Discoverers of the Universe

1. DISCOVERERS OF THE UNIVERSE

HRISTOS PARASTATOV
Pyatigorsk Primary School # 17,
“A” Fourth Grade

2. Ancient Astronomers

Space attracted the interest of human
beings from time immemorial

3. Babylon

Many astronomic breakthroughs were
made more than three thousand years ago
in Ancient Mesopotamia. For example,
Babylonians (Mesopotamia citizens)
invented a prototype of modern calendar
consisting of 12 months, distinguished
primary constellations and so on.

4. Ancient Greece

Ancient Greek astronomers designed
and constructed an analog computer
to predict astronomical positions of
many visible to the naked eye
heavenly bodies. It is so called
“Antikythera mechanism” and it
strikes the imagination even of
modern scientists.

5. Renaissance

In the Renaissance period Nicolaus
Copernicus and Galileo Galilei
contributed a lot to the development
of astronomy. The first scientist
formulated a model of the universe,
where he placed the Sun at the centre.
The second one invented a telescope
and discovered the four largest
satellites of Jupiter.

6. Contemporary History

But only in contemporary history the
mankind got an opportunity not only
to watch the space from the Earth but
also to journey into outer space. This
was made possible by the invention of
jet engine.

7. Russian Pride The first human in space was our compatriot Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin, who made his outstanding flight on 12 April

1961 and his phrase
“Poyekhali” at the beginning of the flight became historical.
It should be noted that the first woman in space was also our compatriot
Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova, who made her flight on 16 June
1963.