ASTRONOMY FOR KIDS

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The telescope was invented in the beginning of the 17th century (1600's). Since that time, it has changed the way we perceive our Universe. Before the use of the telescope people thought that the Earth lay inside a glass sphere or ball and that the stars were simply holes in that ball through which light from the heavens could pass.

This belief came tumbling down in 1610 when a scientist by the name of Galileo first peered through his small home made telescope at the stars. He saw numberless stars, not all at the same distance, some were nearer, and some were further. He discovered moons around Jupiter, and many other new things.

Since that time humans have raced to build bigger and better telescopes, the bigger a telescope is, the more detail it reveals in distant objects, and thus the more we can learn about them.

Scientists can take two or more telescopes and use them together acting like one giant telescope to get a better image. This is called an interferometer. An interferometer has the same power as would a telescope the size of the distance between the telescopes being used.