International Year of Astronomy

The International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009) was a year-long celebration of astronomy that took place in 2009 to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the first recorded astronomical observations with a telescope by Galileo Galilei and the publication of Johannes Kepler's Astronomia nova in the 17th century. The Year was declared by the 62nd General Assembly of the United Nations. A global scheme, laid out by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), was also endorsed by UNESCO, the UN body responsible for educational, scientific, and cultural matters.

The IAU coordinated the International Year of Astronomy in 2009. This initiative was an opportunity for the citizens of Earth to gain a deeper insight into astronomy’s role in enriching all human cultures. Moreover, served as a platform for informing the public about the latest astronomical discoveries while emphasizing the essential role of astronomy in science education. IYA2009 was sponsored by Celestron and Thales Alenia Space.

In 1609, Galileo Galilei first turned one of his telescopes to the night sky and made astounding discoveries that changed mankind's conception of the world: mountains and craters on the Moon, a plethora of stars invisible to the naked eye, and moons around Jupiter. Astronomical observatories around the world promised to reveal how planets and stars are formed, how galaxies assemble and evolve, and what the structure and shape of our Universe actually are. In the same year, Johannes Kepler published his work Astronomia nova, in which he described the fundamental laws of planetary motions.

However Galileo was not the first to observe the Moon through a telescope and make a drawing of it. Thomas Harriot observed and detailed the Moon some months before Galileo. "It's all about publicity. Galileo was extremely good at irritating people and also using creative writing to communicate what he was learning in a way that made people think," says Pamela Gay in an interview with Skepticality in 2009.

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