Discovery
Who found it out, and with what
The spacecraft, the people and the telescopes behind everything else on this site. Each one here will get its own page; for now this is the outline, set out on the scale that suits it.
Outline Names, years and sizes only. The pages are being written.
Missions, by the year they set off
1960197019801990200020102020Sputnik 11957 · Earth orbitLuna 31959 · The MoonVostok 11961 · Earth orbitMariner 21962 · VenusMariner 41964 · MarsApollo 81968 · The MoonApollo 111969 · The MoonVenera 71970 · VenusPioneer 101972 · JupiterViking 11975 · MarsVoyager 21977 · The giant planetsVoyager 11977 · Jupiter, Saturn and beyondGalileo1989 · JupiterHubble Space Telescope1990 · Earth orbitCassini–Huygens1997 · Saturn and TitanSpirit and Opportunity2003 · MarsRosetta2004 · A cometNew Horizons2006 · Pluto and beyondKepler2009 · Planets of other starsCuriosity2011 · MarsJuno2011 · JupiterGaia2013 · The stars of the Milky WayParker Solar Probe2018 · The SunPerseverance2020 · MarsJames Webb Space Telescope2021 · A balance point beyond the MoonDART2021 · An asteroidJUICE2023 · Jupiter’s icy moonsEuropa Clipper2024 · Europa
People, by their lifetimes
150016001700180019002000
Nicolaus Copernicus1473–1543
Tycho Brahe1546–1601
Galileo Galilei1564–1642
Johannes Kepler1571–1630
Isaac Newton1643–1727
Edmond Halley1656–1742
Charles Messier1730–1817
William Herschel1738–1822
Caroline Herschel1750–1848
Urbain Le Verrier1811–1877
Annie Jump Cannon1863–1941
Henrietta Swan Leavitt1868–1921
Albert Einstein1879–1955
Arthur Eddington1882–1944
Edwin Hubble1889–1953
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin1900–1979
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar1910–1995
Vera Rubin1928–2016
Carl Sagan1934–1996
Stephen Hawking1942–2018
Jocelyn Bell Burnell1943–
Telescopes, by the width of their main mirror
Circles to scale against one another, all set in the same corner. Gold: on the ground; blue: in space.