Greek Astronomy
The word astronomy comes from the Greek word “star”. The Greeks were very good at this topic. Many scientists study the earth, moon, and sun. A Greek scientist named Aristarchus was the first to say that Earth rotates around the sun instead of the sun rotating around the Earth. His idea of this upseted many Greeks, because many of them believed that the Earth was the center of the universe. Another Greek whose name was Hipparchus is often called the greatest astronomer of his time. Hipparchus studied and named over 850 stars. He also figured out how to estimate the distances from Earth to the sun and then the moon. These theories allowed future scientists to precisely predict moon eclipses. The ancient astronomers used astronomy for their agricultural purposes and to add observations to their already sophisticated observations.
The word astronomy comes from the Greek word “star”. The Greeks were very good at this topic. Many scientists study the earth, moon, and sun. A Greek scientist named Aristarchus was the first to say that Earth rotates around the sun instead of the sun rotating around the Earth. His idea of this upseted many Greeks, because many of them believed that the Earth was the center of the universe. Another Greek whose name was Hipparchus is often called the greatest astronomer of his time. Hipparchus studied and named over 850 stars. He also figured out how to estimate the distances from Earth to the sun and then the moon. These theories allowed future scientists to precisely predict moon eclipses. The ancient astronomers used astronomy for their agricultural purposes and to add observations to their already sophisticated observations.