G

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
  • Born in Italy.
  • On learning about the invention of telescopes, he built his own.
  • Through his telescope, he saw the craters and the mountains of the Moon, the four satellites of Jupiter, the phases of Venus, and many stars in the Milky Way.
  • He was forced by the Church to denounce the theory that Earth moves around the Sun.

Johann Gottfried Galle (1812-1910)

  • Born in Germany.
  • He discovered the planet Neptune, whose existence had been postulated by Leverrier.

George Gamow (1904-1968)

  • Born in Ukraine.
  • He showed that stars shine by nuclear reactions, mainly from the conversion of hydrogen into helium.
  • He believed that the creation of Earth resulted from a hot big bang.
  • He felt that remnants of the big bang in the form of weak radiation are coming to Earth from all directions.

David Gill (1843-1914)

  • Born in Scotland.
  • Upon developing a photograph of a comet, he discovered that it showed hundred of stars as well.
  • Through future work in this line, he started the construction of a photographic atlas, which was completed after his death.

John Goodricke (1764-1786)

  • Born in Holland.
  • Although deaf and dumb and dying very young, he studied variable stars.
  • He discovered that Algolis is not a variable star, but one of two stars known as eclipsing binaries. He found the same for Beta Lyrae, which lies close to Vega.
  • He also discovered Delta Cephei, a true variable.