Many scientists from a variety of disciplines have advanced mankind's understanding of the Universe. Some are household names. Others may be less familiar.
This section features some of the important investigators that have featured in BBC television coverage.
Image: Jocelyn Bell Burnell, discoverer of pulsars in 1977 (credit: Robin Scagell/Science Photo Library)
Albert Einstein
A patent office clerk revolutionises physics.
Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson
Astronomers find traces of the early Universe.
Bernard Lovell
The 'Isaac Newton of radio astronomy' builds a great telescope.
Carl Sagan
An American astronomer works to popularise science.
Christian Doppler
An Austrian physicist shows how the light of moving stars changes.
Edwin Hubble
An American astronomer measures the Universe's expansion.
Frank Drake
An astrophysicist estimates how many civilisations are out there.
Fred Hoyle
Hoyle puts forward an alternative to the Big Bang.
Geoffrey Marcy
Marcy finds hundreds of planets orbiting distant stars.
Isaac Newton
The great English scientist makes fundamental discoveries.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell
A British astronomer finds strange pulses coming from space.
Johannes Kepler
Kepler describes how the planets move around the Sun.
Leon Lederman
A particle hunter seeks to explain the Universe's early days.
Paul Dirac
Dirac seeks to explain the behaviour of matter at a very small scale.
Stephen Hawking
A superstar British cosmologist tries to explain black holes.
Vera Rubin
Rubin finds evidence of invisible matter.
William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse
A 19th century Irish astronomer builds the world's largest telescope.
BBC © 2012 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.
This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.
