Thomas Wright
by Science Photo Library
Title
Thomas Wright
Artist
Science Photo Library
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
Thomas Wright of Durham (1711-1786), English astronomer and natural philosopher. After training as a scientific instrument maker, he moved on to become a teacher of mathematics. In 1750, he published the Original Theory of the Universe, which speculated on the structure of the cosmos. He described the Milky Way as a long bar filled with stars, which also contained our Sun. He used this to explain why there were apparently more stars in the circle of the Milky Way, and few at right angles to it. He also described the rings of Saturn as being composed of many small satellites, shown to be true years later. These theories were not based on observation, however.
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September 25th, 2018
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