Galileo Galilei

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Based only on uncertain descriptions of the first practical

telescope which Hans Lippershey tried to patent in the
Netherlands in 1608,[104]Galileo, in the following year, made a
telescope with about 3x magnification. He later made improved
versions with up to about 30x magnification.[105] With a Galilean
telescope, the observer could see magnified, upright images on
the earthit was what is commonly known as a terrestrial
telescope or a spyglass. He could also use it to observe the
sky; for a time he was one of those who could construct
telescopes good enough for that purpose. On 25 August 1609,
he demonstrated one of his early telescopes, with a
magnification of about 8 or 9, to Venetian lawmakers. His
telescopes were also a profitable sideline for Galileo, who sold
them to merchants who found them useful both at sea and as
items of trade. He published his initial telescopic astronomical
observations in March 1610 in a brief treatise entitled Sidereus
Nuncius (Starry Messenger).[106]
In 1970, Hawking postulated what became known as the
second law of black hole dynamics, that the event horizon of a
black hole can never get smaller.[161] With James M.
Bardeen and Brandon Carter, he proposed the four laws of
black hole mechanics, drawing an analogy
with thermodynamics.[162] To Hawking's irritation, Jacob
Bekenstein, a graduate student of John Wheeler, went further
and ultimately correctlyto apply thermodynamic concepts
literally.[163][164] In the early 1970s, Hawking's work with Carter,
Werner Israel and David C. Robinson strongly supported
Wheeler's no-hair theorem that no matter what the original
material from which a black hole is created, it can be
completely described by the properties of mass, electrical
charge and rotation.[165][166] His essay titled "Black Holes" won
the Gravity Research Foundation Award in January 1971.
[167]
Hawking's first book, The Large Scale Structure of

Stephen Hawking
 Philolaus (c. 480385 BCE) described an
astronomical system in which a Central Fire (different
from the Sun) occupied the centre of the universe, and
a counter-Earth, the Earth, Moon, the Sun itself,
planets, and stars all revolved around it, in that order
outward from the centre.[77] Heraclides Ponticus (387
312 BCE) proposed that the Earth rotates on its axis.
[78]
Aristarchus of Samos (310 BCE c. 230 BCE) was the
first to advance a theory that the earth orbited the sun.
[79]
Further mathematical details of Aristarchus'
heliocentric system were worked out around 150 BC by
theHellenistic astronomer Seleucus of Seleucia. Though
Aristarchus' original text has been lost, a reference
in Archimedes' book The Sand Reckoner (Archimedis
Syracusani Arenarius & Dimensio Circuli) describes a
work by Aristarchus in which he advanced the
heliocentric model. Archimedes wrot

Nicolaus Copernicus

1580 portrait (artist unknown) in the Old Town City Hall, Toru

Born 19 February 1473

Toru (Thorn), Royal Prussia,

Kingdom of Poland

Sir Isaac Newton