Astronomers use the principle of parallax to measure distances to the closer stars. Here, the term parallax is the semi-angle of inclination between two sight-lines to the star, as observed when the Earth is on opposite sides of the Sun in its orbit.
Ernest Rutherford discovered that atoms contain mostly empty space, with his gold foil experiment. Bhor discovered that the electrons are not randomly placed around the nucleu â¦ s.
One of his greatest contributions was the fact that he was the first to conceptualize space as having depth. Pythagoras (569-475 B.C., Ionian) was a mathematician who put forward the idea that the universe is made of crystal spheres that encircle the Earth.