Timeline of knowledge about galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and large-scale structure
Summary
The following is a timeline of galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and large-scale structure of the universe.
5th century BC — Democritus proposes that the bright band in the night sky known as the Milky Way might consist of stars.
4th century BC — Aristotle believes the Milky Way to be caused by "the ignition of the fiery exhalation of some stars which were large, numerous and close together" and that the "ignition takes place in the upper part of the atmosphere, in the region of the world which is continuous with the heavenly motions".
964 — Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (Azophi), a Persian astronomer, makes the first recorded observations of the Andromeda Galaxy and the Large Magellanic Cloud in his Book of Fixed Stars, and which are the first galaxies other than the Milky Way to be observed from Earth.
11th century — Al-Biruni, another Persian astronomer, describes the Milky Way galaxy as a collection of numerous nebulous stars.
11th century — Alhazen (Ibn al-Haytham), an Arabian astronomer, refutes Aristotle's theory on the Milky Way by making the first attempt at observing and measuring the Milky Way's parallax. and he thus "determined that because the Milky Way had no parallax, it was very remote from the Earth and did not belong to the atmosphere".
12th century — Avempace (Ibn Bajjah) of Islamic Spain proposes the Milky Way to be made up of many stars but that it appears to be a continuous image due to the effect of refraction in the Earth's atmosphere.
14th century — Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya of Syria proposes the Milky Way galaxy to be "a myriad of tiny stars packed together in the sphere of the fixed stars" and that these stars are larger than planets.
1521 — Ferdinand Magellan observes the Magellanic Clouds during his circumnavigating expedition.
1610 — Galileo Galilei uses a telescope to determine that the bright band on the sky, the "Milky Way", is composed of many faint stars.
1612 — Simon Marius using a moderate telescope observes Andromeda and describes as a "flame seen through horn".
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
The Virgo Cluster is a large cluster of galaxies whose center is 53.8 ± 0.3 Mly (16.5 ± 0.1 Mpc) away in the constellation Virgo. Comprising approximately 1,300 (and possibly up to 2,000) member galaxies, the cluster forms the heart of the larger Virgo Supercluster, of which the Local Group (containing our Milky Way galaxy) is a member. The Local Group actually experiences the mass of the Virgo Supercluster as the Virgocentric flow. It is estimated that the Virgo Cluster's mass is 1.
Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term cosmology was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's Glossographia, and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher Christian Wolff, in Cosmologia Generalis. Religious or mythological cosmology is a body of beliefs based on mythological, religious, and esoteric literature and traditions of creation myths and eschatology. In the science of astronomy, cosmology is concerned with the study of the chronology of the universe.
The aim of this course is to acquire the basic knowledge on specific dynamical phenomena related to the origin, equilibrium, and evolution of star
clusters, galaxies, and galaxy clusters.
Galaxy formation & evolution is about studying how galaxies in our Universe come into existence, how they evolve and what shapes their properties. This course describes the observational facts of gala
Cosmology is the study of the structure and evolution of the universe as a whole. This course describes the principal themes of cosmology, as seen
from the point of view of observations.
Explores the 3D distribution of galaxies, galaxy clustering, and the cosmic microwave background, shedding light on the observable universe's contents and properties.
Explores the basics of modern cosmology, covering tracers, quasars, large-scale structures, and the intergalactic medium.
Covers astronomical units, light years, parallax, exoplanets, stars, nebulae, and galaxy clusters.
Terrestrial particle accelerators collide charged particles, then watch the trajectory of outgoing debris - but they cannot manipulate dark matter. Fortunately, dark matter is the main component of galaxy clusters, which are continuously pulled together by ...
In the current JWST era, rest-frame UV spectra play a crucial role in enhancing our understanding of the interstellar medium (ISM) and stellar properties of the first galaxies in the epoch of reionization (z > 6). Here, we compare well-known and reliable o ...
Context. The intracluster medium (ICM) is the low-density diffuse gas that fills the space between galaxies within galaxy clusters. It is primarily composed of magnetized plasma, which reaches virial temperatures of up to 10(8) K, probably due to mergers o ...