Answer to Question #125620 in Astronomy | Astrophysics for Bbonolo

Question

Discuss the important discoveries in astronomy by different people in the last 100 years.

Answer 1

In 1927, Georges Lemaitre, a Belgian scientist, experimentally defined a law of universal expansion. In 1929, Edwin Hubble proved his results and determined the distances and redshift of distant galaxies, which allowed measuring their radial speed and determine the Hubble constant. 

In 1948, George Gamow mathematically predicted the existence of the cosmic microwave background. In 1965, Arno Allan Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson, two physicists from Bell telephone laboratories in New Jersey, discovered the cosmic microwave background, although they were not searching for it specifically.

In the late 1950s, several scientists along with Allan Sandage discovered a new type of objects now called quasars. 

In 1965, the surface of Mars was captured by Mariner 4. 

In 1967, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, an astrophysicist, discovered celestial objects that emitted regular radio impulses. These objects were the first radio pulsars.

Although astronomy saw much more important discoveries between 1920 and 2020, all the mentioned events significantly deepened our understanding of the structure of the world around us.