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This Italian stargazer is remembered for having spotted the very first and largest object in the asteroid belt.
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History books note this American astronomer, who found gaps in the asteroid belt carved out by Jupiter's gravity.
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History books note this German astronomer, who pioneered photographing the sky to hunt for asteroids, finding hundreds.
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This English astronomer created a butterfly-shaped diagram tracking decades of sunspot activity.
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This German astronomer showed that planets sweep out elliptical paths rather than perfect circles.
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All 106 questions in this topic, with answers — use it to study, or just browse. Every actual play of the puzzle only pulls a random handful of these into one game, so knowing them all here won't spoil which ones show up or where they're hidden in the grid. Play it here.
History books note this German-Swiss physicist, who described gravity as the bending of space and time itself.
EINSTEINHistory books note this American astronomer, who co-discovered that Jupiter itself emits bursts of radio waves.
BURKEHistory books note this English-American astronomer, who proved that stars are made mostly of hydrogen and helium.
PAYNEThis American stargazer is remembered for having discovered that the universe is expanding in every direction.
HUBBLEHistory books note this German-American astronomer, who co-discovered the faint radiation left glowing from the Big Bang.
PENZIASHistory books note this Swedish astronomer, who mapped dark lines in sunlight and proved the Sun's atmosphere holds hydrogen.
ANGSTROMThis American astronomer found a link between a star's brightness and its pulse rate, unlocking cosmic distances.
LEAVITTHistory books note this English astronomer, who presented the same astronomy television show for over fifty years.
MOOREHistory books note this German-English astronomer, who spotted an unfamiliar object in 1781 that turned out to be a brand-new planet.
HERSCHELThis American astronomer is nicknamed the "mother" of a famous space telescope she helped launch.
ROMANThis Scottish stargazer is remembered for having measured the distance to Alpha Centauri, one of our nearest stellar neighbors.
HENDERSONThis English stargazer is remembered for having created one of the first reliable maps of radio sources across the sky.
RYLEAstronomy credits this English scientist, who explained why apples fall and planets orbit with a single law of gravity.
NEWTONThis Dutch-American astronomer identified small dark clouds where brand-new stars are born.
BOKAstronomy credits this American scientist, who helped explain how stars forge heavier chemical elements inside themselves.
FOWLERAstronomy credits this American scientist, who discovered Pluto in 1930 by comparing photographic plates.
TOMBAUGHAstronomy credits this American scientist, who discovered a fast-moving star that still carries his name today.
BARNARDHistory books note this Austrian-Australian-American astronomer, who explained how dying stars fuse helium into carbon.
SALPETERAstronomy credits this English scientist, who established the giant radio telescope observatory at Jodrell Bank.
LOVELLThis American stargazer is remembered for having built the first purpose-made radio telescope in his own backyard.
REBERThis American astronomer helped develop the theory that the Moon formed from a giant ancient impact.
HARTMANNThis American stargazer is remembered for having accidentally detected radio waves arriving from deep space.
JANSKYThis Swiss-American stargazer is remembered for having first proposed that invisible dark matter holds galaxies together.
ZWICKYThis Prussian stargazer is remembered for having been the first to measure the true distance to a star beyond our Sun.
BESSELThis French stargazer is remembered for having catalogued over a hundred star clusters, nebulae and galaxies while hunting comets.
MESSIERThis Belgian astronomer first proposed the theory later nicknamed the Big Bang.
LEMAITREHistory books note this German astronomer, who popularized a numerical pattern that seemed to predict planetary distances.
BODEThis British astronomer helped fix Greenwich as the site of Earth's prime meridian.
AIRYThis American stargazer is remembered for having devised the star-classification system astronomers still use today.
CANNONThis British stargazer is remembered for having detected a new element in sunlight before it was ever found on Earth.
LOCKYERHistory books note this American astronomer, who led the imaging team for a mission that explored Saturn and its moons.
PORCOHistory books note this British astronomer, who discovered Triton, the large moon that orbits Neptune backwards.
LASSELLThis American astronomer shared credit for discovering the universe's leftover afterglow radiation.
WILSONThis English stargazer is remembered for having become the first Astronomer Royal and catalogued three thousand stars.
FLAMSTEEDThis British stargazer is remembered for having advanced the mathematical proofs showing how black holes must form.
PENROSEAstronomy credits this American scientist, who proposed that the newborn universe expanded in a sudden burst called inflation.
GUTHThis American stargazer is remembered for having described comets as loose "dirty snowballs" of ice and dust.
WHIPPLEAstronomy credits this German-American scientist, who sorted exploding stars into two distinct categories.
MINKOWSKIAstronomy credits this American scientist, who co-founded an institute dedicated to searching for signals from other worlds.
TARTERAstronomy credits this American scientist, who identified the first known white dwarf, the tiny companion of Sirius.
ADAMSAstronomy credits this Dutch scientist, who identified Titan, the large hazy moon that orbits Saturn.
HUYGENSThis American astronomer hosted a modern reboot of the television series "Cosmos".
TYSONThis American stargazer is remembered for having co-created a diagram plotting stars by brightness and temperature.
RUSSELLAstronomy credits this German-Russian scientist, who catalogued thousands of double stars and measured the distance to Vega.
STRUVEThis American stargazer is remembered for having co-discovered a comet that later collided spectacularly with Jupiter.
SHOEMAKERHistory books note this Japanese astronomer, who grouped asteroids into families that share a common shattered origin.
HIRAYAMAHistory books note this American astronomer, who shared credit for discovering the first known binary pulsar.
HULSEThis French astronomer calculated the exact date a famous comet would swing back into view.
LEPAUTEAstronomy credits this French scientist, who predicted the existence and exact position of Neptune using calculations alone.
VERRIERThis French astronomer proposed that some collapsed stars could trap even light itself.
LAPLACEThis American astronomer pioneered using radar echoes to test Einstein's theory of gravity.
SHAPIROThis Dutch astronomer proposed a vast cloud of icy bodies surrounding the outer solar system.
OORTAstronomy credits this American scientist, who helped predict how many neutrinos should be streaming from the Sun.
BAHCALLHistory books note this Swedish astronomer, who developed the physics of how magnetic fields move through charged gas.
ALFVENThis American stargazer is remembered for having found that galaxies spin too fast to hold together without extra unseen mass.
RUBINThis American astronomer studied a class of galaxies with unusually bright, active centers.
SEYFERTAstronomy credits this Russian-American scientist, who worked out how the infant universe forged its first helium.
GAMOWThis American astronomer measured how fast distant galaxies are racing away from us.
SLIPHERHistory books note this Dutch-American astronomer, who has a belt of icy objects beyond Neptune named in his honor.
KUIPERAstronomy credits this Italian-American scientist, who discovered the first X-ray source found beyond our solar system.
GIACCONIAstronomy credits this American scientist, who discovered that sunspots carry powerful magnetic fields.
HALEAstronomy credits this American-Canadian scientist, who catalogued hundreds of variable stars hiding inside star clusters.
HOGGThis American stargazer is remembered for having proposed a way to detect the faint afterglow of the Big Bang.
DICKEAstronomy credits this American scientist, who identified the very first known quasar.
SANDAGEAstronomy credits this British scientist, who showed that some nebulae glow as gas clouds rather than clusters of stars.
HUGGINSHistory books note this Scottish astronomer, who devised an early system for sorting stars by their light spectra.
FLEMINGHistory books note this Polish astronomer, who drew some of the earliest detailed maps of the Moon's surface.
HEVELIUSHistory books note this Italian astronomer, who turned a telescope skyward and found four moons circling Jupiter in 1610.
GALILEOThis Dutch stargazer is remembered for having found a solution to Einstein's equations suggesting the universe could expand.
SITTERThis Italian-French astronomer found the dark gap that splits Saturn's rings into two bands.
CASSINIHistory books note this Dutch-American astronomer, who identified the enormous distance to the very first known quasar.
SCHMIDTAstronomy credits this American scientist, who co-founded the observatory that first directly detected gravitational waves.
THORNEHistory books note this German-American astronomer, who doubled scientists' estimate of just how large the universe really is.
BAADEHistory books note this American physicist, who coined the term "wormhole" in theoretical physics.
WHEELERThis American stargazer is remembered for having hosted "Cosmos" and helped choose the message aboard the Voyager Golden Record.
SAGANAstronomy credits this Egyptian scientist, who edited a classic astronomical text and built instruments for tracking the stars.
HYPATIAThis German stargazer is remembered for having become the first person to actually observe Neptune through a telescope.
GALLEThis American stargazer is remembered for having co-discovered the first binary pulsar, confirming a key relativity prediction.
TAYLORHistory books note this British-American astronomer, who helped prove that stars manufacture the universe's heavier elements.
BURBIDGEThis American stargazer is remembered for having spotted the first active volcano ever seen beyond planet Earth.
MORABITOThis Japanese stargazer is remembered for having calculated how young stars evolve before settling into stable middle age.
HAYASHIAstronomy credits this American scientist, who found a distant icy world whose discovery led to Pluto's reclassification.
BROWNThis Danish stargazer is remembered for having recorded a new star in 1572 and made the most precise pre-telescope sky observations.
BRAHEThis German astronomer identified a comet with the shortest orbital period known at the time.
ENCKEHistory books note this American astronomer, who led a team that discovered many binary star systems through spectroscopy.
PICKERINGAmerican space scientist James Van _ _ _ _ _ discovered the belts of radiation that circle high above Earth.
ALLENAstronomy credits this German scientist, who asked why the night sky is dark if the universe is endless and full of stars.
OLBERSAstronomy credits this British scientist, who coined the term "Big Bang," ironically while favoring a rival theory.
HOYLEThis Austrian-British astronomer suggested that pulsars are actually rapidly spinning neutron stars.
GOLDThis English astronomer confirmed a prediction that starlight bends during a solar eclipse.
EDDINGTONAstronomy credits this American scientist, who identified glowing gas clouds now found near newborn stars.
HERBIGThis English stargazer is remembered for having correctly predicted that a great comet would return roughly every 76 years.
HALLEYThis British astronomer led the team that discovered the first pulsar.
HEWISHThis German-English astronomer became the first woman credited with discovering a comet.
CAROLINEHistory books note this American astronomer, who discovered Charon, the largest moon orbiting Pluto.
CHRISTYThis Northern Irish astronomer discovered the first radio pulsar while still a graduate student.
BURNELLAstronomy credits this American scientist, who calculated where in the galaxy our own Sun actually sits.
SHAPLEYThis Dutch astronomer found early evidence that our home galaxy itself is rotating.
KAPTEYNAstronomy credits this Italian-French scientist, who identified stable points in space where two bodies' gravity balance out.
LAGRANGEThis American astronomer took the first-ever photograph of a star's light spectrum.
DRAPERThis Alexandrian-Greek astronomer wrote the Almagest, cementing an Earth-centered model of the cosmos for 1,400 years.
PTOLEMY