationClass=web }}</ref> and deploys on it the first comet lander Philae that collected close-up data from the comet's surface.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

  • 2015 – Dawn spacecraft enters orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres making detailed measurements.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • 2015 – New Horizons spacecraft flies by Pluto, providing the first ever sharp images of its surface, and its largest moon Charon.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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|CitationClass=web }}</ref> While DART hosted no scientific payload, its camera took closeup photos of the two objects, and a secondary spacecraft, the LICIACube, also gathered related scientific data.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

See alsoEdit

The number of currently known, or observed, objects of the Solar System are in the hundreds of thousands. Many of them are listed in the following articles:

ReferencesEdit

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