Famous Astronomers - List of Famous Astronomers - page 5

Kids have always looked up at the sky and wondered what those glimmering lights, lighting up the night sky are? Some of these kids grow fascinated by the glimmering lights and grow up to make these lights their life’s work. We call them astronomers; people who study the stars, planets, galaxies and even the asteroids. These scientists have existed for countless years and have made a considerable impact on the world we live in; it was the Mayan astronomers who gave us the famous Mayan calendar according to which, the world would have ended on the 21st of December 2012. It was astronomers who first suggested the theory that the earth revolved around the sun and not the other way around and the earth was not the center of the universe or our galaxy, for that matter. The invaluable work that astronomers do is dedicated to better understanding the universe, of which the earth is a part. This work has, at times, incurred the wrath of the people because at one time the understanding of the science was not as explicit as it is today and neither was the awareness about it.