Welcome to our brand new history section! In celebration of the International Year of Astronomy, we have created a place to celebrate past achievements in space science. As this section grows, expect to see expansions in the topics below.
Galileo Galilei
Galileo did not invent the telescope, but he was certainly one of the first people to point a telescope at the heavens and write about what he saw. Galileo's first observations were published in 1610 in his famous work Starry Messenger. Starry Messenger made Galileo one of the most famous scientists in all of Europe. He described seeing mountains and valleys on the Moon, spots on the Sun, and countless stars invisible to the naked eye but easily seen in his telescope.
He also discovered four moons orbiting the planet Jupiter. Today we call them the Galilean Moons in his honor.
Perhaps most importantly, he discovered that the planet Venus had phases similar to the Moon's phases--phases that were impossible in the Earth-centered model of the universe that had been championed for 2000 years. Galileo took his observations of the planets as proof that Copernicus' heliocentric, or "Sun centered," model of the universe must be correct.
Learn more about Galileo on Rice University's Galileo Project website.
The Telescope
The year 2009 marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo pointing a telescope towards the sky to begin one of the greatest explorations of all time. Since then, the telescope has evolved to become our eye in the sky. The space-based telescope Hubble recently made its 100,000th orbit around the Earth. The Adler currently houses the 1864 Dearborn Telescope, the world's largest telescope at that time.
Learn more about the history of the Dearborn telescope on the Adler's website.
"The popular conception of the Universe is too meager; the Planets and the stars are too far removed from general knowledge. In our reflections, we dwell too little upon the concept that the world and all human endeavor within it are governed by established order and too infrequently upon the truth that under the heavens everything is inter-related, even as each of us to the other."
On May 12, 1930, Max Adler made this dedication address before opening the doors to the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum. Since then, much has happened at the Adler and in space history. The Adler has expanded its building, and space pioneers have expanded their horizons.
