Johannes Kepler

Updated 14 December 2025 My latest post is about the work of the German astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630).  He is most famous for his improvement to the earlier model of Copernicus by introducing the idea that the planets move in elliptical, rather than circular, orbits and that their movements in these orbits are governed by… Continue reading Johannes Kepler

The Impact of Copernicus on Astronomy

Updated January 19 2026 The move away from the prevailing Earth-centred theory of the Universe to the heliocentric theory published in 1543 by Nicolas Copernicus, represents one of the greatest advances in astronomy ever made. Nicolas Copernicus - Image from Wikimedia Commons Problems with the Geocentric Theory The Geocentric theory of the Universe was the… Continue reading The Impact of Copernicus on Astronomy

Geocentric Cosmology

Updated 14 December 2025 Today it is generally accepted fact that the Earth is one of eight planets which revolve around the Sun, that the Sun is one of 400 billion or so stars in our Milky Way galaxy and that the Milky Way is one of hundreds of billions of galaxies in the observable… Continue reading Geocentric Cosmology

How the Cosmic Microwave Background Changed Our Understanding of the Universe

Map of the Cosmic Microwave Background from the ESA Planck Satellite

Updated 4 February 2026 As The accidental discovery of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) by Penzias and Wilson in 1964 proved to be one of the greatest scientific discoveries of the early twentieth century and since then has made a huge contribution to our understanding of the Universe. One of the first things it achieved… Continue reading How the Cosmic Microwave Background Changed Our Understanding of the Universe

The Discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background

Revised 1 February 2026 In 1964 two young American radio astronomers, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, made an accidental finding which would win them both the Nobel prize and turned out to be one of the greatest scientific discoveries of the twentieth century. The story started when Penzias and Wilson were given observing time on a large radio telescope at… Continue reading The Discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background