Adams, John Couch (1819-1892) English astronomer, predicted that there was a planet beyond Uranus, which was causing perturbations in the motion of Uranus . Similar calculations were made in France by Urbain Leverrier. The planet is now at Neptune.

Aldrin, Edwin “Buzz” (b. 1930) American Astronaut, landed on the Moon with Nail Armstrong  during Apollo 11 flight in July 1969.

Aristarchus ( c. 275BC) Greek scientist, first person to put forward the idea that the sun, not the Earth, was the centre of the solar system.

Armstrong, Neil Alden (b. 1930) American astronaut, was the first person to walk on the Moon . He landed on the Moon with Edwin Aldrin during the Apollo 11 flight. As he stepped onto the lunar surface on July 21 , 1969, he said: “ That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.”

Baade, Walter (1893-1960) German born American astronomer discovered that there are two populations of stars, Population I  and Population II.

Bayer, Johann (1572-1625) German astronomer made the first map of the whole sky, on which he introduced the system of Bayer letters.

Bassel, Friedrich Wilhelm (1784-1846) German astronomer, made the first measurement on the parallax of a star.

Bethe, Hans Albrecht (b. 1906) German born American physicist, showed that stars get there energy   from nuclear reactions.

Bradley, James (1693- 1762) English astronomer, discovered the aberration of starlight and nutation.

Brache, Tycho  (1546-1601) Danish astronomer, made exact observations of the planets from which Johannes Kepler worked out his laws of planetary motion.

Von Braun, Wernher (1912- 1977) German born American rocket engineer, built the V2 missile in Germany during World War II, then went to the United  States where he was head of the team that built the Saturn IB and Saturn V rockets.

Cannon, Annie Jump (1863-1941) American Astronomer, started the system of grouping stars into spectral types.

Cassini, Jean Dominique (1625-1712) French astronomer, studied the planets, discovered four moons of Saturn and the Cassini division in the rings of Saturn.

Chandrasekhar, Subrahmanyan (b. 1910) Indian born American astrophysicist, calculated that a white dwarf  star cannot have a mass greater than 1.4 times that of the Sun, a value known as Chandrasekhar s  limit. In 1983 he was awarded the Nobel prize for Physics.

Clarke, Arthur C. (b.1917)English writer, put forward the idea of satellites for communication in geostationary orbit, now sometimes known as Clark orbit.

Collins, Michael (b. 1930) American astronaut, remained in the command module of Apollo 11 while Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin landed on the surface of the Moon in July 1969.

Copernicus, Nicolaus (1473-1543) Polish astronomer, in 1543 put forward the heliocentric system, which said that the earth is not centre of the Universe as thought until then, but that it is an ordinary planet orbiting the sun.

Doppler, Christian Johann (1803-1853) Austrian Physicist, discovered the Doppler effect.

Eddington, Arthur Stanley (1882-1944) English astrophysicist, calculated  that the insides of the stars must be in the form of an lionized gas at a temperature of many millions of degrees, and discovered the massluminosity related for stars.

Einstein, Albert (1879-1955) German Physicist, one of the greatest  scientists of all time, put forward the theory of relativity. He won the Nobel prize  for physics in 1921.

Eratosthenes (c.240Bc) Greek astronomer, first person to measure the size of the earth correctly.    

Flamsteed, John (1646-1719)the first Astronomer  Royal of England, made an important list of positions of nearly 3000 stars, each of which were given flamesteed numbers.

Gagarin, Yuri (1934-1968) Soviet cosmonaut, first person to travel in space. He made one orbit of the Earth on April 12, 1961 in Vostok1.

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) Italian scientist, the first person to study the sky with a telescope. He discovered four moons of Jupiter, the craters on the Moon, and the phases of the planet Venus. His observations helped prove the heliocentric system of Copernicus.

Galle, Johann Gottfried (1812-1910) German astronomer, discovered the planet Neptune on September 23,1846, after its position had been predicted by Urbain Leverrier and J. C. Adams.

Glenn, John Herschel (b.1921) American Astronaut, orbited the earth  three times in a Mercury spacecraft on February 20 , 1962. He was the first American to orbit the Earth; two earlier Mercury flights by American astronauts were both sub-orbital.

Goddard, Robert Hutchings (1882-1945) American engineer, built and flew the world’s first liquid propellant rocket on  March 16, 1926.

Grissom, Virgil “Gus” (1926-1967) American astronaut , the first person to go into space twice. He made a sub-orbited  flight in Mercury spacecraft on July 21.1961, and orbited the earth three times in a Gemini spacecraft on March  23, 1965. He died when a fire broke out in the spacecraft during a practice countdown for the first Apollo flight.

Hale, George Ellery (1868-1938) American astronomer, invented the spectroheliograph; discovered that sunspots were cooler areas on the Sun with strong magnetic fields. He set up the 1-m refracting  telescope at Yerkes observatory, the 2.5m reflector at Mount Wilson Observatory, and the 5-m reflector at Polmar  Observatory.

Halley, Edmond (1656-1742) English Astronomer, calculated the orbit of the comet that is now known as Halley’s comet. He also discovered that stars have proper motions.

Herschel, William (1738-1822) German born English astronomer, discovered the planet Uranus on March 13, 1781. He discovered that many stars close together in the sky are in orbit around  each other , i.e. they are double stars. He also showed that the stars of the  Galaxy are arranged in a flat disc shape.

Herschel, John (1792-1871) English astronomer, son of William Herschel, continued his father’s work of examining the sky, discovering star clusters, nebulae and galaxies. The discoveries of the Herschels gave rise to the NGC catalogue.

Hertzsprung, Ejnar (1873-1967) Danish astronomer, found that stars are divided into two main groups, giants and dwarfs. He was the first to draw up what is now known as the Hertzsprung-Russell  diagram.

Hevelius, Johannes (1611-1687) Polish astronomer, made maps of the Moon and stars. Seven new  Constellations were first shown on the star map of Hevelius.

Hipparchus (c. 140BC) Greek astronomer, discovered the effect of precession and was the first person to list stars according to their brightness or magnitude.

Hubble, Edwin Powell ( 1889-1953)American Astronomer, discovered the expansion of the Universe. He proved that our milky way is not the only galaxy in the space, and he started the Hubble classification of the galaxies.

Huygens, Christiaan (1629-1695) Dutch scientist, put forward the idea that light travels as a wave. He observed the planets, discovered the first markings on Mars and Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. He explained the nature of Saturn’s rings.

Kepler, Johannes (1571-1630) German mathematician and astronomer, discovered the three laws governing the movement of planets in their orbits, known as Kepler’s laws. His work finally proved the heliocentric system of Copernicus that the Earth is a planet orbiting the Sun.

Lacaille, Nicolas Louis de (1713-1762) French astronomer, mapped the stars of the southern hemisphere from the Cape of Good Hope, and made up 14 new constellations in the southern skies.

Lagrange, Joseph Louis (1736-1813)French mathematician, studied the orbits of the planets and calculated the Lagrangian points.

Laplace, Pierre Simon (1749-1827) French mathematician, and astronomer, put forward the theory that the solar system formed from a cloud of gas  around the sun , similar to the present-day ideas on the subject.

Leavitt, Henrietta Swan (1868-1921) American astronomer, discovered the period- luminosity  relation of Cepheid variable stars.

Lemaiter, Georges Edouard (1894-1966) Belgian astronomer, put forward the Big bang theory of the origin of the Universe.

Leonov, Alexei (b.1934) Soviet  cosmonaut, the first man “walk” in the space. He went outside his Voskhod 2spacecraft for 10 minutes on March 18, 1965.

Leverrier, Urbain Jean Joseph (1811-1877) French mathematician, predicted that an unseen planet lay beyond Uranus from the perturbations in the movement of Uranus. He calculated the new planet’s position, and it was discovered by J. G.  Galle.

Messier, Charles (1730-1817) French astronomer, discovered  over 15 comets and made a famous list of over 100 bright nebulae, galaxies and star clusters. The objects on Messier’s list are still known to astronomers by their M (the Messier) numbers.

Newton, Isaac (1642-1727) English scientist, one of the greatest scientists of all time, worked out the laws of motion of bodies and the law of gravity. He also designed the form of telescope known as the Newton reflector.

Oort, Jan Hendrik (b. 1900) Dutch astronomer, studied the spiral arms of our Galaxy by radio astronomy. He put forward the idea that comets come from a cloud around our solar system, the Oort cloud.

Piazzi, Giuseppe (1746-1826) Italian astronomer, discovered Ceres, the first asteroid, on January 1, 1801.

Ptolemy (c. 100- c.178) Greek scientist, taught that the Earth was the centre of the Universe and that everything else went around it. This was known as Ptolemaic system, and it was widely believed until the time of Copernicus.

Russell, Henry Norris (1877-1957) American Astronomer, studied stellar evolution and eclipsing binary stars. He found that a star’s brightness is related to its colour, as shown on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram.

Shapley, Harlow (1885-1972) American astronomer, discovered in 1918 that the Sun is not at the Centre of the Galaxy, as thought until then, but that  is about two-thirds of the way to the edge. He made his discovery as a result of measuring the distances to globular clusters.

 Shepard, Alan Bartlett (b. 1923) American astronaut, the first American to go into space. He made a sub-orbit  flight in Mercury spacecraft on May 5, 1961. he  also landed on moon in February 1971 during the Apollo 14 Mission.

Struve, Friedrich George Wilhelm (1793-1864) German astronomer, noted for his observations of double stars of which he discovered over 1000.

Tereshkova, Valentina (b. 1937) Soviet cosmonaut, first woman to fly in space. She orbited the Earth for three days in June 1963in the spacecraft Vostok 6.

Titov, Gherman (b. 1935) Soviet cosmonaut, the first person to spend a compete day in space. He made 17 orbits of the Earth in Vostok 2 in August 1961.

Tombaught, Clyde William( b. 1906)  American astronomer, discovered the planet Pluto on February 18, 1930.

Tsiolkovsky, Konstantin (1857- 1935) Russian mathematician, showed that rockets, satellites and space stations were possible before the first aeroplanes had flown. He pointed out that rockets needed to be made in stages to escape from Earth, and to forward the idea of using liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as propellants; these are actually the propellants used in engines of space shuttle.

White, Edward Higgins (1930-1967) American astronaut, the first American to “walk” in space; he left his Gemini spacecraft for 20 minutes on July 3, 1965. he died in a fire during a practice countdown for the first Apollo flight.

Young, John Watts ( b. 1930) American astronaut, landed on moon with Apollo 16 in April 1972 and was commander of the firsts Space Shuttle flight in April 1981. Young also made two Gemini spacecrafts, Apollo 10 Flight that practised for the first Moon landing,  and he commended the Space Shuttle flight that carried the first Spacelab.