Timeline of Astronomy
From ancient sky watching to James Webb — the greatest discoveries that shaped our understanding of the universe.
~30,000 BCE
Ancient Sky Watching
Cave paintings and bone tallies tracking lunar cycles.
~1500 BCE
Vedic Astronomy
Nakshatra system of 27 lunar mansions.
~600 BCE
Babylonian Star Catalogs
Systematic records of planetary positions.
~300 BCE
Greek Geometric Astronomy
Eratosthenes
Measurement of Earth's circumference.
476 CE
Aryabhata's Aryabhatiya
Aryabhata
Earth's rotation and accurate planetary periods.
~150 CE
Ptolemaic System
Ptolemy
Geocentric model with epicycles.
1543
Copernican Revolution
Nicolaus Copernicus
Heliocentric model published.
1609
Galileo's Telescope
Galileo Galilei
Moons of Jupiter, phases of Venus.
1609
Kepler's Laws
Johannes Kepler
Planets move in ellipses.
1687
Newton's Principia
Isaac Newton
Universal law of gravitation.
1915
General Relativity
Albert Einstein
Gravity as spacetime curvature.
1924
Andromeda as External Galaxy
Edwin Hubble
M31 is outside the Milky Way.
1929
Hubble's Law
Edwin Hubble
Universe is expanding.
1930
Chandrasekhar Limit
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Maximum white dwarf mass.
1967
Pulsar Discovery
Jocelyn Bell Burnell
First pulsar detected.
1969
Apollo 11 Moon Landing
First humans on the Moon.
1977
Voyager Launch
Grand tour of outer planets begins.
1990
Hubble Space Telescope
Orbiting optical observatory.
2008
Chandrayaan-1
Water molecules on the Moon.
2015
First Gravitational Waves
GW150914 binary black hole merger.
2021
James Webb Launch
Infrared flagship observatory.
2020s
Exoplanet Revolution
5,000+ confirmed exoplanets.
2030s
Artemis & Mars Sample Return
Planned lunar return and Mars samples.