Christiaan Huygens

Christiaan Huygens was a Dutch polymath who built superb telescopes of his own design. In 1655 he discovered Saturn's giant moon Titan, and he correctly explained that the planet is surrounded by a thin, flat ring — resolving a puzzle that had baffled Galileo. He went on to invent the pendulum clock and propose that light travels as a wave.

• Discovered Titan, Saturn's largest moon (1655)
• Explained the true nature of Saturn's rings
• Invented the pendulum clock and the wave theory of light

• The Discovery of Titan1655 CE
• The Nature of Saturn's Rings1659 CE

• Part ofThe Scientific Revolution
• ObservedSaturn
• ObservedTitan
• DiscoveredThe Discovery of Titan
• DiscoveredThe Nature of Saturn's Rings