Anaximander drew a map of the universe in 560 BCE that placed Earth at the center of a flat disk. Ancient civilizations from Egypt to China viewed the sky as a dome rotating above a stationary world during this period.
Galileo Galilei pointed his telescope at Jupiter in 1610 and found four satellites orbiting it. He also discovered that the Moon had craters and the Sun bore dark spots during these observations.
As of March 2022, NASA reported over 5,000 exoplanets had been discovered orbiting other stars. This count reflects the rapid expansion of known planetary systems beyond our own solar system.
Sputnik 1 became the first artificial satellite launched by the Soviet Union on the 4th of October 1957. Luna 1 flew past the Moon in 1959 becoming the first object to orbit the Sun after this launch.
Yuri Gagarin became the first human to reach space aboard Vostok 1 on the 12th of April 1961. Neil Armstrong stepped onto the Moon during Apollo 11 on the 21st of July 1969 following this milestone.