Skip to content

First Description of Discrete Stars Composing the Milk Way in Thomas Watson's Hekatompathia (1582)

Eric Lewin Altschuler, William Jansen

physics.hist-pharXiv:physics/0305010

Abstract

We note that the first unambiguous description of the Milk Way as being composed of a large number of discrete stars is in Sonnet 31 of Thomas Watson's (d 1592) Hekatompathia (1582), nearly 30 years before Galileo's description. We discuss implications of this early description.

Create a lesson