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Key Astronomical Discoveries
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Quasars
Maarten Schmidt. Discovered that quasars are extremely distant and luminous objects, suggesting they contain massive black holes at their centers.
Gravitational Waves
Rainer Weiss, Kip Thorne, Barry Barish and the LIGO Collaboration. Provided direct evidence of gravitational waves, confirming a major prediction of Einstein's general theory of relativity.
Discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson. The detection of this faint background radiation provided evidence for the Big Bang theory.
Hubble's Law
Edwin Hubble. Indicates that the farther away a galaxy is, the faster it is moving away from us, demonstrating the expansion of the universe.
Neutron Stars
Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Antony Hewish. Discovery of pulsars supported the existence of neutron stars, which were previously theorized.
Dark Matter
Fritz Zwicky. Proposed the existence of an unseen matter that affects the movement of galaxies within clusters, leading to the theory of dark matter.
The Structure of the Milky Way
Harlow Shapley. Determined the size and structure of the Milky Way galaxy, and our position within it, using globular clusters.
Cepheid Variables as Standard Candles
Henrietta Swan Leavitt. Showed that the brightness of these stars is related to their period, providing a way to measure the distance to faraway galaxies.
Helium Fusion in Stars
Mastered by scientists like Sir Arthur Eddington. Understanding that stars are powered by nuclear fusion revolutionized the conception of stellar energy sources.
Dark Energy
The discovery is attributed to the work of two teams: The Supernova Cosmology Project and the High-Z Supernova Search Team. The acceleration of the universe's expansion was found through observations of distant supernovae.
Discovery of Exoplanets
Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz. The first confirmation of planets orbiting a sun-like star other than our own, changing our understanding of planetary systems in the universe.
The Nature of Spiral Nebulae
Edwin Hubble. Proved that the nebulae were actually independent galaxies outside of the Milky Way.
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