Aristarchus: The First Astronomer?

Many people credit the title of the very first astronomer to have been the tribesman, who were just studying the stars to try to make the most accurate calendar that they could. Obviously, we have progressed much past then, but none of it would have happened if it weren't for some key astronomers, and their crucial discoveries. It all started with Aristarchus who was the very first astronomer to hypothesize that the earth was, in fact, the center of the universe. According to him, the sun was, and the earth and everything else revolved around it. Everyone disagreed, but he was, in the end, correct. This was much later proved by Galileo by observing the solar system with his creation, the telescope. “Probably the most famous observational astronomer

Is there life in space? What’s a space paper without me trying to prove or disprove that question? “ On December 27, 1984, Roberta Score, a member of a National Science Foundation meteorite-hunting team, spotted a potato-size rock in the Allan Hills ice field of Antarctica.” (Robert Naeye). This rock turned out to have been housing fossilized residue of miniscule organisms who lived on Mars’ surface over 3.5 billion years ago. After some martian rocks were broken off of Mars by a meteorite and careened into the earth’s atmosphere, some scientists analyzed them, they found a few things. The first thing they found were tiny bits of carbonate “a mineral that crystallizes in the presence of water--a key ingredient for life.” (Robert Naeye). Also found in the meteorite were organic molecules which are essentially the building blocks of life. The biggest discovery had not yet been found though. “The team also found two minerals made of iron and sulfur, gregite and pyrrhotite, that are common byproducts of terrestrial bacteria and other microbes. This mineral combination is almost never seen inside terrestrial rocks unless life has been there.” (Robert Naeye). Finally, they found more remains of martian microbes that were fossilized. From all of this information, some scientist have concluded that there has been life on Mars at some point, not necessarily at the present, or in intelligent lifeforms like humans, but still