Technology

People have been looking up, trying to explain the universe for as long as there have been people (Greene, 2009).  Priests and other holy noblemen were the first astronomers, studying the movement of heavenly bodies so as to determine sacred celebrations in addition to agricultural cycles (Greene).  In fact, astronomy was practiced in various ancient civilizations, for example, by the ancient Chinese, the Mayans and the Harappans not only for the abovementioned reasons but also to predict the future and to orient cities.  Astrology and religion were combined with astronomy to provide the answers sought by ancient people from the heavens (The History of Astronomy, 2007).
   
Built between 3100-2000 BC, the Stonehenge of England appears to be an astronomical site of the Stone Age (Smith, 1999).  Lunar-solar calendars were created around 2000 B.C. in Mesopotamia and Egypt (Russell, 2008).  Ancient Greeks seem to have been the first to devise astronomical theories (Greene).  Around 280 BC, Aristarchus suggested that the earth is revolving around the sun.  He also provided an estimate for the distance between the earth and the sun.  Hipparchus developed a catalogue of more than 850 stars around 130 BC.  The solar calendar was introduced in the Roman Empire in 45 AD (Russell).  In 140 AD, Ptolemy wrote about the geocentric theory of the universe (Russell).  
   
The Baghdad School of astronomy was founded in Iraq in 813 AD.  In 1054 AD, Chinese astronomers reported having observed a Taurus supernova.  Egypt built an observatory in 1120 AD, and Iran constructed its own in 1259 AD (Russell).  In 1543, Copernicus published his heliocentric theory of the universe (Russell).  Around thirty years later, Tycho Brahe reported his observation of a supernova.  In 1609 AD, Galileo used the telescope to observe heavenly bodies he discovered the Milky Way among other things.  Since that time, the profession of astronomy has evolved by leaps and bounds, consistently adding new theories and new observations to the human knowledge base.  Technologies to observe heavenly bodies have also been evolving.  Moreover, spacecrafts are being built and consistently improved upon.  In the year 1961 AD, Yuri Gagarin became the first human being in space (Russell).
   
Man has visited the moon by now, and continues to develop new technologies and instruments to deepen his understanding of the universe.  In the year 2000 AD, astronomers reported having found new evidence for water on the planet, Mars (Russell).  Today, new instruments such as the Herschels Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) are busy taking photographs of celestial objects to answer countless questions posed by astronomers (Herschel Images Promise Bright Future for Astronomy, 2009).  Also in future, astronomers expect the real nature of dark energy and dark matter to be understood.  They are further looking for extraterrestrial life on extrasolar planets.  What is more, astronomers would like to identify the first stars to have formed right after the Big Bang the James Webb Space Telescope is going to be launched in the year 2013 AD for this reason (Winters, 2009).
   
The future of astronomy is bright, indeed.  Astronomers are planning mass international collaboration to fund and manage astronomical facilities (Winters).  Winters describes such facilities as large and expensive.  In fact, even big and expensive telescopes call for international collaboration, an example of which is the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (Winters).  This facility is being constructed in Chile, engaging astronomers from Japan, United States and United Kingdom (Winters).  Astronomers are further looking forward to the construction of the European Southern Observatorys European Extremely Large Telescope, the worlds biggest eye on the sky (Winters).  After all, there is no dearth of knowledge in the universe, and astronomers have an insatiable appetite for this information.