DISCOVERERS OF THE UNIVERSE HRISTOS PARASTATOV Pyatigorsk Primary

DISCOVERERS OF THE UNIVERSE HRISTOS PARASTATOV Pyatigorsk Primary School # 17, “A” Fourth Grade

Ancient Astronomers Space attracted the interest of human beings from time immemorial

Babylon Many astronomic breakthroughs were made more than three thousand years ago in Ancient Mesopotamia. For example, Babylonians (Mesopotamia citizens) invented a prototype of modern calendar consisting of 12 months, distinguished primary constellations and so on.

Ancient Greece Ancient Greek astronomers designed and constructed an analog computer to predict astronomical positions of many visible to the naked eye heavenly bodies. It is so called “Antikythera mechanism” and it strikes the imagination even of modern scientists.

Renaissance In the Renaissance period Nicolaus Copernicus and Galileo Galilei contributed a lot to the development of astronomy. The first scientist formulated a model of the universe, where he placed the Sun at the centre. The second one invented a telescope and discovered the four largest satellites of Jupiter.

Contemporary History But only in contemporary history the mankind got an opportunity not only to watch the space from the Earth but also to journey into outer space. This was made possible by the invention of jet engine.

Russian Pride The first human in space was our compatriot Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin, who made his outstanding flight on 12 April 1961 and his phrase “Poyekhali” at the beginning of the flight became historical. It should be noted that the first woman in space was also our compatriot Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova, who made her flight on 16 June 1963.